Time to harmonise

The number of product certification schemes continues to grow. Barny Parks, managing director of pipe and fitting manufacturer SANHA, asks whether the time is right for change.

The certification industry is big business. Unlike standards, which are harmonised across Europe, certification bodies exist to certify products at a national level. The explosion in the number of products being certified appears to be matched by an increasingly large and diverse number of organisations charging to issue product certification.

SANHA is a leading manufacturer of pipes and fittings for use in water, gas, heating, solar, compressed air and industrial applications. Currently SANHA has 50 or more products that are in the process of certification for a variety of different countries. The certifications are paid for from SANHA’s annual certification budget totaling almost half-a-million Euros. Which, from a manufacturer’s perspective, begs the question: Is it really necessary to have so many?

SANHA’s pipes and fittings are manufactured to the highest quality at our plants in Germany, Belgium and Poland. Nevertheless, despite our products’ compliance with all relevant EU standards, SANHA still has to seek product certification for the specific application of its products in almost every European country in which it operates.

Product certification is the process of certifying that a product has passed certain performance and quality assurance tests in order to meet the necessary local, national or international elements relevant to a particular market.

In the construction sector there are thousands of certification schemes representing almost every product attribute.

The European dimension

One reason for the need to seek certification is because many European standards are produced to eliminate trade barriers rather than to attain high quality products.

As a result, EN compliance is of limited assurance to end users. The same is true for CE marking which simply evaluates products against basic manufacturing criteria and does not consider whether the product is fit for purpose.

Another reason products are certified is because some EN standards do not exist, or are in development. In the absence of an appropriate benchmark SANHA is forced to use national certification schemes to provide independent verification to its customers that its products achieve the very highest standards.

Certification can also provide some form of assurance to consumers or users that a product possesses certain qualities, or that it complies with all the relevant standards for a particular application.

Adding up

SANHA UK has BSI, WRAS, FM Global and VDS certification, all of which provide assurance to end users that our products are suitable for particular applications. Our press-fittings from copper and lead free silicon bronze, for example, are certified under the Water Regulations Advisory Scheme (WRAS) for use in drinking water systems.

In the UK alone, SANHA has in the order of 15 sets of certification to keep up to date. Multiply this by 10 countries and you can see why certification is an expensive issue in terms of cost and resources. 

Frustratingly there appears to be very little difference between many of these national certification schemes. Certainly it would appear that certification bodies are not interested in rationalising the plethora of schemes for fear of potentially impacting their revenues. From a manufacturer’s perspective, however, the current situation is hugely wasteful.

Case for harmonisation

There is an argument that the costs of certification help provide a hurdle to entry to the market, which will help in the fight against poor quality, cheap imports. We would like the certificate to be more transparent, with some statement made as to the level of testing carried out, a bit like an auditor’s statement.

What manufacturers need is less national certification and more harmonised pan-EU type schemes which are open and objective. We would like to see a European mark on our certification which would ensure that these certificates are valid in all countries.

SANHA selects the quality assurance criteria for its products that will provide the most assurance for customers. All we are asking is that when we do spend time and expense on getting a product certified in one country, the certification is valid throughout Europe.

What could be simpler and more cost effective?