Clearview North December 2013 - Issue 145 | Page 38

CLEARVIEW EXCLUSIVE

CEMARKING

CE MARKING – SIX MONTHS ON
Nigel Wood, Business Development Manager at SFS intec.
“In the last six months since
the CE marking legislation has
come into play, it appears that
little has changed.

‘Partnerships
could be formed’
“To say that there was such a
foray around CE marking at the
FiT Show in April - where it was
widely marketed and seminars

on the topic were very well
attended - it is surprising that the
legislation did not come in with
a bang on the 1st July. In fact,
though heavily promoted in the
press, it didn’t appear to be widely
discussed in the industry.
“Recently however, we have
heard a few fabricators state their
plans to invest in the accreditation
to manufacture emergency
escape doors. Though it is a fairly
niche market, there is a need

for this type of door solution
and naturally, the CE-marked
hardware to go with it.
“I think that in time, we’ll
see a select few fabricators take
the forward-thinking decision
to specialise in emergency exit
solutions. As a result, partnerships
could be formed and the
manufacturers that have answered
the call for CE compliant
hardware will be in it for the
taking.”

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 Marking 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

38

DEC 2013

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 watertightness 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 whe