EN14351: CEN Solutions Bites Back

We are pleased that the subject of EN 14351 has finally come out in the open and would very much like to respond to the comments made by Giles Willson of the GGF in last weeks Glazine, in regard to our article of the previous week.

We will try and do this in as professional a manner as possible as he is presumably even more upset with our follow up article published further down the Glazine last week.

We were fortunate to be at a meeting with Andre Piers of TNO when this surfaced last Tuesday. Andre Piers is the Chairman of SG09 (the Sector Group of Notified Bodies with responsibility for Glass) and is very knowledgeable with all these standards i.e. EN 1279, EN 12150 and EN 14351. We showed him copies of both of our articles.

He did not contradict any part of either article and was in broad agreement with both the content as well as the sentiments expressed. BM Trada has also already commended us for bringing this subject out into the open.

We made it clear in the article that 'it should be well known that CE Marking is not compulsory in the UK', but emphasised that was only part of the story. Andre Piers understands the UK situation and states, 'that for the local [UK] market the CE mark is not a mandatory requirement and thus the status and meaning of the annex ZA [which establishes the conditions for CE Marking of Windows & Doorsets] is unclear and could create confusion.

However the UK has to comply with the Construction Products Directive as any other member state. In the CPD the rules on the assessment of a national standards equivalence to an EN Standard is an option [provided the correct process is followed] and is documented (see block text, article 4 of CPD). The question is has this been done for the EN 14351-1 versus the current BS? If so, then the BS could still be used next to the EN14351-1 on an equal basis. No publications have been found however, that this is currently the case'.

Also we are fully aware of the legal processes concerned with the policing of EN 1279 by Trading Standards. By stating that they 'have powers to apply for custodial sentences ...' in no way should that be interpreted that they hand out the sentences; and they then obviously apply to the Court for guilt and sentences to be decided.

We therefore retract nothing of what was said, the vast majority of Window Fabricators will have to comply with one standard and one standard alone; EN 14351. We believe that the European and current publicly available British standards on the same intended uses conflict, Giles believes they are complementary. We disagree as people do. However, all this talk of other standards being developed or republished will mean that every fabricator would not only have to purchase a whole series of standards at vast expense but then try and disseminate the relevant information in time for February 1st next year.

This would be a mind boggling task for even the most experienced quality professional. Of course, you could wait for the GGF bulletin to come out (but you probably have to be a member to get hold of it). However, we could do that for you as we, you may be surprised to know, are members of the GGF which Giles purports to represent.

As we have already said, EN 14351 is the standard you have to comply with. To comply you have to satisfy the three clauses which, strangely, is one thing we seem to agree on. Tying all this together is of course, the FPC, the Factory Production Control system, completely ignored by Giles in his response. EN 14351 states that the fabricator shall establish, document and maintain an FPC system.

Now, I remember from my auditor training for ISO 9001.2000 that when working with a standard that you have to comply with and it states 'shall', you have to do it. Not, at some point in the dim and distant future, or when you have a few minutes to get round to it, but it has to be in place and satisfying all the requirements before you can issue a true Declaration of Conformity.

Article 13 of CPD (reproduced below) also confirms that an FPC system must be implemented by window fabricators. We already have considerable experience of offering practical FPC solutions to comply with EN 1279 and EN 12150, and a similar model, tried and tested; will be used for EN 14351.

So, when it comes to choosing the route to go down for EN 14351 compliance, I know the way I would go (and no Giles, this is not touting for business as there is no way we or any other organisation would have the capability of satisfying the enormous demand that is inevitably going to arise before 1st February 2009).

D H Frost; M G Gaillard; W R Rogerson CENSolutions Ltd

BLOCK TEXT, CPD:

CHAPTER V Attestation of conformity
Article 13

1. The manufacturer, or his agent established in the Community, shall be responsible for the attestation that products are in conformity with the requirements of a technical specification within the meaning of Article 4.

2. Products that are the subject of an attestation of conformity shall benefit from the presumption of conformity with technical specifications within the meaning of Article 4. Conformity shall be established by means of testing or other evidence on the basis of the technical specifications in accordance with Annex III.

3. The attestation of conformity of a product is dependent on:

(a) The manufacturer having a factory production control system to ensure that production conforms with the relevant technical specifications; or

(b) For particular products indicated in the relevant technical specifications, in addition to a factory production control system, an approved certification body being involved in assessment and surveillance of the production control or of the product itself.

4. The choice of the procedure within the meaning of paragraph 3 for a given product or family of products shall be specified by the Commission, after consultation of the committee referred to in Article 19, according to:

(a) The importance of the part played by the product with respect to the essential requirements, in particular those relating to health and safety;

(b) The nature of the product;

(c) The effect of the variability of the product's characteristics on its serviceability;

(d) The susceptibility to defects in the product manufacture; in accordance with the particulars set out in Annex III.

In each case, the least onerous possible procedure consistent with safety shall be chosen. The procedure thus determined shall be indicated in the mandates and in the technical specifications or in the publication thereof.

5. In the case of individual (and non-series) production, a declaration of conformity in accordance with Annex III (2) (ii), third possibility, shall suffice, unless otherwise provided by the technical specifications for products which have particularly important implications for health and safety.

Article 4 of CPD states the following for national standards to be declared to be equivalent to harmonized standards:

3. Member States may communicate to the Commission the texts of their national technical specifications which they regard as complying with the essential requirements referred to in Article 3. The Commission shall forward these national technical specifications forthwith to the other Member States. In accordance with the procedure provided for in Article 5 (2), it shall notify the Member States of those national technical specifications in respect of which there is presumption of conformity with the essential requirements referred to in Article 3.This procedure will be initiated and managed by the Commission in consultation with the committee referred to in Article 19.
Member States shall publish the references to these technical specifications. The Commission shall also publish them in the Official Journal of the European Communities