Vinçotte will issue you a certificate that proves that your centrifuges fulfil the statutory requirements. In addition, these inspections give you the certainty that the potentially hazardous devices function with total safety.

For the periodic inspection, Clauses 320 to 325 of the General Regulations for Protection at Work shall apply. For construction, the Machinery Directive, transposed into Belgian law through a Royal Decree. This Directive lays down the modalities for the inspection of these centrifuges, subject to which they can be brought on to the market and commissioned in all Member States. The harmonised European standards can be applied to satisfy the essential requirements of this Directive.

The statutory provisions apply to centrifuges, of which the value of L, calculated according to the following formula, exceeds or is equal to 25 (> 0 for centrifuges that date after 1995). L = (P x d2 x n2)/(14400), where: P: the weight in kilograms of the maximum permissible dry load d: the average inner diameter of the cage in metre n = the maximum permitted number of revolutions per minute.

The enterprises or institutions that use centrifuges are bound by law to have their installations regularly inspected in order to satisfy the safety targets. In order to ensure that the inspections are carried out totally objectively, the law prescribes that they must be carried out by an EDTC (External Service for Technical Inspections at the workplace – earlier known as “authorised body”). Through this obligation, the government wishes to ensure that all aspects of the applicable rules are duly complied with. This is the only way to ensure the safety of this type of installation.