Commission Regulation (EU) 2019/1784 of 1 October 2019 laying down ecodesign requirements for welding equipment pursuant to Directive 2009/125/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (Text with EEA relevance)

1 This Regulation establishes ecodesign requirements for the placing on the market or the putting into service of electrical mains-operated welding equipment.

2 This Regulation shall apply to welding equipment using one or more of the following welding and allied processes: (a) manual metal arc welding; (b) shielded metal arc welding; (c) self-shielded flux-cored welding; (d) flux cored arc welding; (e) metal active gas and metal inert gas welding; (f) tungsten inert gas welding; (g) plasma arc cutting.

3 This Regulation shall not apply to welding equipment using the following welding and allied processes: (a) submerged arc welding; (b) limited-duty arc welding; (c) resistance welding; (d) stud welding.

For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions shall apply: 1. ‘welding equipment’ means products that are used for manual, automated or semi-automated welding, brazing, soldering or cutting (or all of the above) via arc welding and allied processes, and that is stationary or transportable, and consists of linked parts or components, at least one of which moves and which are joined together to produce coalescence of metals by heating them to the welding temperature (with or without the application of pressure) or by the application of pressure alone, with or without the use of filler metal, and with or without the use of shielding gas(es), using appropriate tools and techniques, resulting in a product of defined geometry; 2. ‘manual metal arc welding’ means an arc-welding process with a coated electrode where the operator’s hand controls the travel speed of the welding operation and the rate at which the electrode is fed into the electric arc; 3. ‘shielded metal arc welding’ means an arc-welding process whereby coalescence is produced by heating with an electric arc between a covered metal electrode and the work-piece and work area. Shielding is obtained from decomposition of the electrode covering. Pressure is not used and filler metal is obtained from the electrode; 4. ‘self-shielded flux-cored welding’ means a wire welding process in which a continuous hollow-wire electrode is fed through the welding gun into the weld joint without the need to use an external shielding gas to protect the weld pool from contamination. Instead of an external shielding gas, a flux compound within the hollow wire reacts with the welding arc to form a gas that protects the weld pool; 5. ‘flux cored arc welding’ means a welding process that uses composite tubular filler metal electrodes consisting of a metal sheath and a core of various powdered materials, producing an extensive slag cover on the face of a weld bead. The use of external shield gas(es) may or may not be required; 6. ‘metal inert gas welding’ means a gas metal arc welding process whereby coalescence is produced by heating with an arc between a continuous filler metal (consumable) electrode and the workpiece area. Shielding is obtained entirely from an externally supplied gas, or gas mixture, that is inert; 7. ‘metal active gas welding’ means a gas metal arc welding process whereby coalescence is produced by heating with an arc between a continuous filler metal (consumable) electrode and the workpiece area. Shielding is obtained entirely from an externally supplied gas, or gas mixture, that is active; 8. ‘tungsten inert gas welding’ means an arc welding process whereby coalescence is produced by heating with an arc between a single tungsten (non-consumable) electrode and the workpiece area. Shielding is obtained from a gas or gas mixture. Pressure may or may not be used and filler metal may or may not be used; 9. ‘plasma arc cutting’ means an arc cutting process that uses a constricted arc and removes the molten metal in a high velocity jet of ionised gas (plasma gas) issuing from the constricting orifice. Plasma arc cutting is a direct-current electrode-negative process; 10. ‘plasma gas’ (also referred to as ‘orifice gas’ or ‘cutting gas’) means a gas directed into the torch to surround the electrode, which becomes ionised by the arc to form a plasma and issues from the torch nozzle as the plasma jet; 11. ‘shielding gas’ (also referred to as ‘secondary gas’) means a gas that does not pass through the orifice of the nozzle, but instead passes around the nozzle and forms a shield around the electric arc; 12. ‘submerged arc welding’ means an arc welding process that uses an arc or arcs exceeding 600 amperes between a bare metal electrode or electrodes and the weld pool. The arc and molten metal are shielded by a blanket of granular flux on the workpieces. No pressure is applied and the process uses filler metal from the electrode and sometimes from a supplementary source such as a welding rod, flux or metal granules; 13. ‘limited-duty arc welding’ means arc welding and allied processes that are not for industrial and professional applications and that: (a) use single-phase public low-voltage input; (b) if engine driven, do not exceed an output power of 7,5 kVA; (c) do not require arc-striking and stabilising devices, liquid cooling systems or gas consoles for operation; 14. ‘resistance welding’ means a thermo-electrical process in which heat is generated at the interface of the parts to be joined by passing an electrical current through the parts for a precisely controlled time and under a controlled pressure. No consumables such as welding rods or shielding gases are required; 15. ‘stud welding’ means a welding process in which a metal stud or a similar part is joined (manually, in automated or in semi-automated way) to a workpiece using an arc of electricity to heat both parts; 16. ‘equivalent model’ means a model which has the same technical characteristics relevant for the technical information to be provided, but which is placed on the market or put into service by the same manufacturer or authorised representative or importer as another model with a different model identifier; 17. ‘model identifier’ means the code, usually alphanumeric, which distinguishes a specific product model from other models with the same trade mark or the same manufacturer’s, authorised representative’s or importer’s name.

