The closer the appointment of CE marking gets, the more I’m getting my head stuck into the whole matter. And it’s not the simplest of subjects to understand.
Here’s what I think I know so far:
- Each supplier MUST get their own products tested to pass performance levels and achieve the correct CE mark for their product
- If you’re an installer, it is your responsibility to make sure that if you buy an un-glazed frame and fit it with a unit sourced separately, that it has either the correct CE mark on the product overall, or can provide paperwork for both parts of the product that prove they have both passed the performance tests
- It’s definitely happening in July. No hold ups, this isn’t the Green Deal!
- If you smudge the CE mark, you’re buggered. It has to be clear and at least 5mm tall, clear and visible to see.
- If a manufacturer sells on a product within the UK, that is of European manufacture, the foreign paperwork associated must be translated and an English version provided.
This is going to be a paperwork nightmare for small to medium manufacturers.
I was speaking with a supplier of ours on Tuesday morning about the whole CE issue and he was saying that he has had to employ people to push the extra paperwork around to the various department and people. They’re not a big manufacturer by any stretch of the imagination, so having to take on more staff just to oversee paperwork going in the right direction seems like a very unnecessary use of vital funds.
As far as I can tell, there aren’t many out there that are over the moon about yet another EU directive being forced upon us in the UK. Personally, I cannot see any advantages to us as an industry with CE marking. I think it’s just another way the EU can keep tabs on what the UK is doing, and in the process it costs us money to do so, when so many companies are trying very hard to keep hold of as much of their cash as possible!
There is a CE seminar on March 14th which my boss is attending, hosted by John Fredericks and Phil Parry is going to be there to try and explain the whole thing in it’s simplest form and make sure we don’t all get caught out. Hopefully by then, we might understand better why the EU thinks this is such a great idea for us!
Comments always appreciated!
It’s a good thing for the consumer. Therefore good for the companies in the industry able to ensure that their products are CE compliant. CE is largely a self declaration thing anyway – one self-certifies but woe betide any company so marking and not complying. It will help eradicate poor products and poor fabricators who have shifting supply chains where components and suppliers are transient. I can understand companies who don’t manufacture and therefore have complete control over their product standards being worried and therefore belly-aching about it. But it’s a good thing for the customer.
Really, i have never had a customer ask me if my windows are ce marked and don’t suppose i ever will. Just another money making schemefoe someone somewhere