TYPE EXAMINATION
Guide to Type Examination Services 
Type Examination is the comparison of the design specification of a product against the requirements of a standard specification, informed by physical examination of a sample and the performance of tests as may be necessary according to the particular standard.
A Type Examination Certificate makes a statement (without time limitation) which is true on the day of issue and refers to compliance of the design as specified by the certificate.
A Certification Report provides the details as to how compliance has been confirmed.
An EC-Type Examination Certificate is a specific form of Type Examination Certificate, given legal status within the framework of one or more EU Directives. Such a certificate does not necessarily provide evidence of compliance with all statutory requirements, but it does signify conformity with particular standards or requirements, and may be used as evidence towards the meeting of relevant legal requirements.
An IECEx Test Report (ExTR) fulfils the purpose of both the Type Examination Certificate and the Certification Report within the IECEx Scheme.
An IECEx Certificate of Conformity (IECEx CoC) relates to more than just the Type Examination phase as its issue status is also closely related to the production phase of the product through the Production Quality Assurance activity.
The prime activity of type examination is the collation of evidence confirming compliance with the specified standard(s). The evidence will often include the results of tests performed in our own laboratory or in another laboratory which can, probably through accreditation, demonstrate equivalent traceability, along with data sheets for material and components. Drawings, often prepared specifically for the certification exercise, are a primary source of information.
The output is a report, confirming the evidence of compliance, and a certificate, defining what has been certified. The certificate will normally be a public domain document, but the report is a confidential document between our customer and us. There will, however, be the possibility that we are required to reveal the contents of the report, and the drawings, to appropriate legal bodies (such as the European Commission in connection with EU Directives) and to our accreditors.
A Supplementary Type Examination Certificate (or Supplementary EC-Type Examination Certificate) is issued, where appropriate, to accommodate subsequent variations in the specified design. This will normally be in the form of a supplement to the original certificate, describing the permitted changes. Occasionally, as changes occur during the life of a product, the number of individual supplementary certificates may become unwieldy and it is appropriate to issue a compendium supplementary certificate, restating everything from the previous certificates that remains applicable to current production.
For IECEx, a supplementary ExTR will normally be issued (or in some cases an additional ExTR) and the relevant IECEx CoC will be amended and formally issued on the IECEx web site at the next issue level.
Type Examination and the ATEX Directive :
The process for EC-Type Examination is described in Annex III of the ATEX Directive and forms the procedural basis for all type examination work carried out by Baseefa. Type Examination, in combination with Product Verification form the basis for Unit Verification described in Annex IX of the ATEX Directive. For further information on Unit Verification, please see the Product Verification Guide (P04).
The ATEX EC-Type Examination Certificate is issued against the Essential Health and Safety Requirements (EHSRs) given in Annex II of the directive. However, compliance with those EHSRs is normally assured by compliance with one or more standards which have been published by the European standards making bodies, CEN and CENELEC. Once such a standard has been listed in the Official Journal of the European Communities (OJEC) as a Harmonised Standard, compliance with the standard may be presumed to give compliance with the EHSRs.
As an alternative to the use of Harmonised Standards, the EC-Type Examination may be issued directly against the EHSRs, but full justification must be given in the report. In practice, it is normal to follow the requirements of the harmonised standards so far as they are applicable, and to use a direct interpretation of the EHSRs only for those aspects of the design of the equipment where there are no relevant standards.
Current information on the harmonisation status of particular standards and the relationship between the Cenelec Standard and the relevant IEC Standard is available from the Baseefa web site.
The Certification Process
An Overview
The certification process is essentially an exercise in information gathering and confirming that the information demonstrates compliance with all the relevant clauses of the specified standard(s) or other form of specification.
The information may come from many sources and we, as a certifying body, are responsible for ensuring that any source used is reliable and, where necessary, has proven traceability to national standards of measurement.
Essentially the information is of three types:
The manufacturers drawings - providing detailed dimensional information, material selection information and occasionally processing information.
Material suppliers data sheets - providing information on the properties of the materials used in construction, where reference to a national or international standard is inappropriate or insufficient.
Sample test data - providing direct evidence of compliance with certain testing clauses in the construction standards.
Also critical, in most cases, is the physical process of comparing the sample with the drawings, to ensure that the drawings and sample are identical where relevant for compliance with the standards or specification. On occasion, it may be possible for us to accept a sample which differs from the drawings, but you should establish this with us before such a sample is submitted.
Manufacturers Drawings
Certification drawings are used principally by the certifying body and by the company responsible for the design of the product (referred to here as the manufacturer).
The manufacturer prepares and uses the drawings:
To record the controlled details of the certified product;
To provide a source of reference for the control of manufacturing drawings;
If the drawings are manufacturing drawings, to make the product;
To audit or inspect final product for compliance;
We use the drawings:
During examination, including comparison with a prototype or sample;
In conjunction with the certification report, to demonstrate conformity;
As a record of what has been certified;
For product surveillance activities;
To be held available for authorised third parties including accreditors (e.g. UKAS), inspecting bodies (e.g. HM Inspectorate of Mines) and legislative authorities (e.g. EU Commission).
The drawings used for certification should ideally contain only those details necessary for:
Compliance with the standard or other normative document to be demonstrated;
The conformity of subsequent production items with the certified type to be achieved.
We recommend that you consider preparing separate certification drawings which are specifically for the purpose of certification and do not necessarily give every detail required to manufacture the product. Once these drawings are listed in a certificate, they can only be modified by having a supplementary certificate issued, to permit the alteration.
