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The pressure is on
Are you involved in the overhaul, renovation, refurbishment or
distribution of products* originally certified when ‘new’, to any of the EU
Product Safety Directives? If so, you could also be implicitly involved in
the manufacture and distribution of ‘new’ equipment, without realising
it and be required to assume certain legal responsibilities. Craig Halford
looks at the situation in relation to pressurised fire equipment
Any company or entity involved in the
manufacture of completely ‘new’
products will understand that
assessment and compliance with
relevant EU product safety directives is
mandatory.
Pressurised fire extinguishing
products, including portable fire
extinguishers, must comply with the
Pressure Equipment Directive (PED)
2014/68/EU, transposed into UK law by
SI 2016 No.1105 (The Pressure
Equipment (Safety) Regulations 2016).
The regulations are an important
assessment of the safety of pressure
equipment and cover all non-exempt
pressure equipment sold in the UK with
a working pressure greater than 0.5Bar
(7.5psi). Assessment against the
requirements covers many aspects of a
product’s safety, including construction
and materials used, together with a
comprehensive list of ‘essential safety
requirements’ (ESR’s) which must be
complied with.
Compliant equipment carries a CE
mark, confirming it has been assessed
against the regulations, under the
scrutiny of a Notified Body who issues
the confirmatory certificate.
Therefore, when the author’s company
was asked to supply components to a 3rd
party, undertaking refurbishment /
overhaul activities on pressurised fire
equipment, originally manufactured and
assessed against the regulations by
another OEM, we declined.
I think the explanation we gave may
be useful to others:
Firstly, it must be made clear that
some repair activities do not necessarily
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