Cableway Installations Designed to Carry Persons

Phase 1: Does the Cableway Installations Designed to Carry Persons Directive Apply to Your Product?

As a manufacturer, you need to secure copies of the directives and judge whether they apply to your product. The European Commission does not publish a list of products to which their laws apply; they require the manufacturer to determine the applicability of directives to any given product. The purpose of the directive is to ensure the essential health and safety requirements of cableway installations designed to carry persons. Chapter I, Article 1 describes installations and products subject to the directive.

The installations concerned are:

funicular railways and other installations with vehicles mounted on wheels or on other suspension devices where traction is provided by one or more cables;

cable cars where the cabins are lifted and/or displaced by one or more carrier cables; this category also includes gondolas and chair lifts;

drag lifts, where users with appropriate equipment are dragged by means of a cable.

The directive applies to:

installations built and put into service, as from its entry into force;

subsystems and safety components placed on the market, as from its entry into force.

PHASE 2: CE Marking Requirements for the Cableway Installations Designed to Carry Persons Directive

Article 3 stipulates that installations and their infrastructure, subsystems and safety components of the installation must comply with the essential requirements laid out in Annex II. They are presumed to comply with the relevant essential requirements whenever the manufacturer decided to use a harmonized European standard as referenced in the Official Journal of the European Communities.

Testing carried out by “notified bodies” or their affiliates is required for safety components (Chapter II) and subsystems (Chapter III). Notified bodies are companies which have been selected by the EU member states and “notified” to the European Commission as being competent to test and certify products under a particular directive where third party testing is required. Notified bodies must be located in the EU and are the only entities allowed to give final product approval under directives requiring the CE marking, although their affiliates outside the EU are allowed to test products and send results to the parent for approval.

Each member state lays down procedures for authorizing the construction and the putting into service of installations (Chapter IV). The safety analysis, the EC declarations of conformity and the accompanying technical documentation relating to the safety components and subsystems must be submitted by the main contractor or his authorized representative to the authority responsible for approving the installation.

To view the Cableways Designed to Carry Persons directive and to see the latest list of standards for that directive, please go the European Commission's website at www.newapproach.org and click on "Directives and Standards".

This overview of the Cableways Designed to Carry Persons Directive is still being developed. For additional information on this directive, please contact either of the U.S. Department of Commerce's EU specialists: Bob Straetz at 202-482-4496 or Sylvia Mohr at 011 32 2 508 2675.