Technical documentation
What is technical documentation?
The technical documentation (file) is a mandatory specific part of the product documentation, defined and described in the ecodesign and energy label framework legislation and complemented in product-specific ecodesign and energy label regulations.
Please pay attention to the fact that in the energy label legislation, it is referred to as "technical documentation" and in ecodesign regulation, it is referred to as "technical documentation file".
Who is responsible?
It is the responsibility of the supplier to prepare the technical documentation before placing the product on the market. The documentation must be available for potential inspection by market surveillance for 10 years (ecodesign) and five years (energy labelling) after the product is placed on the market or put into service.
For imported products, the importer or the authorised representative of the manufacturer must make sure that the manufacturer provides the documentation respectively fulfil the obligations. If the documentation is not available or incomplete, a product must not be placed on the market.
When must the technical documentation (file) be delivered?
On the request from a market surveillance authority (MSA), the supplier must deliver the technical documentation (file) within 10 days.
What must be included in the technical documentation (file)?
You must investigate the product-specific ecodesign and energy labelling regulations to determine the content of the technical documentation (file) that you are obligated to provide.
Below, you will find a list of elements in the technical documentation (file) that are mandatory. The list is not exhaustive, as each product-specific regulation may require additional content in the technical documentation (file):
- Name and address of the manufacturer or the authorised representative
- A general description of the product and its intended use
- Identification of the product, for example, the product's serial number
- The name(s) and address(es) of the facilities involved in the design and manufacture of the product
- The name and address of any notified body involved in assessing the conformity of the product
- The EU Declaration of Conformity (DoC) including:
- A statement of relevant regulations to which the product complies
- An identification of technical standards with which compliance is claimed
- A list of the harmonised standards and/or other relevant technical specifications the references of which have been published in the Official Journal of the European Union, applied in full or in part, and descriptions of the solutions adopted to meet the essential requirements of the legislative instrument where those harmonized standards have not been applied. In the event of partly applied harmonised standards, the technical documentation shall specify the parts which have been applied,
- Test reports: All test reports underlying the conformity assessment must be available. Please pay attention to the fact, that some product-specific regulations require that a product shall be carried out by an accredited laboratory.
- Results of design calculations made, examinations carried out, etc.
- Explanation of the parts and the structure of the product:
- Conceptual design and manufacturing drawings and schemes of components, sub-assemblies, circuits, etc.,
- Descriptions and explanations necessary for the understanding of those drawings and schemes and the operation of the product
- A list of equivalent models (products, where information is based on the same basis)