Certifications

The CE marking (also known as CE mark) is a mandatory conformity mark on many products placed on the single market in the European Economic Area (EEA).

The CE marking is a mandatory European marking for certain product groups to indicate conformity with the essential health and safety requirements set out in European Directives. To permit the use of a CE mark on a product, proof that the item meets the relevant requirements must be documented.

ATEX gets its name from the French title of the 2014/34/EU directive: Appareils destinés à être utilisés en ATmosphères EXplosibles. Employers must classify areas where hazardous explosive atmospheres may occur into zones. The classification given to a particular zone, and its size and location, depends on the likelihood of an explosive atmosphere occurring and its persistence if it does.

The aim of directive 2014/34/EU is to allow the free trade of ‘ATEX’ equipment and protective systems within the EU by removing the need for separate testing and documentation for each member state.
The regulations apply to all equipment intended for use in explosive atmospheres, whether electrical or mechanical, including protective systems. Manufacturers who apply its provisions and affix the CE marking and the Ex marking are able to sell their equipment anywhere within the European union without any further requirements being applied with respect to the risks covered being applied. 

ISO 9000 identifies a series of standards and guidelines developed by ISO (International Organization for Standardization), which propose a quality management system, designed to manage business processes so that they are directed towards improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the organization as well as customer satisfaction.

Since 1997 Eltra has been certified at system level according to ISO 9001 and is always committed to maintaining the quality standards required by the standard.

REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and restriction of CHemicals) is a new European Union Regulation, EC/2006/1907 of 18 December 2006. REACH addresses the production and use of chemical substances, and their potential impacts on both human health and the environment. Its 849 pages took seven years to pass, and it has been described as the most complex legislation in the Union's history and the most important in 20 years. It is the strictest law to date regulating chemical substances and will impact industries throughout the world. REACH entered into force in June 2007, with a phased implementation over the next decade.

Underwriters Laboratories Inc. (UL) is a U.S. privately owned and operated, independent, third party product safety testing and certification organization.
A manufacturer of a UL-certified product must demonstrate compliance with the appropriate safety requirements, many of which are developed by UL. A manufacturer must also demonstrate that it has a program in place to ensure that each copy of the product complies with the appropriate requirements. UL conducts periodic, unannounced follow-up inspections at manufacturers’ locations to check ongoing compliance. If a product design is modified, a representative example may need to be retested before a UL mark can be attached to the new product or its packaging.

PROFINET is the innovative open standard for Industrial Ethernet and satisfies all the requirements of automation technology; whether the application involves production automation, process automation, or drives (with or without safety functions).

EtherCAT is a real-time Industrial Ethernet technology originally developed by Beckhoff Automation. The EtherCAT protocol which is disclosed in the IEC standard IEC61158 is suitable for hard and soft real-time requirements in automation technology, in test and measurement and many other applications.

The main focus during the development of EtherCAT was on short cycle times (≤ 100 µs), low jitter for accurate synchronization (≤ 1 µs) and low hardware costs.

EtherCAT®, EtherCAT P®, and Safety over EtherCAT® are registered trademarks and patented technologies, licensed by Beckhoff Automation GmbH, Germany.

CANopen® is a registered trademark of the CAN in Automation e.V. Other text and pictures copyright Ethercat Technology Group.