Personal protective equipment

Technical documentation

The technical documentation makes it possible to assess whether the PPE meets the requirements.

It is the manufacturer’s responsibility to prepare technical documentation concerning the PPE in accordance with the conformity assessment methods.

As a general rule, the documentation should include at least a description of the PPE and its intended use, the markings on the product, and the user instructions. The documentation should also include information that demonstrates the conformity of the PPE (standards used and test reports) and the risk assessment carried out by the manufacturer. If a harmonised standard for conformity assessment is only partly applied or does not cover all the essential applicable requirements, the technical documentation should also include how the non-essential requirements are addressed.

The technical documents do not need to be translated into the language of the member state, but they must be in one of the languages of the Union. The conformity assessment methods for PPE in Categories II and III require that a notified body is involved in the assessment of the PPE. In this case, the documents must be in the language used by the notified body.

You can read more about technical documentation in Annex III to the Regulation.

The technical documentation must be kept for 10 years from the date on which the PPE was placed on the market. The storage of technical documentation is the responsibility of the manufacturer or its authorised representative established within the EU. Since the concept of placing on the market refers to a single piece of equipment, the deadline must be calculated from the moment when the “last” single product covered by the technical documentation was placed on the market.