THE PRESSURE EQUIPMENT DIRECTIVE – 97/23/EC

The European Parliament and the European Council adopted the Pressure Equipment Directive in May 1997. As of May 2002, it will become mandatory throughout the European Union. At that time, manufacturers of pressure equipment who want to CE Mark their products will need to comply with the PED as well as the Essential Safety and EMC Directives. Until that time, manufacturers will have a choice between applying the PED or continuing with the application of existing legislation. The Pressure Equipment Directive has been established for the elimination of technical barriers to trade, and is formulated under the “New Approach to Technical Harmonization and Standards” and to harmonize national laws for the design, manufacture, testing and conformity assessment of pressure equipment.

The Directive is only for use with equipment with a maximum allowable pressure greater than 0.5 bar above atmospheric pressure (i.e., 1.5 bar of absolute pressure).

Under the Community Regime of the Directive, pressure equipment and assemblies above specified pressure and/or volume thresholds must:

• Be safe
• Meet essential safety requirements covering design, manufacture and testing
• Satisfy appropriate conformity assessment procedures
• Carry the CE Marking and other information

Pressure equipment and assemblies below the specified pressure/volume thresholds must:

• Be safe
• Be designed and manufactured according to sound engineering practice
• Bear specific markings (but not necessarily the CE Mark)

The PED concerns manufacturers of items such as vessels' pressurized storage containers, heat exchangers, steam generators, boilers, industrial piping, safety devices and pressure accessories. These types of items are widely used in process industries such as oil and gas, pharmaceutical, plastics and rubber, food and beverage, glass and paperboard and energy production industries.

The assessment and conformity procedures are different for each category of equipment, ranging from self-certification hazard up to full ISO 9000 Quality Management and/or Notified Body type examination for category IV equipment.

In order to determine how the directive will apply to specific items of pressure equipment, a manufacturer needs to classify his equipment into one of four (I to IV) conformity assessment categories with I being the lowest hazard risk and IV being the highest hazard risk.