EU Machinery Directive Public Review

Rule books stacked up on a table in a library.

If you ship machinery products to the EU the Machinery Directive affects you. You have a chance to contribute to the review of this document.

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Instructions for Use – the New ISO 20607

Instructions are one of the basic items that users expect to get when they purchase a product, and yet these important documents are often poorly written, badly translated, and incomplete. Key product features are badly described, and information on features, settings and hazards may be absent. All of this despite the fact that the minimum…

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More E-Stop Questions

An emergency stop button on an industrial control console is shown in the foreground, with the rest of the controls devices shown in soft focus behind it.

Here are some more questions I’ve been asked regarding emergency stop requirements. These ones came to me through the IEEE PSES EMC-PSTC Product Compliance Forum mailing list. Primary Sources There are three primary sources for the requirements for emergency stop devices: [1] Safety of machinery — Emergency stop — Principles for design, ISO 13850. International…

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Are You Ready? WEEE Directive Full Implementation Starts 15-Aug-18

Processing of waste electrical and electronic materials

Many manufacturers selling industrial products into the EU market have come to understand at least one of the environmental protection Directives, RoHS – the “Restriction of the Use of Certain Hazardous Substances.” In this post, I’m going to be looking at another environmental directive: WEEE – the “Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment” Directive (2012/19/EU). As of 14 August…

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Brexit is such a waste

Brexit: UK and EU Flags against a blue sky

This morning I read news of the tests that the May Government plans to use when assessing the Brexit deal they are trying to negotiate with the EU. The @CommonsEUexit report on the UK/EU future relationship has just been published. Here are its “key tests” for judging a future deal. Full text of the report…

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