S.I. No. 160/2007 - Legal Metrology (European Conformity Assessment of Measuring Instruments) Regulations 2007

	Line	Brim
Transfer measures
< 100 ml	± 2 ml	– 0 + 4 ml
≥ 100 ml	± 3%	– 0 + 6%
Serving measures
< 200 ml	± 5%	– 0 + 10%
≥ 200 ml	± 5 ml + 2.5%	– 0 + 10 ml + 5%

Table 1

Capacity serving measures shall be made of material which is sufficiently rigid and dimensionally stable to maintain capacity within the MPE.

5. Marking

Capacity serving measures intended to be used for the purpose of trade in Ireland may only comply with the relevant values of the Second Schedule to the Act as regards nominal capacity.

CONFORMITY ASSESSMENT

The conformity assessment procedures referred to in Regulation 7 that the manufacturer can choose between are:

A1, or

F1, or

D1, or

E1, or

B followed by E, or

B followed by D, or

H.

SCHEDULE MI-009 DIMENSIONAL MEASURING INSTRUMENTS

The relevant essential requirements of Schedule III, the specific requirements of this Schedule and the conformity assessment procedures listed in this Schedule, apply to dimensional measuring instruments of the types defined below.

DEFINITIONS

Length measuring instrument

A length-measuring instrument serves for the determination of the length of rope-type materials (e.g. textiles, bands, cables) during feed motion of the product to be measured.

Area Measuring Instruments

An area measuring instrument serves for the determination of the area of irregular shaped objects, e.g. for leather.

Multi-dimensional Measuring Instruments

A multi-dimensional measuring instrument serves for the determination of the edge length (length, height, width) of the smallest enclosing rectangular parallelepiped of a product.

CHAPTER I Requirements common to all dimensional measuring instruments

Electromagnetic immunity

— the change in measurement result is no greater than the critical change value as defined in paragraph 2.3; or

— it is impossible to perform any measurement; or

— there are momentary variations in the measurement result that cannot be interpreted, memorised or transmitted as a measuring result; or

— there are variations in the measurement result severe enough to be noticed by all those interested in the measurement result.

CHAPTER II Length measuring instruments

Characteristics of the product to be measured

K = ε (GA + 2.2 N/m²), where

ε is the relative elongation of a cloth specimen 1 m wide at a tensile force of 10 N,

GA is the weight force per unit area of a cloth specimen in N/m².

Operating conditions

Dimensions and K-factor, where applicable, within the range specified by the manufacturer for the instrument. The ranges of K-factor are given in Table 1:

Table 1

MPEs

Accuracy class	MPE
I	0. 125%, but not less than 0.005 Lm
II	0. 25%, but not less than 0.01 Lm
III	0. 5%, but not less than 0.02 Lm

Table 2

Where L m is the minimum measurable length, that is to say the smallest length specified by the manufacturer for which the instrument is intended to be used.

The true length value of the different types of materials should be measured using suitable instruments (e.g. tapes of length). Thereby, the material which is going to be measured should be laid out on a suitable underlay (e.g. a suitable table) straight and unstretched.

Other requirements

CHAPTER III Area measuring instruments

Operating conditions

Dimensions within the range specified by the manufacturer for the instrument.

The manufacturer shall specify the limitations of the instruments due to the speed, and thickness of the surface conditions if relevant, of the product.

MPEs

The MPE is 1.0%, but not less than 1 dm².

Other requirements

In the case of pulling back or stopping the product, it should not be possible to have an error of measurement or the display must be blanked.

The instruments must have a scale interval of 1.0 dm². In addition, it must be possible to have a scale interval of 0.1 dm² for testing purposes.

CHAPTER IV Multidimensional measuring instruments

Operating conditions

Dimensions within the range specified by the manufacturer for the instrument.

The lower limit of the minimum dimension for all values of the scale interval is given in Table 1 below.

Scale interval (d)	Minimum dimension (min)(lower limit)
d ≤ 2 cm	10 d
2 cm < d ≤ 10 cm	20 d
10 cm < d	50 d

Table 1

The speed must be within the range specified by the manufacturer for the instrument.

MPE

The MPE is ± 1.0 d.

CONFORMITY ASSESSMENT

The conformity assessment procedures referred to in Regulation 7 that the manufacturer can choose between are:

For mechanical or electromechanical instruments:

F1, or

E1, or

D1, or

B followed by F, or

B followed by E, or

B followed by D, or

H, or

H1, or

G.

For electronic instruments or instruments containing software:

B followed by F, or

B followed by D, or

H1, or

G.

SCHEDULE MI-010 EXHAUST GAS ANALYSERS

The relevant requirements of Schedule III, the specific requirements of this Schedule and the conformity assessment procedures listed in this Schedule, apply to exhaust gas analysers defined below intended for inspection and professional maintenance of motor vehicles in use.

