CECE says no to interpretation changes in the Pressure Equipment Directive
The European Commission, Member States and the industry stakeholders are discussing the possibility to amend the Pressure Equipment Directive (PED) Guideline C-13. According to the current guidelines, when integrating a pressure equipment into various types of machines (such as a hydraulic system of an excavator), the manufacturer would not need to do a conformity assessment under the PED.
According to article 13 of the PED, if a pressure equipment assembly is classified as no-higher than category I and falls in the scope of the Machinery Directive, the PED no longer applies. However, this is not the case for pressure equipment classified under categories II, III and IV.
Among the interpretative changes being discussed, there is the possibility that all pressure equipment within those categories will need to go through a mandatory third-party conformity assessment by a Notified Body. This change would generate direct costs related to the involvement of a third-party certifier. In addition, indirect costs would be generated by possible random checks in factories and extra burden from these tighter conformity assessment procedures in the field of human resources, time, products availability and documentation.
To avoid this unnecessary burden and express industry’s opposition to this, CECE sent a letter to the European Commission reminding that the current interpretation reflected in the PED Guideline C-13 has been in place for more than 15 years without any concrete consequence to our knowledge. The proposed deletion of guidance C-13 would affect almost all construction machines produced annually in Europe.
If you want to know more about CECE’s position on pressure equipment, send us a message.
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