CE Certification

What is CE Certification?

CE Certification is a declaration that a product meets a minimum standard of safety and quality. It is an assurance by the manufacturer that the product will perform as intended.
Much of the products used during construction is now required to be CE certified by law.

How does CE marking benefit the customer?

Under legislation a manufacturer of a CE marked product must make an explicit declaration that the product is safe. This means that in the event of a claim the manufacturer must prove that their product was not the cause rather than the customer trying to prove that it was.

Insurance companies look very favourably on CE marked products (again the responsibility is placed on the manufacturer to prove their innocence rather that the insurance company proving their guilt). Generally this results in a cheaper insurance premium than that of a non CE marked product.

Edwards Engineering and CE Certification

Edwards engineering has recently obtained CE certification to EN 13241-1 for our Industrial steel doors, including ESB sub-station doors and CE certification to EN 1090 for all our Light structural steel products.

Each of our doors has a unique serial number which is linked to the Declaration of Performance for that door. The declaration of performance states that the door was produced and tested to EN 13241-1. The declaration of performance is included in the O&M manual for each door we manufacture and a copy is held by Edwards Engineering for a period of no less than 10 years. A report of testing along with other documentary evidence is also held with the Declaration of performance.

All light Structural steel products manufactured by Edwards Engineering is CE certified to EN 1090 and has a certificate of performance issued with it which is included in the O&M Manual. A copy of the certificate of performance is held by Edwards Engineering with other documentary evidence such as drawings and material data sheets for a period of no less than 10 years.

How do I know a company is CE Certified to EN 1090?

EN 1090 requires that a company be audited by an external notified body on a regular basis. It is this company that issues the CE Certificate and maintains a list of companies certified by themselves.
To verify that a company is in fact CE Certified ask to see their Certificate of Conformity of the Factory Production Control or ask for their cert number. Once you have their cert number (either from the cert itself or on its own) you can check to see if the cert is genuine.

Each cert number is a combination of numbers and letters. The first four numbers are the registration number of the notified body. Go to the European Commission website and use the links provided to find the Notified body. Once you have the name of the notified body you can go to their website and enter the full cert number into their search engine to find out who that cert was issued to and if it is still valid.

For example Edwards Engineering’s cert number is 1224-CPR-0799, 1224 is the registration number of BM Trada (based in the UK). Go to their site and go to the first tab (titled Certification), you will see a search box on the bottom right hand corner of the page. Enter the entire search number here and it will display the company it is registered to. Each Notified Body will have a different layout, but it is well worth taking a few minutes to verify that the company that you are considering working with is legitimate.

What do I do if I find a company with a fake certificate?

First of all you should not engage that company to carry out any work for you. Second, let someone know. Contact the notified body whose number appears on the cert. they will verify if the cert is fake and deal with the company in question. If the first 4 digits on the cert number are fake, contact the NSAI, they will deal with the problem.

It is important that companies who abuse the system are weeded out as they damage the reputation of every genuine company involved, and may be cutting corners such that their products are dangerous to use.

INFO@EDWARDSENGINEERING.IE