To be able to market and sell industrial machinery within a country of the European Union, you need to comply with certain mandatory standards. These form part of the conformity assessment process, notified bodies, and harmonised standards. You must have a clear understanding of each of these concepts to comply with established laws and ensure that all safety requirements are met.
For that reason, we are here to help you save time. In this article, we will tell you everything you need to know about it.
Conformity assessment
This is a mandatory declaration stating that a product or service offered complies with the standards it provides. In this way, conformity assessment allows trust to exist among manufacturers, suppliers and consumers. This can be done in different ways, such as the following:
- Essays.
- Inspections.
- Supplier declarations.
- Visual inspection.
- Laboratory tests
This needs to be done before a product, such as any type of industrial machinery or service, is put on the market., by the established evaluating agents. Otherwise, you will not be able to establish a value position in the market, reducing your capacity for development within it. Instead, once you achieve it, you will be able to satisfy your customers and save money on audit costs.
From Grupo TICE, we carry out risk assessments according to ISO 12100, as well as the adaptation of industrial machinery to Royal Decree 1215/97 and projects for obtaining the CE marking for machinery.
Notified bodies
It refers to organisations established by each country belonging to the European Union for conformity assessment. It is important to note that these are published in a list by the European Commission. Generally, notified bodies are characterised as follows:
- IndependenceThey are in no way related to the entities being assessed. All personnel of these organisations are strictly prohibited from undertaking any actions that may lead to a conflict of interest. In this way, they can remain impartial at all times.
- ImpartialityThe evaluations are carried out without any financial incentive. Therefore, the staff responsible for the assessment make a value judgment regarding the quality of the products or services.
- ConfidentialityAll assessments are made privately and confidentially, in order to work efficiently. At the same time, this ensures the safety of all personnel involved in the process.
Harmonised standards
They are designed by a European standards organisation to carry out the necessary evaluations Regarding the quality of a product, such as industrial machinery or a service. All harmonised standards are published in the Official Journal of the European Union. Therefore, they are available for assessor personnel to use according to their own criteria.
It is important to note that harmonised standards are voluntary, but they are nevertheless of great use. In particular, because they help to guarantee the quality and safety of a product or service, and to build trust with the public to whom it is offered.
On the other hand, these standards are also usually implemented as a Ecological and public standard. This way, consumers can be informed that their health is not at risk and that they are not contaminating the environment. Currently, these are adopted by European organisations such as CEN, Cenelec and ETSI.