The ecodesign requirements set out in Annex II shall apply from the dates indicated therein.

1 The conformity assessment procedure referred to in Article 8 of Directive 2009/125/EC shall be the internal design control system set out in Annex IV, or the management system set out in Annex V, to that Directive.

2 For the purposes of conformity assessment pursuant to Article 8 of Directive 2009/125/EC, the technical documentation file shall contain a copy of the product information provided in accordance with Annex II, points 2 and 3, and the details and results of the calculations set out in Annex III to this Regulation.

3 Where the information in the technical documentation for a particular model has been obtained: (a) from a model that has the same technical characteristics relevant for the technical information to be provided but is produced by a different manufacturer; (b) by calculation on the basis of design or extrapolation from another model of the same or a different manufacturer, or both; the technical documentation shall include the details of such calculation, the assessment undertaken by the manufacturer to verify the accuracy of the calculation and, where appropriate, the declaration of identity between the models of different manufacturers. The technical documentation shall include a list of all equivalent models, including the model identifiers.

Member States shall apply the verification procedure set out in Annex IV when performing the market surveillance checks referred to in point 2 of Article 3 of Directive 2009/125/EC.

The manufacturer, authorised representative or importer shall not place on the market products designed to be able to detect they are being tested (e.g. by recognising the test conditions or test cycle), and to react specifically by automatically altering their performance during the test with the aim of reaching a more favourable level for any of the parameters declared by the manufacturer, importer or authorised representative in the technical documentation or included in any documentation provided. The energy consumption of the product and any of the other declared parameters shall not deteriorate after a software or firmware update when measured with the same test standard originally used for the declaration of conformity, except with explicit consent of the end-user prior to the update. No performance change shall occur as result of rejecting the update. A software update shall never have the effect of changing the product’s performance in a way that makes it non-compliant with the ecodesign requirements applicable for the declaration of conformity.

The benchmarks for the best-performing products and techniques available on the market at the time this Regulation is adopted are set out in Annex V.

The Commission shall review this Regulation in the light of technological progress and shall present the results of this assessment, including, if appropriate, a draft revision proposal to the Consultation Forum no later than 14 November 2024. The review shall assess, in particular, whether it is appropriate to set specific ecodesign requirements with regard to the following: (a) stricter limits to power source efficiency and idle state power consumption; (b) the emissions to air associated with the use of welding equipment; (c) additional resource efficiency requirements for the products in accordance with the objectives of circular economy; (d) products using submerged arc welding, limited duty arc welding, resistance welding and stud welding processes. Additionally, it shall also assess whether it is appropriate to expand the scope of this Regulation to professional machine tools, and in particular set specific ecodesign requirements for machine tools with regard to minimum efficiency values in non-processing, standby and other low power modes.

This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. This Regulation shall apply from 1 January 2021. This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States.