Commercial appliances – Testing and Certification at the VDE Institute

Even a small defect on the appliance can endanger the operational readiness of the entire business and may even endanger human lives. Testing commercial appliances for safety confirms their safe condition and allows for potential hazards and damage to be detected before they occur. Your employees are protected from hazards such as a short-circuit, overvoltage or a fire, and you avoid unnecessary machine downtimes, high repair costs and consequential damages.

Safety guidelines for commercial appliances are defined in the Machine Directive 2006/42/EC, which establishes basic rules–applicable in all of Europe–for safety, health protection and the free movement of goods. According to this, machines and their components may be marketed in Europe only if they meet the Machine Directive’s basic safety and health requirements. The provisions of the Machine Directive affect all manufacturers, distributing companies and, by extension, machine operators as well.

Take advantage of the VDE Institute’s expertise to safely design your machines, appliances, plants and components. We support you in all matters related to the Machine Directive and offer you comprehensive services in product safety and functional safety.

Warehouse refrigerators and numerous freezers are used in many areas of the hotel and restaurant industry and often consume a lot of energy.  Just like cooling appliances and freezers, they are subject to a labelling requirement with regard to energy consumption. The European Union pursues the goal of reducing energy consumption in the EU and promoting the sale of efficient cooling appliances and freezers in the commercial sector as well. Appliances that are designed for storing foodstuff must be labelled with the EU energy label and meet the requirements of the Ecodesign Directive.

The VDE Institute has years of expertise in measuring energy efficiency and in labelling energy consumption (EU label). Learn more about our services in energy efficiency measurements and ecodesign.

Testing device for devices for commercial cooling and freezing

The VDE Institute is approved by the state as a notified body for the Energy-Related Products Act (EVPG). Our test laboratory for energy consumption measurements of refrigerators and freezers has special test room conditions that are precisely tailored to the special design of refrigerators. A low-noise power supply provides the foundation for accurate test results. Test benches are ideally equipped with automated measurement and documentation processes.

In our modern laboratories, additional tests for commercial appliances are performed in addition to tests for electrical safety. As a result, manufacturers and operators receive all tests from a single source.

• Chemistry and sustainability
• Electric safety tests for obtaining national and international approvals
• Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) and radio  
• Energy efficiency and ecodesign
• Functional safety
• Hygiene tests (for commercial dishwashers)
• International service for better market access
• Noise emission measurements
• Risk analysis
• Software Evaluation

We are also glad to offer you additional services according to your specifications and requirements. Thanks to our integrated service model, we help you significantly reduce your costs and time to market launch.