DEFINITIONS

Exhaust gas analyser

An exhaust gas analyser is a measuring instrument that serves to determine the volume fractions of specified components of the exhaust gas of a motor vehicle engine with spark ignition at the moisture level of the sample analysed.

Gas Components

The gas components determined by an exhaust gas analyser are carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), oxygen (O2) and hydrocarbons (HC).

The content of hydrocarbons has to be expressed as concentration of n-hexane (C6H14), measured with near-infrared absorption techniques.

The volume fractions of the gas components are expressed as a percentage (% vol) for CO, CO2 and O2 and in parts per million (ppm vol).

Moreover, an exhaust gas analyser calculates the lambda value from the volume fractions of the components of the exhaust gas.

Lambda

Lambda is a dimensionless value representative of the burning efficiency of an engine in terms of air/fuel ratio in the exhaust gases. It is determined with a reference standardised formula.

SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS

Instrument Classes

Parameter	Classes 0 and I
CO fraction	from 0 to 5% vol
CO2 fraction	from 0 to 16% vol
HC fraction	from 0 to 2,000 ppm vol
O2 fraction	from 0 to 21% vol
λ	from 0.8 to 1.2

Table 1 — Classes and measuring ranges

Rated operating conditions

— A minimum temperature range of 35°C for the climatic environment;

— The mechanical environment class that applies is M1.

— The voltage and frequency range for the AC voltage supply;

— The limits of the DC voltage supply.

— The minimum and the maximum values of the ambient pressure are for both classes: pmin < 860 hPa, pmax > 1,060 hPa.

Maximum permissible errors (MPEs)

Table 2 MPEs

1 OJ L 350, 28.12.1998, p. 17.

For this purpose, the values displayed by the instrument are used for calculation.

Permissible effect of disturbances

— either the change in the measurement result is not greater than the critical change value laid down in paragraph 4;

— or the presentation of the measurement result is such that it cannot be taken for a valid result.

Other requirements

	CO	CO2	O2	HC
Classes 0 and I	0.01% vol	0.1% vol	(1)	1 ppm vol
(1) 0.01% vol for measurand values below or equal to 4% vol, otherwise 0.1% vol.	(1) 0.01% vol for measurand values below or equal to 4% vol, otherwise 0.1% vol.	(1) 0.01% vol for measurand values below or equal to 4% vol, otherwise 0.1% vol.	(1) 0.01% vol for measurand values below or equal to 4% vol, otherwise 0.1% vol.	(1) 0.01% vol for measurand values below or equal to 4% vol, otherwise 0.1% vol.

Table 3 Resolution

The lambda value shall be displayed with a resolution of 0.001.

6% vol CO,

16% vol CO2,

10% vol O2,

5% vol H2,

2,000 ppm vol HC (as n-hexane),

water vapour up to saturation.

CONFORMITY ASSESSMENT

The conformity assessment procedures referred to in Regulation 7 that the manufacturer can choose between are:

B followed by F, or

B followed by D, or

H1

GIVEN under my Official Seal,

17 April 2007

MICHEÁL MARTIN

Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment.

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Instrument and does not purport to be a legal interpretation).

These Regulations come into effect on the signing thereof and implement Directive 2004/22/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 31 March 2004 on the harmonisation of the laws of Member States relating to Measuring Instruments.

They provide for the free movement within the Community of certain instruments and set out essential requirements, which must be met for instruments intended for certain specified uses. These Regulations implement the provisions of the Directive relating to the following categories of instrument:

• • Water Meters For Cold Water

• • Gas Meters And Volume Conversion Devices

• • Active Electrical Energy Meters

• • Measuring Systems For The Continuous And Dynamic Measurement Of Quantities Of Liquids Other Than Water

• • Automatic Weighing Instruments

• • Taximeters

• • Material Measures Of Length

• • Capacity Serving Measures

• • Dimensional Measuring Instruments

• • Exhaust Gas Analysers

They provide that the essential requirements of the Directive may be met through adoption by a manufacturer of the appropriate normative document, subject to the procedure stipulated in Article 16(1) of the Directive, containing technical specifications. They also provide for the appointment of notified bodies to carry out the various functions such as type-approval, verification and quality system approval and set out the obligations on manufacturers and the conditions under which they may issue a declaration of conformity and attach the CE mark and the Supplementary Metrology Mark to instruments.

The Regulations contain provisions for the withdrawal from the market or imposition of restrictions on the placing on the market of instruments bearing the CE mark and the Supplementary Metrology Mark that do not meet the requirements of the Regulations.

Regulations that applied to the classes of instruments within the scope of these Regulations are repealed. The Regulations also provide for an appeals procedure, market surveillance, powers of inspectors & authorised officers and penalties for offences.

Footnotes