certification of a breaker box, delivery in England

[hcooperCO]

If I am putting together a box that contains a 3phase 20A breaker, and two connectors (one female, one male with a 1 meter cord attached), delivery is England. Will it require certification? Essentially its a feeder breaker that is going in the middle between and existing panel feed (32A) and a large rack based computer. All components in the box are certified, but does the assembly need to be? Of course if the customer says no problem then...should be fine?

 

[ScottyUK]

Anything coming in to the European Union, which the UK is unfortunately part of, requires 'CE Marking' and should also comply with the Machinery Directive and Low Voltage Directive if applicable. The latter almost certainly is. I'd have to suggest a quick Google as it is a massive subject area and not really my strong point - hopefully someone from manufacturing will chip in here.

When you say 'certified', certified to what? North American standards are an interesting irrelevance in Europe, much as European standards are in the US.


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If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!

 

[hcooperCO]

Certified in that its VED and or CE, not UL. I agree...no relevance between NRTL and CE. Gotta love standards eh?

You are confirming what I thought, but in the end, the client makes the decision as I think they are going to try and just slide it in as 'part of the system'

 

[hcooperCO]

oops..meant VDE not VED

 

[mikek10]

If you aren't going to certify it to a given standard then you need to get the customer to confirm in writing they want it as such - otherwise you leave yourself liable should the worst happen.

In Europe you need to meet the European legal standards even if the machine is for sale in an area where those standards do not apply. Unless you have written agreement that the customer will be responsible for bringing the equipment to the required standard.

At least thats how I understand it..

 

[hcooperCO]

Thats pretty much how I understand it as well. And yes, since I am just the hired gun, they will have to buy off on it, and sign off saying that its understood it will not be certified, etc.

On the other hand....its a circuit breaker and connectors. No other active or passive parts, and as long as its built correctly, not much can go wrong with it. If I was doing surge suppression or anything like that, I'd be a bit more worried.

 

[ScottyUK]

You might want to have a look at the 'Technical Construction File' method of obtaining CE marking. I got out of manufacturing completely before I got involved in the CE Marking process to any great degree but from what I understand that may be the easiest way for you to achieve compliance considering that the item you are considering is 'simple' and is neither going to be a source of nor affected by EMI and it is constructed from listed parts from recognised suppliers and (I hope!) applied within their design ratings.

Google will probably turn up a load of TCF stuff - I just had a quick look - but this might be of interest:

http://www.nwml.gov.uk/faqs.aspx?ID=1.

I'd like to say it was written by a responsible body but it was issued by the UK Government instead.

These might be useful too:

http://www.export.gov/cemark/Low_Volt_Equip.asp

http://ts.nist.gov/Standards/Global/low-voltage-guide-gcr812.cfm

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If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!

 

[hcooperCO]

Ahh thanks very much!! Appreciate your time on finding these links.