The Pressure Equipment Directive 97/23/EC, (the so called PED), which will become mandatory in the whole European Union starting on 29.05.2002, has introduced a new, fully European way of designing, fabricating & certifying products which, in almost all EU countries, were subject up to now to very strict regulations typically enforced by state controlled (and highly bureaucratic) bodies.

As part of the new sytem Notified Bodies are now charged with the certification not applying anymore fixed and binding rules but only essential safety requirements; furthermore they use both traditional procedures based on product assessment and new procedures based on quality assurance, which hadn't been adopted up to now in the industry of pressure components. 

All this requires wide-ranging know-how and different skills, which are difficult to find in a single organisation; it also requires expertise, competence, capability to adapt to the needs 
of the market for which the PED (as already happened for other directives) opens new possibilities of development, but at the same time obliges to keep up pace at European level with experienced private competitors on one side and with public organisations charged with market surveillance (where those "technical barriers" which previously existed at the fabrication stage are likely to turn up again) on the other side.

Istituto Italiano della saldatura

Istituto Italiano della Saldatura (IIS) is a private organisation founded in 1948, whose main tasks are research, training, certification and technical support in the field of welded components. IIS is a founder member of IIW (International Institute of Welding) and of a number of other Italian, European and international bodies. It employs about 170 people and can count on up-to-date laboratory equipments, which guarantee high quality results

Agenzia Nazionale Certificazione Componenti e Prodotti Srl

Agenzia Nazionale Certificazione Componenti e Prodotti (ANCCP) has been notified by the Italian Government for product certification in accordance with the European Directives for "Machines" "Simple Pressure Vessels" "Electromagnetic Compatibility" etc. It also certifies environmental quality systems in accordance with ISO 14001 and, after accreditation by SINCERT, in accordance with ISO 9000.