Exporting Machinery to the USA / Canada can be a time-consuming, difficult and expensive process - the National Regulations and processes are unclear and vary not only State by State but even City by City within the same County.........and local inspector to local inspector!!!
One way to make things "easier" may be to get your Machinery "Listed" by an NRTL (National Registered Test Lab - such as UL. CSA, ETL, TUV NA, etc etc ) - these are appointed by OSHA (US Govt) and with such a listing your machine will generally be acceptable in any City in North America..........sounds simple yes? - but the catch is....mainly the cost involved....not to mention the time too........for a single or even small production run of machinery the cost involved in "Listing" via an NRTL would be difficult to justify in project costs.
There is a solution though..........for machinery - a process of "Field Evaluation/Field Labelling" can be used whereby direct discussion with the local "City Inspectors" an agreed acceptance of the machinery is negotiated and upon an acceptable outcome of the inspection by the local "City Inspector" of the final machine it will be "signed-off" by the local "City Inspector" and allowed to be put into service.
A possible "downside" of this "Field Evaluation/Field Labelling" process is that if you require the same (or very similar) machine to be put into service at another location in North America - you will in theory have to go through the whole process again...with another local "City Inspector"....whereas in the case of "NRTL Listing" you would be able to use the original "Listing" at virtually any location in North America..........However, in the case of machinery normally the production versions tend to vary (due to customisation needs) and even in the case of a "NRTL Listing" you would probably have to update the listing for each version - with the associated cost and delays.........so basically whether you go for "NRTL Listing" or "Field Evaluation/Field Labelling" will very much depend on the overall quantity of machines and machine versions that you produce and planned locations for sales in North America.
Projects etc Pty., Ltd., can assist you with both "NRTL Listing" (through our consulting service) and "Field Evaluation/Field Labelling" (through our "Safety Related Control Systems" NATA Accreditation as an Inspection Body for NFPA 79 (Electrical Std for Industrial Machinery - an essential std for acceptance of machinery in North America). We can also assess/test to the Canadian CEC SPE-1000-09 for Canadian "Special Inspection Services".
In the case of "NRTL Listing" we can prepare you for your "NRTL experience".......
In the case of a "Field Evaluation/Field Labelling" as an accredited NATA Inspection Body our Inspection Reports will be accepted in the USA via the NATA-APLAC(APEC) MRA - and in conjunction with in-depth discussions with the local "City Inspector" and use of our "partners" in North America, if necessary, can smooth the acceptance of your machinery by the local Jurisdiction Inspectors throughout North America.
The full "scope" of our NATA Accreditation can be viewed on the NATA Website (www.nata.com.au) under Accreditation number 17171
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