What is BS EN 15597‑1 about?
BS EN 15597 discusses winter maintenance equipment. BS EN 15597‑1 is the first part of the multi-series on winter maintenance equipment. BS EN 15597‑1 specifies the requirements on design and construction of bulk spreaders and sprayers, trailer spreaders and towed spreaders with speed-related spreading for winter service. BS EN 15597‑also deals with information about the minimum content required for operating manuals. BS EN 15597 is valid for machines, that are used to spread the following spreading agents that are not pre-wetted and pre-wetted spreading agents, abrasive spreading agents and liquid spreading agents (brine).
Note 1: BS EN 15597‑1 does not refer to the yearly test done by users on the machines to check the good status during their life.
Note 2: BS EN 15597‑1 is not applicable to requirements for registration and approval, requirements made by automobile manufacturers, requirements on safety, which are dealt with in EN 17106-12 and EN 17106-3-23.
Who is BS EN 15597‑1 for?
BS EN 15597‑1 on winter maintenance equipment is useful for:
- Manufacturers of winter service equipment
- Road maintenance agencies and constructors
- Government authorities
Why should you use BS EN 15597‑1?
Spreaders are bound to be operated in such a way that homogeneous distribution of spreading agents is given within the set spreading dosage, spreading width, and spreading track asymmetry.
BS EN 15597‑1 is meant to assess the demands made on mobile spreading/spraying/gritting machines operated in traffic. For simplicity, all machines are called “spreaders,” also for liquid agent spraying and gritters.
BS EN 15597‑1 has different types of aspects that are reported such as type of spreading machines and their main performances, dosage tolerances admitted, main functions, applications interface to be connected with external equipment.
What’s changed since the last update?
BS EN 15597‑1:2020 supersedes EN 15597-1:2009.
The main changes compared to the previous version are as follows:
- Deletion of Annex A for the static test, this is reported in EN 15597-2
- Deletion of the operating manual requirement as this is specified in EN 17106-3-21
- A new figure for spraying machine has been added
- The tolerances for dosage have been modified from 6 % to 6,5 %
- The high of spreading trajectory has been modified from 600 mm to 700 mm

