CE Marking Explosives

Whilst the CE mark is not solely a safety mark, safety does play an important role. An example of this is CE marking explosives and pyrotechnical articles. Clearly such items will have the potential to cause harm, however if stored, transported and used safely, then no-one should be put at risk and this is the role of the CE mark.

There are two CE Marking Directives covering the conformity requirements of explosives (for civil uses) and pyrotechnical articles; the Directives are named as such and their scopes of set out below:

Explosives for Civil Uses:

Directive (93/15/EEC, as amended) applies to Explosive materials and articles defined as being a Class 1 within the United Nations recommendation on the Transport of Dangerous Goods. The recommendations break down Class 1 Explosives into six sub-divisions:

– Division 1.1: Substances and articles which have a mass explosion hazard
– Division 1.2: Substances and articles which have a projection hazard but not a mass explosion hazard
– Division 1.3: Substances and articles which have a fire hazard and either a minor blast hazard or a minor projection hazard or both, but not a mass explosion hazard
– Division 1.4: Substances and articles which present no significant hazard
– Division 1.5: Very insensitive substances which have a mass explosion hazard
– Division 1.6: Extremely insensitive articles which do not have a mass explosion hazard

There is also a small list of exclusions include:

explosives (including ammunition) intended for use (in accordance with national law) by the armed forces or the police.
pyrotechnical articles
ammunition (except as provided in Articles 10, 11, 12, 13, 17, 18 & 19 of the Directive)

Conformity requirements are set out in Article 6 of the Directive.

A current Civil Explosives Directive (2014/28/EU) has replaced the existing Directive (93/15/EEC) on the 20th April 2016. A copy of the new Directive (2014/28/EU) can be found here: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/PDF/?uri=CELEX:32014L0028&from=EN

Pyrotechnical Articles:

Directive (2007/23/EC, as amended) applies to pyrotechnical articles, meaning any article containing explosive substances (or an explosive mixture) designed to produce heat, light, sound, gas or smoke (or combination of such effects) through self-sustained exothermic chemical reactions.

There Directive also sets out some exclusions:

articles intended for use (in accordance with national law) by the armed forces, the police or fire departments
equipment fall within scope of Marine Equipment Directive (96/98/EC as amended) or the Explosives for Civil Uses Directive (93/15/EEC, as amended)
articles intended for use in the aerospace industry
percussion caps specifically for toys (in scope of the Safety of Toys Directive)
fireworks, which are built by a manufacturer for own use and approved for use (by the Member State)
ammunition (meaning projectiles and propelling charges and blank ammunition used in portable firearms, other guns and artillery)

Conformity requirements are set out in Article 9 of the Directive.

Directive 2007/33/EC Link: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2007:154:0001:0021:EN:PDF

The Pyrotechnical Articles Directive is due to be replaced by a new Directive (2013/29/EU) on the 1st July 2015. The new Directive can be found here: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2013:178:0027:0065:en:PDF