Outdoor Machinery: A reliable statistical approach for a new noise labelling based on current noise emission marking data

The Directive 2000/14/EC is part of the European Union's strategy to reduce noise at source, in particular noise emissions from equipment for use outdoors, and provides relevant information to purchasers, users and citizens to encourage the choice of quieter equipment. For this latter purpose, a label indicating the guaranteed sound power level has to be affixed to each item of equipment in a visible, legible and indelible form. Unfortunately, it's widely recognized that the current noise marking is difficult to be interpreted and does not give enough information. Consequently, the design of a more understandable label is an important aspect that needs to be considered in the current directive revision process. This study aims at investigating if a noise labelling showing the absolute value of the guaranteed sound power level and giving also relative information on how much noisy a given product is compared to similar ones could be applied to the machines in the scope of the Directive 2000/14/EC. A procedure is proposed in order to establish noise "classes" for each equipment type and two case studies are also presented as implementation examples. Finally, a possible graphical format for the revised label is suggested which can provide understandable and straightforward information.