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Quality Management and Safety Engineering (BSc) - MST 326 Product Liability. CE marking. Recreational Craft Directive (RCD). Classification societies. |
PowerPoint presentation: 179 KB
Product Liability
European Commission Product Liability
Directive (85/374/EEC) was transposed
into UK law in Part 1 of the Consumer Protection Act 1987 and applied to
consumer products and products used at a place of work. It imposed strict
liability on producers for harm caused by defective products. This means that
people who are injured by defective products can sue for compensation without
having to prove the producer negligent, provided that they can prove that the
product was defective and the defect in the product caused the injury.
Before PLA: those affected had to prove that the damage had been
caused by negligence on behalf of the manufacturer or distributor.
Now: the burden of proof is on the manufacturer to demonstrate product
safety considerations were integrated into design and production.
In July 1999, the European Commission reviewed the Product
Liability Directive by publishing a Green Paper
on Liability for Defective Products. An amendment (Directive
1999/34EC) was adopted in 1999 extending product liability for defective
products to include primary agricultural products and games with effect from 4
December 2000. This means that all products are now covered.
Three types of defects can incur liability:
URLs for Product Liability (checked as live on 20 February 2007):
Safety factors
Specific product standards are published as:
Some examples relevant to this module from the BS catalogue include:
and from the ISO catalogue include:
with a further three draft parts (in the Plymouth Campus Library stock) still under discussion as Standards Under Development:
and a further two parts which are understood to be unpublished as yet!
Parts 5/7 define design categories (sea and wind conditions for which a boat is assessed by this standard to be suitable) as follows:
| DESIGN CATEGORY | Significant Wave Height (Part 5) |
Beaufort Wind Force (Part 5) |
Significant Wave Height (Part 7) |
Beaufort Wind Force (Part 7) |
| A (ocean) | < 7 m | ≤ 9 | > 4 m | > 8 (but not abnormal) |
| B (offshore) | < 4 m | ≤ 8 | < 4 m | ≤ 8 |
| C (inshore) | < 2 m | ≤ 6 | < 2 m | ≤ 6 |
| D (sheltered waters) | < 0.3m (occasional 0.5 m) | ≤ 4 | ≤ 0.3m (occasional 0.5 m) | ≤ 4 |
Part 6 outlines the design requirements for various components of the vessel and has the following definitions:
global load: load acting on the whole craft, e.g. through hydrostatic or hydrodynamic forces, bending of the shell by the rig, etc.
local load: load acting on part of the boat only,
e.g. through appendages, attachments, concentrated weights, and through
non-service related actions,
e.g. trailering, docking, transport, etc.
primary stiffening: stiffening elements in a stiffener grid which have the higher section modulus, e.g. bulkheads, girders, frames, etc.
secondary stiffening: stiffening elements in a stiffener grid which have the lower section modulus, e.g. stringers, partial bulkheads, frames, etc.
For consideration of safety factors, BS 4994:1987 Design and construction of vessels and tanks in reinforced plastics may be appropriate to lightweight air-tanks for diving. Section 9 defines allowable and design unit loadings with five safety factors:
The design factor = 3 x k1 x k2 x k3 x k4 x k5 (the factor 3 is constant and allows for materials strength reduction due to long-term loading, even in air). The Standard requires that no vessel or tank shall have K < 8. Using the limiting (minimum and maximum values for each factor we get the values in the table below:
| minimum | maximum | |
| k1 | 1.5 | 3.0 |
| k2 | 1.2 | 2.0 |
| k3 | 1.0 | 1.25 |
| k4 | 1.1 | 2.0 |
| k5 | 1.1 | 1.5 |
| K | 6.534 defaults to 8 | 67.5 |
Some references for the design of marine structures in composite materials can be found on the MATS324 website.
CE marking
CE marking was initially the official marking required by the European Community for all Electric- and Electronic equipment sold, or put into service for the first time, anywhere in the European community. It proves to the buyer, or user, that the product fulfils all essential safety and environmental requirements as they are defined in the appropriate European Directives. The CE markings directive (93/68/EEC) was adopted in 1993 and amended 12 other directives.
The CE-directive gives a detailed description of the initials CE and any other marks specific to a particular directive and the ways conformity may be acquired. The CE-mark must be put on the equipment with a size of 5 mm (0.2") or larger.
In return for fulfilling the CE marking requirements, the
manufacturer or its agent gets the opportunity to cover the entire European
market using only one approval procedure for the topics covered in the
miscellaneous directives. The member states of the EC cannot refuse any
electronic or electrical product that has been CE marked (unless fraud
suspected). For some products however, national regulations may exist,
as long as the topics covered in these national regulations are not covered by
a pan-European Directive: an example is Ergonomics for PC-related equipment in
Germany.
The manufacturer needs however:
The CE mark is sufficient to allow exporting to all EC members states. There are some restrictions left over for language variations in user documentation, notably safety instructions should be in the language of the country to which the exports are being sent. The attachment of the CE mark to the product MUST be founded on a Compliance statement of the manufacturer or importer. The CE marking scheme has subsequently been extended to cover the following areas, where the links are to the relevant pages of the conformance.co.uk website (checked as live on 20 February 2007):
URLs for CE marking (checked as live on 20 February 2007):
The Recreational Craft Directive
The Recreational Craft Directive (94/25/EEC) Design and Construction of Boats from 2.5m to 24m hull length plus specified components was published in Official Journal L164 (30 June 1994) and came into force on 16 June 1996 with the transitional period ending on 15 June 1998. It is implemented in the UK by the Recreational Craft Regulations 1996 (SI 1996:1353). The Directive does not apply to:
Particular items of equipment are also covered:
Administration requirements are that:
URLs for Recreational Craft Directive (checked as live on 20 February 2007):
Classification Societies
Rules and Regulations for the Classification of Special Service Craft, 2004 .. for classification of mono-hull and multi-hull craft, yachts, high speed and light displacement craft constructed from steel, aluminium alloys and composites.
URLs for Classification Societies (checked as live on 20 February 2007):