Indoor Air Comfort label was presented at Consense congress and exhibition
Indoor Air Comfort label was presented at Consense congress and exhibition, 22nd + 23rd June 2010 at Stuttgart, Germany. Indoor Air Comfort is a product certification program for showing low VOC emissions of products into indoor air, for promoting living comfort indoors by ensuring good indoor air quality. The program combines requirements of most European national labels into one set of specifications, on two quality levels - Indoor Air Comfort, and Indoor Air Comfort GOLD.
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Eurofins Product Testing - EMICODE label

Germany(German version)

Please also click below for more general information

The EMICODE

The EMICODE® is a label for showing low VOC emissions into indoor air from adhesives, sealants, parquet varnishes and other construction products. The EMICODE is administered by GEV. EMICODE has gone through major revisions in May 2010 with change of testing schedule and with corresponsing change of limit values. Achievable classes now are:

  • EMICODE® EC 1 PLUS - very low emissions PLUS
  • EMICODE® EC 1 - very low emissions
  • EMICODE® EC 2 - low emissions

Criteria and limit values

The EMICODE criteria and limit values are the same for all product groups, except parquet varnishes where slightly different limit values apply, and where an EMICODE® EC 1 PLUS class is not yet available. Below listed products can be labelled with an EMICODE®:

  • Adhesives for flooring installation, solvent-free
  • Screeds, solvent-free
  • Related primers, solvent-free
  • Underlays
  • Joint sealants, solvent-free
  • Sealings, foam, foils and tapes
  • Parquet varnishes, water-based and low VOC

Solvent content:

Any EMICODE labelled product must contain less than 0.5% m/m solvents, where solvent is defined as VOC with boiling point of max. 200 °C.

The only exception is for parquet coatings which may contain up to 8% m/m VOC (as defined in EU Decopaint Directive). 10% will be accepted until 30. June 2011.

There are also other limitations on content. For details, please see the general classification criteria, and the classification criteria for parquet coatings.

Changes in May 2011

Recent revision of EMICODE by GEV now allows to run many other tests in parallel with an EMICODE test. This helps saving a lot of money when compliance with several specifications shall be shown, such as:

In a transition period, tests in accordance with the earlier EMICODE specification still are accepted for new licences until 31st July 2010.

Earlier EMICODE licences will remain valid until next basic change of product formulation because several comparative testing projects with a significant number of products showed clearly that the earlier classification values after 10 days are equivalent with the new specification. Control tests will follow the specifications as in force the date when the licence was granted by GEV until 30th August 2012. From 1st September 2012 only the new specifications will be the basis for control tests, for all licenced products.

GEV approved a number of editorial updates on 28th July 2010. Most recent versions of GEV documents are available for download from GEV homepage.

Market share and more information

In Germany, EMICODE EC 1 adhesives cover some 80-90% market share of all flooring installation adhesives. Also in several other countries the EMICODE EC 1 is regarded as a label for low VOC emissions with high reputation. You can see:

Eurofins Product Testing A/S is the reference laboratory in case of dispute and performs the majority of EMICODE tests for German adhesives industry. Eurofins contributes to development of EMICODE testing standards as guest of Technical Council of GEV.

A comparison of test data showed the equivalency of EMICODE EC1, Blue Angel and CA Section 01350 requirements.

Latest news


Industry is confronted with new legal requirements in Germany valid from 1st January 2011 resp. 2012, which requires additional testing. This is still under development, as you can read on a special page.

Eurofins services


Eurofins offers documentation of compliance with EMICODE specifications on emissions of VOC and aldehydes by independent testing.

Further information


For reading more, please download our technical information flyers in English, French or German, or visit the EMICODE website or please contact our national organisations or our specialists for making use of the experience of Eurofins, the world market leader for VOC emissions chamber testing.

Order forms and testing request forms for VOC testing are available for free download here.

Your direct contacts:

Direct contact to Eurofins Product Testing A/S, the world market leader for VOC emissions chamber testing:

Eurofins Product Testing A/S
Smedeskovvej 38
8464 Galten
Denmark

Phone: +45 7022 4276

US office:

2200 Rittenhouse St., Suite 150
Des Moines, IA  50321
Phone: (202) 657-6584

 

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