Machine description and operating description

The problem this solves

Item (a) asks for a general description and item (d) for an explanation of the machine's operation, and both age faster than any other part of the file because they restate the design itself. Every interface change, renamed subsystem and new operating mode makes the prose a little more wrong. A description derived from parts, flows and states is regenerated in minutes and never argues with the model.

How it works

The machine as it is now, subsystem by subsystem and interface by interface, in the order an assessor reads it. The description from parts, attributes and notes, the interface explanation from connections and flows, the safety function architecture from the chains in the model, and the operating description from the system's states and transitions.

Run the audit first

Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 applies from 20 January 2027, and the technical file is kept for ten years after the machine is placed on the market. This workflow generates a document from the model; it is not a conformity assessment, and it assumes the audit has been run and its findings acted on.

1. 01Run the architecture and interface completeness audit and close its findings, especially missing states: without operating modes in the model, the operating description section is marked authored and left to you.

Generate the machine description and the explanation of its operation for a technical file under Regulation (EU) 2023/1230, Annex IV Part A items (a) and (d), from the connected Dalus model. Do not modify the model.

Prerequisite: run the architecture and interface completeness audit first. If the system part has no states, this workflow will mark the operating description as authored.

Step 1. Read the system part with attributes and notes, all subsystems and parts with attributes and notes, all ports, connections and flows with type, sub-type and quantity, all global variables, and all states, transitions and actions on the system.

Step 2. Item (a), Description of the machine:
- One paragraph on what the machine is, from the system part's name and notes.
- Performance table: every attribute on the system part and every global variable, with name, value, unit and description.
- Subsystem overview: one paragraph per subsystem stating its function, its parts and its key attributes with values, derived from names, notes and the flows it sends and receives.
- External systems: every top-level part outside the machine, what it is, and the interface to it.
- Authored section "Intended use, reasonably foreseeable misuse and operating environment", populated only with explicit model statements, otherwise a one-line instruction to the author.

Step 3. Item (d), Explanation of the drawings and of the operation:
- Interface explanation: one entry per connection with name, source part and port, target part and port, flow type and sub-type, main quantity with value and unit, and notes. Group by energy, information, matter and mechanical.
- Safety function architecture: each chain from sensing element through safety controller to actuator, described end to end with element and connection IDs. State a performance level only where a model attribute or requirement gives one.
- Operating description: if states exist, one section per state describing what the machine does in it and every transition out of it with trigger and guard. If no states exist, an authored section "Operating modes and transitions" with a one-line instruction and no invented content.

Step 4. Gap annex: parts with no notes and no attributes, connections with no flow, flows with no quantity, subsystems whose function could not be stated, safety chains with a missing link, absence of states.

Step 5. Provenance annex: element IDs behind each paragraph and table row.

Output rules:
- Word document titled "Machine Description and Operating Description, Annex IV Part A (a) and (d)", title block with model name, date and revision placeholder.
- Plain language, present tense.
- Do not invent function, intended use or behaviour.

What you get

Common questions