Granting of licenses

The floor­ing install­a­tion product clas­si­fied with an EMICODE® has to com­ply with the clas­si­fic­a­tion cri­ter­ia as issued by the Tech­nic­al Coun­cil of the GEV:

  • In gen­er­al, an EMICODE® labelled product is solvent free. Solvents in this mean­ing are defined as Volat­ile Organ­ic Com­pounds (VOC) with a boil­ing point < 200°C under nor­mal con­di­tions (20°C, 1013 hPa). As an exemp­tion for tech­nic­al needs, only products for the sur­face treat­ment of par­quet, min­er­al floors and resi­li­ent floor cov­er­ings may con­tain solvents as film build­ing agent.
  • A safety data sheet is pre­pared for all licensed products, provided that there is an oblig­a­tion to do so under loc­al law. It is recom­men­ded to state the EMICODE®-clas­si­fic­a­tion in the tech­nic­al data sheet, e.g. “EMICODE EC 1 – very low emis­sion”.
  • Sub­stances included under the REACH Reg­u­la­tion (EC 1907/2006) in accord­ance with art. 57 in the list estab­lished under REACH art. 59(1) (the so-called “Can­did­ate List”) must not be act­ively used in EMICODE® products1.
  • Sub­stances that have been iden­ti­fied under REACH as car­ci­no­gen­ic, muta­gen­ic or tox­ic to repro­duc­tion (“CMR sub­stances” of cat­egor­ies 1A and 1B) shall not be act­ively used.1 Emis­sions of all volat­ile organ­ic car­ci­no­gen­ic sub­stances of cat­egor­ies 1A and 1B must remain below a total lim­it value of 10 μg/m3 after 3 days and an indi­vidu­al lim­it value of 1 μg/m3 after 28 days.
  • Products which are clas­si­fied in cat­egor­ies 1, 2 or 3 accord­ing to European Haz­ard­ous Sub­stances Reg­u­la­tion with regard to acute tox­ic prop­er­ties (CLP: Part 3: 3.1 acute tox­icity) are excluded from the EMICODE®.
  • Methyl Ethyl Ketox­im (MEKO) and Methyl Isobutyl Ketox­im (MIBKO) as well as Acet­one oxime must not be added or released dur­ing cur­ing for reas­ons of occu­pa­tion­al safety and odour. 

    1 For details and excep­tions, see “GEV Clas­si­fic­a­tion Cri­ter­ia”

  • Required tests have to be car­ried out accord­ing to the defined “GEV test­ing meth­od” and have to be per­formed by a labor­at­ory that mas­ters the defined “GEV test meth­od” and whose accred­it­a­tion accord­ing to ISO 17025 cov­ers the tests accord­ing to the GEV test meth­od or EN 16516. The doc­u­ment­a­tion of test res­ults is oper­ated by the pro­du­cer accord­ing to intra-com­pany rules. A list of recom­men­ded labor­at­or­ies is pub­lished here. 
  • Products of the same mix­ture (pre­par­a­tion) but dif­fer­ent trade­mark (art­icle name) require an EMICODE® license for each art­icle but only one emis­sion test. In this case the license is gran­ted based on the test of the pre­vi­ously tested and EMICODE® licensed product.
  • Changes to the mix­ture or alter­a­tions that have no rel­ev­ance in terms of emis­sions do not require anoth­er test.
  • Clas­si­fic­a­tion into EMICODE® classes is car­ried out accord­ing to the product group after com­pli­ance with all require­ments of the fol­low­ing tables. The appro­pri­ate EMICODE® class shall be used for product labelling.

Granting of licenses

A product to be clas­si­fied accord­ing to EMICODE® shall ful­fil the fowolling cri­ter­ia, estab­lished by the Tech­nic­al Advis­ory Coun­cil in the „GEV Clas­si­fic­a­tion Cri­ter­ia“:

  • EMICODE®-labelled products are always solvent-free. Excep­tions are sur­face treat­ment products for wooden floors as well as lac­quers, impreg­na­tion agents and oils for min­er­al floors as well as lac­quers for resi­li­ent floor cov­er­ings which, for tech­nic­al reas­ons, may con­tain solvents as film-form­ing agent. If products in Ger­many are assigned to a GISCODE product group, this must be stated.

  • A safety data sheet is pre­pared for all licensed products, provided that there is an oblig­a­tion to do so under loc­al law. It is recom­men­ded to list the EMICODE® clas­si­fic­a­tion in the safety data sheet under point 15, e.g. “EMICODE® EC1 — very low emis­sion”.
  • Sub­stances included in the so-called “can­did­ate list” accord­ing to REACH Reg­u­la­tion Art. 57 and Art. 59(1) must not be act­ively used in EMICODE® products (for details and excep­tions see “GEV Clas­si­fic­a­tion Cri­ter­ia“).
  • Sub­stances that have been iden­ti­fied under REACH as car­ci­no­gen­ic, muta­gen­ic or tox­ic to repro­duc­tion (“CMR sub­stances” of cat­egor­ies 1A and 1B) shall not be act­ively used (for details and excep­tions see “GEV Clas­si­fic­a­tion Cri­ter­ia“). Emis­sions of all volat­ile organ­ic car­ci­no­gen­ic sub­stances of cat­egor­ies 1A and 1B must not exceed a total lim­it value of 10 µg/m³ after 3 days and an indi­vidu­al lim­it value of 1 µg/m³ after 28 days.
  • Products that have been clas­si­fied in cat­egor­ies 1, 2 or 3 accord­ing to European Haz­ard­ous Sub­stances Reg­u­la­tions on account of acute tox­ic prop­er­ties (CLP: Part 3: 3.1 Acute Tox­icity) are excluded from the EMICODE® clas­si­fic­a­tion sys­tem.

  • Methyl ethyl ketoxime (MEKO) and methyl isobutyl ketoxime (MIBKO) as well as acet­one oxime must not be added or released dur­ing the cur­ing pro­cess for reas­ons of occu­pa­tion­al safety and odor nuis­ance.
  • Test­ing has to be per­formed accord­ing to the pre­defined “GEV test meth­od”. The tests shall be per­formed by a labor­at­ory that has been accred­ited for test­ing accord­ing to ISO 17025, includ­ing tests as per GEV test meth­od or EN 16516. Doc­u­ment­a­tion of the test res­ults is car­ried out by the man­u­fac­turer him­self accord­ing to in-house guidelines. Please click here for a list of recom­men­ded labor­at­or­ies.
  • Clas­si­fic­a­tion into EMICODE® classes is car­ried out accord­ing to the product group after all require­ments from the tables men­tioned under “Lim­it val­ues” have been ful­filled. The appro­pri­ate EMICODE® class must be used for product labelling.

Licensing Conditions

Classification Criteria — Installation Materials

Classification Criteria — Products for Floor Surface Treatment

Licensable Products

Licensing Conditions

Classification Criteria

Licensable Products

Laboratories

GEV does not carry out tests itself, but com­mis­sions the tests to extern­al test­ing labor­at­or­ies in order to main­tain its status as an impar­tial industry asso­ci­ation.

Learn more

Do You Have Questions?

If you have any ques­tions on cer­tain top­ics or want to con­tact us for anoth­er reas­on, please con­tact us by phone or email.

Phone: +49 (0)211 843 449 – 01

info@emicode.com