IS vs EN Certification: What It Means for Industrial Equipment Buyers

IS (Indian Standard) and EN (European Norm) are two separate national/regional certification systems that specify design, material, and testing requirements for industrial equipment — a piece of equipment can be built and certified to either, or both, depending on where it will operate.

What each standard covers

IS standards are published by the Bureau of Indian Standards and apply within India; EN standards are the harmonized standards used across the European Union and, in practice, referenced widely beyond it. For lifting equipment specifically, both IS 3815 and EN 13157 set requirements around safety factors for hand-operated and lifting devices — Pragya applies a minimum safety factor of 4:1 per IS 3815 / EN 13157 on its C hooks, treating the two standards as comparable benchmarks for that requirement rather than mutually exclusive alternatives. Some of Pragya's steel handling equipment, such as C hooks and coil grabs, is also built to ANSI/ASME B30.20, the U.S. standard for below-the-hook lifting devices — a reminder that a given piece of equipment may need to satisfy more than one national or regional standard depending on its destination market.

Why this matters for domestic vs export buyers

A domestic Indian buyer's equipment typically needs to meet IS standards as the baseline regulatory and insurance requirement within India. An export buyer, depending on the destination market, may require EN certification (common across Europe and in many markets that reference European norms) or a different standard entirely, such as ANSI/ASME in the case of North American buyers. Equipment that's only certified to one standard isn't necessarily unsafe for use under a different one, but it may not satisfy the specific regulatory, insurance, or procurement requirements of a buyer operating under a different certification regime — which is why confirming the required standard before ordering matters more than assuming certifications are interchangeable. Our C hook types and selection guide covers how material and finish are specified alongside the standard.

Material implications

Certification requirements extend to the raw material used, not just the finished design. Pragya's standard C hook construction uses IS 2062 E350 structural steel plate, with heat-resistant alloy steel specified for above-400°C service, hot-dip galvanising for outdoor yards, and an epoxy-polyurethane paint system for export or maritime environments. The point is that the underlying material certification (IS/EN-certified plate, in Pragya's stated fabrication process) and the finished product's environmental treatment both need to match the actual operating conditions and destination market, not just the headline lifting standard.

What to confirm before ordering

A buyer sourcing lifting or handling equipment for export, or for a plant operating under a specific regulatory regime, should confirm which standard (IS, EN, ANSI/ASME, or another) the equipment is certified to, whether that matches the requirement at the equipment's actual operating location, and whether the manufacturer can supply test certificates referencing that specific standard. Published specifications for the standard ranges are in our catalogues. For equipment crossing between the two sister markets this company serves — India and international/export buyers — that confirmation step is a routine part of placing an order, not an unusual request.

Availability in India

Designed and built at Pragya's Pithampur (Indore) works and supplied to plants across India. Equipment is fabricated to the relevant IS standards, delivered by road to your site, and installed and commissioned by our own engineers, who also train your operators.