Market Surveillance Report – Automatic Weighing Instruments.

The report showed a good level of accuracy for the automatic weighing instruments that were examined. The area of concern was with regard to the production of the Declaration of Conformity which were found to contain a number of inaccuracies with regard to the standards mentioned and were often incomplete.

NMO Market_Surveillance_Report_2013-2014

As the Declarations of Conformity will need to be redrafted to meet the requirements of the new Measuring Instruments Directive, this is a timely reminder to ensure that these are correct when you are placing instruments on the market.

If you would like some more information on this please give me a call.

The New NAWI Directive 2014/31/EU

This Directive has now been published and will have considerable effect on the work that you do. I have prepared a presentation and some notes on the probable effects on UKWF Members. The bits I feel are significant for businesses are in red on the presentation. I will be doing some training on this next year.

NAWI presentation

Directive 2014-NAWI

Notes on the NAWI Directive

If you have any queries please give me a call.

Minutes from the JCC Meeting

The minutes for the annual meeting between the NMO and the Federation are attached. These are useful minutes and cover many of the issues that the UKWF is dealing with for the membership. Unfortunately we were thoroughly beaten in the cricket match between the NMO and the UKWF (Largely due the presence of the technical manager on the team I feel!) If you can play cricket the UKWF needs you next year!

93rd JCC meeting Minutes

Horizon Magazine

‘Horizon 2020 Projects: Portal’ is the publication for scientists, policy makers and researchers involved in the Union’s largest ever RDI investment programme. It is under the EU’s latest research and innovation framework programme. This journal is the definitive guide to Horizon 2020 and offers informative, in depth and timely analysis and comment on the Union’s successor to FP7. The publication features exclusive interviews and articles from top European politicians as well as leading scientists undertaking Horizon 2020-funded research in their fields of expertise. Portal accompanies the Horizon2020projects.com website, which offers daily news updates and articles on the framework programme, exploring key aspects of the near €80bn funding scheme which is allocated for developing European science till 2020.

I hope you find this interesting and useful.

You can find the article in the following link in page 47:
http://www.horizon2020publications.com/H3/#46

WELMEC Meetings

 

The season of WELMEC Meetings is now upon us and we have the meetings on software, non-automatic weighing instruments, and market surveillance to attend. If you have any matters that you would like to bring up please let me know.

I attach a presentation that CECIP will give at both of the meetings on software and market surveillance. This is an attempt to see if the authorities will review the present thinking on software and consider solutions other than the purely technical in software control. So far these ideas have been positively received and it is hoped that this will continue at the WELMEC meetings.

CECIP SWGuide Present version-2

 

Working in Ireland

If you are doing business in Ireland the legislative requirements are subtly different to those in the UK. The Irish legislation places an explicit obligation on a manufacturer who places, causes to be placed, or causes to be offered for sale, an instrument on the market that is to be used for a controlled application to ensure that it meets the appropriate legal requirements.

The controlled applications are the same as those in the UK and the most important one is when the instrument is used for a commercial transaction, all of the others are listed in Article 1(2) (a) of the Directive 2009/23.

The concern that has been raised is if the potential user (customer) of the instrument is either unaware or unsure of the future use of the instrument, or tells the business supplying the instrument that it will not be used for one of the controlled applications; what are the obligations of the manufacturer and what steps could be undertaken to ensure the potential criminal liability of the manufacturer can be minimised in this situation?

After consultation with the Irish Authorities the UKWF offers the following advice: It is suggested that if a potential customer claims that the instrument will not be used for a controlled application the manufacturer should keep a written record of the facts of that position. If at a later date it becomes apparent that the instrument was in reality used for one of those applications, the record of the position of the customer could be considered by the authorities investigating the matter.