ANSI B11.8-2021: Milling, Drilling and Boring Machines

Do you know what a ring, printed circuit board, USB port, microphone, pendant, turbine blade, gear, and surgical tool all have in common? The answer is that milling, drilling, and boring machines were used to create these products. While milling, drilling, and boring may sound like heavy-duty industrial processes, they play a vital role in manufacturing precise, complex, and high-quality components across various industries from jewelry to aerospace. ANSI B11.8-2021: Safety Requirements for Milling, Drilling and Boring Machines with or without Automatic Control provides safety requirements for milling, drilling, and boring machines.

What Is ANSI B11.8-2021?

ANSI B11.8-2021 provides safety requirements for the design, construction, operation, and maintenance (including installation, dismantling and transport) of:

• Milling machines
• Drilling machines
• Boring machines

The standard specifies that manual milling, drilling, and boring machine sutilize manually initiated steps to produce a part by moving a rotating cutter against a workpiece to remove metal and other materials in milling, drilling, and boring operations.

Milling, Drilling, and Boring: Distinct Machining Techniques Explained

Milling, drilling, and boring are machining processes that use rotating tools to shape, enlarge, or create holes in materials. Usually wood, metal, or plastic. These machine tools, however, differ in their primary function:

• Milling machines remove material from a workpiece using rotary cutters.
• Drilling machines create cylindrical holes in solid materials.
• Boring machines enlarge existing holes with high precision.

Ultimately, these machines allow manufacturers to create components with tight tolerances, often down to microns. They are especially important in industries like aerospace, automotive, medical devices, consumer electronics, defense, and renewable energy tech (e.g., wind turbine hubs and battery enclosures) where exact dimensions matter.

Scope of ANSI B11.8-2021: What Machines and Setups Are Covered

Besides covering milling, drilling, and boring machine, ANSI B11.8-2021 applies to devices that are integral to the machine. These machines may have automatic capability but may not be equipped with automatic tool changing or automatic part handling systems. The American National Standard also applies to various sizes of machines intended to be mounted:

• On the floor
• On a foundation
• On a bench or machine stand

This standard does not apply to NC milling, drilling and boring machines where manual control is used only to set the machine for automatic production.

Protecting Workers: The Purpose ANSI B11.8-2021

The primary objective of ANSI B11.8-2021 is to eliminate or control hazards to personnel associated with manual milling, drilling and boring machines by establishing requirements for the construction, operation, and maintenance of these machines. To accomplish this objective, responsibilities have been assigned to the supplier (e.g., manufacturer, rebuilder, re-constructor, installer, integrator), the user, and personnel in the working environment.

Overview of the ANSI B11 Series

ANSI B11.8-2021 is part of the broader ANSI B11 series, which addresses safety standards for a wide range of industrial machinery. Some standards in the ANSI B11 series include:

• ANSI B11.0-2023: Safety of Machinery
• ANSI B11.6-2022: Manual Turning Machines (Lathes) Safety
• ANSI B11.17-2023: Horizontal Extrusion Press Systems
• ANSI B11.19-2019: Safeguarding and Machinery Risk Reduction
• ANSI B11.20-2017: Safety Requirements for Integrated Manufacturing Systems (IMS)
• ANSI B11.25-2022: Safety Requirements For Large Machines
• ANSI B11.26-2024: Machines – Functional Safety

The purpose of the ANSI B11 series of machinery safety standards is to devise and propose ways to eliminate or minimize risks of the potential hazards associated with the required tasks. This can be accomplished either by an appropriate machine design or by restricting personnel or other individuals’ access to hazard zones, and by devising work procedures to minimize personnel exposure to hazardous situations.

You can learn more about the ANSI B11 Series, which are developed by The Association for Manufacturing Technology (AMT), in our blog post: ANSI B11 Standards (Safety of Machinery).

Where to Find ANSI B11.8-2021

ANSI B11.8-2021: Safety Requirements for Milling, Drilling and Boring Machines with or without Automatic Control is available on the ANSI Webstore as well as in the following Standards Package: ANSI B11. Machine Tools Safety Package.

Please direct any technical questions relating to this American National Standard to the developer. You can find the contact information for all standard developing organizations (SDOs) here: Who to Contact for Standards Related Questions.