TRaC adds test house knowledge to Military CE marking guide

TRaC has extensive experience in conformance testing, to a broad range of standards and directives, for commercial, industrial and medical equipment: and of testing military systems to the standards prevalent in that sector. The company was therefore ideally equipped to respond to a request to contribute to the new, definitive Guide to CE Marking Military Equipment. The Guide is currently at an advanced stage of preparation and a draft will be available in time for Defence Equipment and Support’s DVD 2010 event at Millbrook, Bedfordshire, UK, June 23 – 24, where TRaC will be exhibiting.

Testing and certification of military equipment has long been a complex topic. In the past, many separate standards existed – with which both manufacturers and test bodies needed to be familiar – and to an extent that situation continues. In many cases commercial standards have been used, with derogation applied where compliance was impossible for performance or operational reasons.

Today, a regime of separate standards is increasingly difficult to maintain, especially in a pan-European equipment supply context. The continuing trend to COTS (commercial off-the-shelf) sourcing of military systems increasingly brings commercial standards and test regimes into play; and the duty of care that governments have to their armed services personnel means that exemptions to compliance with standards that are routine in civilian life are less and less acceptable. Therefore, equipment makers, test houses – and the procurement bodies that buy the systems – need a detailed understanding of how the EMC Directive, the Low Voltage Directive and the Machinery Safety Directive (to mention just a few of the many directives) apply and adapt in a military context. A camouflage paint finish does not exempt products from meeting or exceeding standards that now apply in the broader market: accordingly, military customers increasingly demand CE marking, but with differing detail requirements. Equipment makers frequently devote considerable resources to interpreting CE marking as it applies to each product or project.

With its expertise in military equipment qualifications, and in CE marking, TRaC is helping to write the new Guide that will cut confusion, and that will clarify and unify interpretation of regulations across all of the countries of the Union, contributing to the goal of a single market.