On August 18, 2024, the CEN/TC 10 Technical Committee of the European Committee for Standardization officially issued the new EU harmonized standard EN 81-31:2024 Safety rules for the construction and installation of lifts — Goods only lifts, replacing the old 2011 version, which will officially take effect throughout the EU on February 18, 2025, and is the core compliance basis for CE certification of freight elevator products in the EU. The core upgrade contents of this standard revision include: First, expand the scope of application of the standard, covering all goods only lifts with a rated load of 500kg to 20000kg, including all types of freight elevators such as rail-type freight elevators, hydraulic freight elevators, machine-room-less freight elevators, and explosion-proof freight elevators, adapting to the use needs of all scenarios such as industrial plants, logistics warehouses, and commercial buildings. Second, refine the safety requirements for the structural design of freight elevators, formulate standardized rules for special load calculation, strength check, and fatigue life design for cars, hoistways, guide rails, counterweights, and suspension devices, and formulate additional safety factor requirements for heavy-duty freight elevators. Third, upgrade the safety requirements of the freight elevator door system, refine the mandatory technical standards for mechanical strength, door lock devices, anti-pinch protection, and foreign object jamming detection of landing doors and car doors, and add durability test requirements for heavy-duty operation of the freight elevator door system. Fourth, strengthen the safety protection device requirements for freight elevators, refine the mandatory standards for overspeed protection, overload protection, top and bottom impact protection, and rope breakage protection, and add special design requirements for car partial load protection and cargo fall protection of freight elevators. Fifth, add man-machine safety protection requirements for freight elevators, clarify the special design guidelines for safety protection of the freight elevator operation area, personnel intrusion protection, and operation status warning, and strictly prohibit the safety risks of personnel traveling with the freight elevator. Sixth, refine the installation and acceptance specifications for freight elevators, clarify the standardized process of quality control, on-site inspection, load test and safety verification during the installation of freight elevators, and improve the special requirements and qualification criteria for heavy-duty tests. Seventh, standardize the maintenance and inspection requirements for freight elevators, formulate standardized specifications for maintenance items, frequency and inspection process of freight elevators, and formulate special maintenance requirements for heavy-duty use scenarios. After the release of this standard, EU member states need to complete the transformation and implementation of their national standards before February 2025, and all freight elevator products entering the EU market must meet the requirements of this new harmonized standard.