CE Marking, that sign of something very European, is coming to our industry in July of this year. CE Marking is replacing the current Construction Products Directive.

What Is CE Marking?

The CE mark looks like this:

A CE mark at the moment is required in Europe for most brand new products produced within the EU, products that are shipped to the EU from outside it, and products that are refurbished to the point where they can be considered ‘new’. Simple?

The CE mark shows that the product it has be affixed to conforms to all the relevant EU laws and regulations. Rather than listing all the directives here, click here to be taken to an online resource which goes into extreme detail about what laws a CE marked product has to conform to.

Who Is Responsible For The CE Mark?

If you’re an installer who buys their products in, then you’ll be OK, you have nothing extra to do. It is up to the manufacturers or importers of the products to make sure that the CE mark is affixed to the product correctly, in clear sight, without smears or smudges. So in this case our fabricators and manufacturers would take care of this.

Something manufacturers should be aware of is that if they sell on a product that isn’t English and the paperwork that comes with them isn’t in English, they have to provide English versions of this for their UK based customers.

The CE Marking Process:

The CE Marking process is the final stage of a product’s process of being confirmed that it has passed all the relevant laws and Directives associated with that product. These are the final points the process covers:

• assessing the risks presented by a product throughout its lifecycle
• meeting safety objectives by design and construction
• taking account of the current best practice to ensure the safety for that product, known as the state of the art
• in some cases the supply Directive will require the use of third parties who have been notified by an EU member state to the EU Commission (usually referred to as “Notified Bodies”) to verify compliance
• collecting and retaining information about the design, testing and construction process and the means by which the product complies with the essential requirements of all relevant product safety Directives in a technical file which in most cases must be kept for at least 10 years after the last product of the product line has been produced
• declaring the product’s conformity with all relevant product safety law by means of a document (the Declaration of Conformity), which in most cases must accompany the product down the supply chain to the end user
• and the preparation and provision of comprehensive product User Instructions, in the language of the end user.

Bullet points taken from the HSE website.

How Do I CE Mark A Product

This really only refers to manufacturers and suppliers. Below are the HSE’s website’s tips on making sure you CE mark your products correctly:

If CE marking is required, in addition to the other steps of the CE marking process (see below), you must:

• use the initials “CE” in the prescribed form (see the grid below)
• of a minimum size – at least 5mm tall (unless this is not possible for very small products)
• maintaining the proportions shown whatever the size, and
• attach it to the product visibly, legibly and indelibly,
• in the immediate vicinity of the name of the manufacturer or his authorised representative.

There is a lot more finer detail to read if you’re a supplier or manufacturer. On the face of it, it all looks relatively straight forward. Basically, do more checks, print a clear CE mark on your frames. A bit dumbed down but I think that’s the crux of it. If you’re an installer, then all you have to do is make sure the CE mark is there and it’s been printed clearly.

For a lot of this information, I give credit to HSE and their web page: http://www.hse.gov.uk/work-equipment-machinery/ce-mark-summary.htm

If any of you think I have made a mistake, wish to add more information to this page or suggest another link to include to help create a good resource bank, please feel free to leave a comment below and I shall update this information!