CSA Preface
This is the first edition of CSA B175.7, Internal combustion engine-powered hand-held pole-mounted pruners — Safety and environmental requirements, which is an adoption without modification of the identically titled ANSI/OPEI (American National Standards Institute/Outdoor Power Equipment Institute) Standard B175.7-2019. This Standard is part of CSA Group’s series of standards on portable power saws.
It should be noted that this Standard specifies the safety and environmental requirements for gaspowered pole pruners typically used for landscaping and general property maintenance. Although the focus of this Standard is on commercial-grade equipment used by professional groundskeepers, it can also be applied to consumer-grade equipment used by non-professionals.
In Canada, product labels (including warnings) and operator manuals are required to be provided in both French and English (see Clauses 5.1 and 5.2).
Scope
This standard gives safety requirements and measures for their verification for the design and construction of portable, hand-held, pole-mounted pruners, including extendable and telescopic units, having an integral combustion engine as their power head and using a drive shaft to transmit power to a cutting attachment consisting of a saw chain, a reciprocating blade, or single-piece circular saw blade with a 205 mm (8.1 in) maximum outside diameter. Methods for the elimination or reduction of hazards arising from the use of these units and the type of information on safe working practices to be provided by the manufacturer are specified.
NOTE – Brushcutters with a circular saw blade are not included in the scope of this standard. Brushcutter requirements are outlined in ANSI/OPEI B175.3, Internal Combustion Engine-Powered Hand-Held Grass Trimmers and Brushcutters – Safety and Environmental Requirements.
This standard deals with significant hazards, hazardous situations or hazardous events with the exception of electric shock from contact with overhead electric lines (apart from warnings and advice for inclusion in the instructions), relevant to these units when they are used as intended and under conditions of misuse which are reasonably foreseeable by the manufacturer.
The effective implementation date of this standard shall be two (2) years after the publication date and shall apply to all products built after that date. Manufacturers may also comply with the requirements of this standard any time after the publication date.
