The importance of a Notified Body for your safety

Blog • Posted on June 26, 2019 at 1:38 pm

The importance of a Notified Body for your safety

When it comes to safety, people often use the term ‘notified body’ to refer to an independent safety assessment agency.But what exactly does this term mean, and why should it matter to us?

A Notified Body – also known as NB or nobo – literally means a designated assessment organisation.This is an inspection or testing institute designated by national governments to assess whether products conform to the relevant national and European directives.In the Netherlands, it is usually the Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment who designate these organisations, and ‘notify’ them to Brussels.Some familiar names in the Netherlands are Kiwa, Dekra, Lloyd’s, Liftinstituut, TüV and KEMA.In addition, Dutch companies are also free to use NBs in other European countries.

Many companies are authorised to self-assess their products for conformity with the applicable legislation and regulations, based on which they may apply a CE mark.However, for products with a heightened risk, it is mandatory to use an NB.For example, when it concerns medical or radio equipment, or components that must be guaranteed safe to use in a hazardous environment.The manufacturer may only CE‑mark their product when the NB has granted the product a positive assessment –the conformity assessment.

The involvement of a Notified Body has an important added value for both manufacturers and users, because it means that an independent party has confirmed the product quality.Tele Radio therefore willingly engages Notified Bodies to assess its products, as this means it can guarantee safety in critical applications.Of course, Tele Radio can always show the official certificate to any party that needs to see proof – and not every supplier is able to do that.

A list of all European Notified Bodies can be found via http://ec.europa.eu/growth/tools-databases/nando/.

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