AN ACT to expand the definition of industrial machinery exempt from building code inspection to include equipment and machinery acquired by State‑Supported centers providing testing, research, and development services to manufacturing clients. 

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

SECTION 1. G.S. 143‑138(b9) reads as rewritten:
"(b9)	Nothing in this Article shall extend to or be construed as being applicable to the regulation of the design, construction, location, installation, or operation of industrial machinery. However, if during the building code inspection process, an electrical inspector has any concerns about the electrical safety of a piece of industrial machinery, the electrical inspector may refer that concern to the Occupational Safety and Health Division in the North Carolina Department of Labor but shall not withhold the certificate of occupancy nor mandate third‑party testing of the industrial machinery based solely on this concern. For the purposes of this paragraph, "industrial machinery" means equipment and machinery used in a system of operations for the explicit purpose of producing a  product or acquired by a State‑supported center providing testing, research, and development services to manufacturing clients. The term does not include equipment that is permanently attached to or a component part of a building and related to general building services such as ventilation, heating and cooling, plumbing, fire suppression or prevention, and general electrical transmission."
SECTION 2.  This act is effective when it becomes law.
In the General Assembly read three times and ratified this the 14th day of June, 2012.

	s/	 Walter H. Dalton
	 President of the Senate

	s/	 Thom Tillis
	 Speaker of the House of Representatives

	_____________________________________
		 Beverly E. Perdue
	 Governor

Approved __________.m. this ______________ day of ___________________, 2012