A simple generic answer would not be practical for most cases. Depends on intended end user and intended end use. For EMC, see 47CFR, Ch I, Subch A, Pt2, Subpt K (specifically §2.1204)for import of stuff. For U.S. safety of products in the workplace, see 29CFR1910.
Many, perhaps most, design engineers are not aware of North American (OSHA/CCOHS/STPS) requirements for safety of equipment and buildings in the workplace, so not surprising that typical Joe Engineer is not aware of compliance stuff. Nobody cares about 'certification' until there is an accident, which is when your insurance company is legally allowed to abandon its client due to failure to conform. As for never seeing a safety auditor in the workplace, the federal safety agencies tend to focus on work sites having known problems. State and local agencies may focus on work sites where the probability for extraction of fees and fines are higher. For "what point is certification required" depends on the local building code enforcement for some stuff, and various state and federal laws for other stuff. For equipment not intended to be placed on the market, and clearly marked for evaluation, there are few federal requirements for any registered body to have performed an assessment where the usage is controlled for access and exposure (assuming medical or hazmat is not scoped). This is more than a compliance engineering issue - there are legal risks, some of which cannot be reliably mitigated in North America. In any case, once the equipment is sold for industrial use, even if a singular unit, it is typically subject to the federal regulations scoped for EMC and for the safety of equipment in the workplace. Brian From: Rick Busche [mailto:rick.bus...@qnergy.com] Sent: Sunday, December 14, 2014 12:33 PM To: EMC-PSTC@LISTSERV.IEEE.ORG Subject: [PSES] Certification of Unique Equipment It is always my desire to provide products that are CE Marked for Europe and NRTL listed for North America. That said, I continue to find products delivered for our own production environment that carry no safety marking that I can identify. I have discussed this concern with other engineers who worked in previous companies who indicated that they NEVER were required to have certification on their products. As I understand it I could deliver a one of a kind system to a unique customer without certification in North America. At what point is certification required? Is it based on the quantity of systems, the customer, the AHJ, OSHA or marketing? Is it allowable to ship a unique, prototype system to a specialized customer, without NRTL? Thanks Rick - ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to <emc-p...@ieee.org> All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieee-pses.org/emc-pstc.html Attachments are not permitted but the IEEE PSES Online Communities site at http://product-compliance.oc.ieee.org/ can be used for graphics (in well-used formats), large files, etc. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ Instructions: http://www.ieee-pses.org/list.html (including how to unsubscribe) List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas <sdoug...@ieee.org> Mike Cantwell <mcantw...@ieee.org> For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher: <j.bac...@ieee.org> David Heald: <dhe...@gmail.com>
