Hi list members,
Does anyone know the guidelines for European companies selling and shipping electrical equipment into the US? By this I mean what standards do they have to confirm to, IEC/DIN/CE or are they required by law to confirm to US standards ANSI/NFPA?

Thanks in advance for your response

Carlton Colvin
Electrical Project Engineer
E-mail [email protected]

Kleckner Pentaplast of America
3585 Klockner Road
Gordonsville, VA 22942
1(540)832-3600 Ext 636
1(540)832-1583 Fax
1(804)242-9780 Cell

 

One thing I seem to recall you need is FCC approvals.

 

You didn't mention what type of products so I am assuming manufacturing related.

ANSI/NFPA standards are not law but guidelines. OSHA is law - but OSHA has the authority to use any industry accepted standards to determine compliance (keep this in mind)

ANSI standards are for specific equipment. You can not take an excerpt from the Mechanical Press Standard B11.1 such as the Control Reliability 4.10 and apply it toward a shear or even an automated material handling system (incidently both are covered by their own standards). I bring this up because over the last decade, many of the Euro companies selling their safety products including safety relays tried to use this standard to influence their US customers.

As for NFPA, the NFPA79 is a very good guideline for any industrial control engineer.

Also check into UL certification and if any of the NEC or IEEE standards apply to your products.

Jon S

 

We have a lot of european equipment in our mill. One thing we have learned is to insist that the manufacturers ensure that their equipment meets our local electrical codes (Ontario, Canada - CSA, ULC...). All too often equipment has been delivered and upon inspection needs to be upgraded to meet code. This leads to squabbles with the OEM that take forever to resolve. If you buy from Europe tell them it must meet your local code requirments, otherwise it shows up built to their own code specs.