Tractor Certification Under TR CU 031/2012

Which regulation applies?

TR CU 031/2012, On safety of agricultural and forestry tractors and their trailers, replaced the older national standards for these vehicles.

There is a second vehicle regulation, TR CU 018/2011, On safety of wheeled vehicles, and tractors are not subject to it. Because of their field of application and their specific features they were given a regulation of their own, and their spare parts follow them into it.

TR CU 031/2012 applies to all tractors with a maximum speed of not less than 6 km/h, and to tractor-related trailers and spare parts. The certificate is valid in the five EAEU member states.

Why must every component be certified first?

A tractor is a complex assembly, and TR CU 031/2012 handles that by working upward. The certificate for a tractor may only be obtained once all of its components have been certified to the same regulation.

Nineteen components each require their own certificate:

To certify these parts you must provide samples and technical descriptions in the Union’s working language. The description has to be substantial: general parameters, sizes, operating principles, working conditions, and drawings. Most manufacturers already hold all of this for their own vehicles and parts; the work is in assembling and translating it rather than in generating it.

With positive test results and complete documents, the component certificates are issued and the tractor itself can proceed.

Does the assembled tractor need testing too?

This is the requirement that surprises manufacturers. Do we really need to test the tractor after every part has been checked and passed?

Yes. TR CU 031/2012 states that the tractors must be tested as well, and a tractor sample is needed by the accredited laboratory.

Testing at the production site is not an option here, unlike some other regulations, because of the equipment and techniques the tests require. Border closures during 2020 removed what flexibility there might otherwise have been.

What does a complete project need?

Three things, and all three have to be true at once:

1. EAC certificates under TR CU 031/2012 for all nineteen components listed above
2. A tractor sample available for testing in the accredited laboratory
3. A full technical description of the tractor, size, parameters, the information about the spare parts, and the operational manual

Once the certificate is issued, the tractors can be imported into the EAEU countries.

Sources

• TR CU 031/2012, On safety of agricultural and forestry tractors and their trailers, Eurasian Economic Commission
• TR CU 018/2011, On safety of wheeled vehicles, for the boundary between the two