Harmonised Standards, although not forming part of the legislative requirements (with some exceptions e.g. Construction Products), offer the ‘best practice’ route to demonstrating conformity to the relevant CE Marking legislation. A number of common Standards have undergone either amendment or re-issue which has spawned a number of queries regarding which revisions of Standards should be used.
A Standard becomes ‘harmonised’ when its reference is published on the Official Journal of the European Union (OJ), this will only happen once the European Union is satisfied that the new Standard meets the requirements to offer a presumption of Conformity to the legislation, and after that Standard has been published by the relevant Standards body.
As such, the ‘current’ revision of the Standard as quoted on, for instance; the BSi website may not be published on the OJ and it may instead be a withdrawn or superseded revision that offers presumption of Conformity.
Three very common electrical safety standards currently fall into this category and therefore manufacturers should take care when selecting the appropriate Standard; EN 60204-1:2006 + A1:2009, EN 60335-1:2012 + A11 2014 and EN 61010-1:2010 should be used for CE Marking purposes despite having been superseded by EN 60204-1:2018, EN 60335-1:2012 + A13:2019 and EN 61010-1:2010 + A1:2019 respectively.
Once harmonised, the OJ will indicate a ‘Transition Period’ during which either revision of the Standard may be used, the previous revision only ceasing to offer presumption of conformity at the end of this transition period.
The CE Marking Association will monitor these three very common electrical safety standards and we will issue another communication when we become aware of a new revision being published on the Official Journal.
If you require any help and support with CE Marking under the Low Voltage Directive, then please call us on 01564 792349.
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