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PRO INSTALLER DECEMBER 2013
PRO BUSINESS
@proinstaller1
THE LITTLE
RED HEN OF
CE MARKING
“I’m sure you’ve heard
the old folk tale about
the Little Red Hen,”
says Mike Gaillard,
Joint Managing Director of CENSolutions.
CE marking update
Five months after CE marking for
windows and doors came into law,
Richard Bate CE Marking expert from
certification and test house Build
Check, talks to Clearview Magazine’s
editor Becky Taylor…
After the mad rush to get CE marking in
place for 1 July, we believe that most windows and doors are now compliant with the
legislation because the systems companies,
larger trade fabricators and installation companies started the process early. However
there’s still a way to go. We’re receiving daily
phone calls from smaller companies looking
for help to comply with the new law.
There was a lot of work to do to get
products verified. Most testing we did went
through smoothly. But in the laboratory
we saw more failures than we expected for
safety devices. We were surprised how many
didn’t pass and needed re-testing.
CE Marking isn’t a one off task then to be
forgotten. Keeping the support information
up to date is part of the legal obligation for
businesses. Changes to windows and doors
that effect mandatory performance characteristics need to be checked and in many
cases a new declaration of performance
produced. Not forgetting that CE Mark-
ing evidence for any windows and doors
already sold needs to be kept available for
10 years.
Although initially we saw most companies
going for the minimum criteria to get CE
Marks in place, there’s a definite increase in
CE Markings declaring extra performance
characteristics to back up higher specification products. Businesses wanting to
advertise windows and doors with lower
U-Values, acoustic, resistance to wind and
water-tightness can prove these upgrades
with separate CE Marks.
This is reflected in an increase in the number of people using The Oracle, Build Check
Publications online resource. The Oracle’s
U-value and acoustic calculator allows the
user to assess the performance of windows
and doors. The calculations can be used to
support CE Marking and Build Check Publications can advise whether verification is
required by a Notified Body.
Five months later the most important thing
to remember about CE Marking is keep all
the paperwork updated. There won’t be
a big rush as there was in July 2013, but
it’s important to be on top of any relevant
changes to products, production or suppliers, which must be recorded.
“The Little Red Hen
finds a grain of wheat,
and asks for help from the
other farmyard animals to
plant it, but none of them
volunteer. At each stage
of the process, through to
baking flour into bread,
the Little Red Hen continues to ask for help to no
avail. Finally, the hen has
completed the task, and
asks who will help to eat
the bread. This time, all the
animals eagerly volunteer
to help eat the bread. Little
Red Hen declines their
help this time and enjoys
the bread without them.
The moral of the story of
course, is that those who
don’t put the effort into
something shouldn’t get the
rewards when they come to
fruition.
“What has this got to do
with CE Marking I hear you
ask? Well six months on
from the implementation
date and we continue to
hear from companies who
have put in all the hard
work they need to, to en-
‘Regardless of
the policing
that is or isn’t
in place, let’s
not forget that
CE Marking is
now the law’
sure compliance, but who
feel let down by the lack of
support from industry bodies. Repeated requests for
help have gone unheard. In
particular no-one seems to
want to take responsibility
for the policing of the new
standard, which means it is
up to Trading Standards to
keep track of it. Although
Exeter Benefits From The Merging Of Its
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Two reputable glass and glazing suppliers in Exeter have
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Exeter Glass Centre, located
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