EU Authorized Contact Services
The Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC replaced the Machinery Directive 98/9/EC on December 29, 2009, and with it came a few important changes.
Most notable, for US manufacturers, is that a European address must be indicated on EC Declarations of Conformity and on Declarations of Incorporation of Partly Completed Machinery.
This legal requirement is described and detailed in Annex II of the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC, Part A (2) and Part B. (2):
(2) Name and address of the person authorized to compile the Technical File, who must be established in the Community:
This address is meant to be used by the European authorities to make a formal request for the Technical File of the machine. Your EC Declaration of Conformity or Declaration of Incorporation for Partly Completed Machinery is invalid without this address, making the CE marking process for your machine incomplete and, essentially, illegal.
This address must be valid for ten years from the date the machine is placed in service in Europe. It is recommended that US manufacturers do not use either the end-user or distributor in Europe to serve as the Authorized EU Contact for this reason.
F2 Labs offers testing and certification services for the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC, and we can serve as your European Authorized Contact. Our service as your Authorized EU Contact is limited to being the contact point, via written request to our European address, for European authorities to make a formal request for your Technical File.
We will notify you that the request has been made and we can supply the requested Technical File to the authorities, upon your direction.
We can discuss the unique CE Marking Requirements for your products and any other aspect of the process with you. We have helped many US companies export equipment to Europe and we serve as the Authorized EU Contact for many of them.