Manufacturing drawings, derived from the Certificate Schedule Drawings, are referred to as Certificate Related Drawings. These drawings may be originated and/or modified under the control of a defined procedure within your organisation, without the need for our prior consent, unless the change relates to information controlled by the Schedule Drawings. If detailed manufacturing drawings are submitted for the purposes of certification, they will become subject to the same control as any other Certificate Schedule Drawing and this is not usually necessary or desirable.
The certification drawings should provide a general outline of the equipment and also concentrate on those details which are relevant to compliance with the specified standard(s). The details to be included will vary according to the emphasis of each standard.
At the completion of the certification process, once we are satisfied that the drawings contain all the relevant information to ensure that subsequent production will remain in compliance with the specified standard, the drawings are frozen at a given issue. The drawings are listed on the certificate and in the Certification Report (for IECEx in the ExTR), along with their issue and date. We supply a stamped and signed copy of each drawing along with the certificate and report.
Material Suppliers Data Sheets
Where possible, we will rely on the veracity of information contained in material suppliers data sheets, particularly where it is backed up by declarations in accordance with recognised standards. However, on occasion, the data can be critical in determining compliance with the specified standard, but the presented data is in a form which does not provide sufficient traceability. Under these circumstances, we have to reserve the right to separately verify the material characteristics.
In most cases it will be necessary to confirm that the data given relates to a clearly identifiable material type and that a change in data will result in a change in material type reference.
Test Data
We have facilities to perform the majority of tests required by the large range of standards covering equipment for use in potentially explosive atmospheres, together with many more generalised tests. These facilities are subject to accreditation by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS), demonstrating the effectiveness of the methods employed and the traceability of the measurements to national standards through a comprehensive system of instrumentation calibration. We have also been subjected to the "peer review" process of the IECEx Scheme to ensure that other laboratories and certification bodies throughout the world can have confidence in accepting our reports.
For many of the tests, the work can only be carried out by a specialist laboratory such as ours at Buxton.
For other more general tests, we would normally expect to carry out the more critical ones at our own laboratory unless there was prior agreement between us. This is particularly important for the large number of tests where subjective judgement plays a part, either in selecting the input parameters or in assessing the outcome. (Even the simple impact test requires a deal of judgement in assessing the correct point of application of the impact.) Where we do accept results from other laboratories, we have to demonstrate the equivalent traceability of all measurements. Obviously, we have to reserve the right not to accept results where we are unsure that the methods employed would give the same results as tests performed in our own laboratories. A report from another IECEx Certification Body provides the highest degree of acceptability but we will always seek clarification from the report issuer if there is anything that is not clear to us.
If you wish to submit results from your own laboratory on a regular basis, you may elect to have the facility audited by us specifically for that purpose. For further information, please contact us.
Certification Report
At the end of the certification process, we assemble evidence in the form of a report confirming how the information demonstrates compliance. Unlike some other European certification bodies, we routinely make this report available to our customers, since this represents the culmination of the work done leading to the issue of a certificate. Under some circumstances we come to an agreement with a customer that a formal report will not be prepared and that the data will remain in our files. (This option is not available for IECEx) Note that we can then make a formal report available at a later date, if required, though obviously the cost of doing so would be greater than if it were prepared at the conclusion of the certification process.
Other than for IECEx, we will not always create a Certification Report in association with Supplementary Certification, particularly where the changes are minor and do not affect compliance with the standards.
ATEX Certificate and Schedule
The complete certificate comprises a front sheet and a schedule.
The front sheet gives the relevant summary information: Certificate Number; Manufacturers Name and Address; Equipment Title; Directive, Standards or Specifications complied with; Hazardous Area Marking (in accordance with the directive and standards) if relevant; along with the date of issue and a signature on behalf of Baseefa.
The Schedule includes a brief description of the equipment, a list of the definitive drawings, any specific parameters relevant for use, and, where appropriate, a section on Special Conditions for Safe Use. This is relevant if there are conditions for use over and above those found in normal industry codes of practice for installation.
A Baseefa Certificate is regarded as being a statement of fact on the day on which it was issued and, as such, the only reason for withdrawal would normally be if that statement were subsequently found to be incorrect.
IECEx ExTR and CoC
The IECEx ExTR provides all the information that is in the ATEX Certificate, Schedule and Report. The IECEx CoC provides abbreviated information similar to the ATEX Certificate and Schedule (but without a list of drawings and documents), in addition to the current status relating to production of equipment.
Progression of Certification Work
Ideally, the documentation package you supply will contain all the information to enable us to proceed straight through the certification process in one go and issue the certificate. Inevitably, this will not always be the case. Information may be missing, or some details may need to be changed to obtain compliance with the standard.
For complex projects, it may be necessary for there to be a number of interactions between us before all the evidence has been collected to justify certification. When this happens, the final delivery date for the certification documentation is as much a function of your reactivity as our own workload. If you are not sure where we have got to in the certification process, please contact us and we will give you an update.
Test and Assessment Reports
Where certification is not required, the results of tests or assessments can be reported as a separate function.
Technical Advice Service
We have developed a wealth of knowledge of the standards, both from applying them and from taking a lead role in the British, European and International committees responsible for creating them.
We can make this knowledge available to you, to help you design your products to meet the requirements of those standards. We do this within carefully laid out guidelines which prevent us breaking the commercial confidence of our other customers, or stepping over the dividing line into design consultancy which would then prevent us acting as a certification body.
Proper targeted advice at an early stage of a project can usually save time and costs at a later stage.
If you want specific technical advice, or if you want more general training in aspects relating to our services, please contact us.
Confidentiality of Reports and Certificates
Reports (including IECEx ExTRs) are normally regarded as being confidential between you and us, although, when we provide a report in a publishable form, you are entitled to make use of it, so long as it is reproduced in its entirety and not used out of context. If you are requiring certification from overseas test houses, whether covered by a mutual recognition agreement or not, you will usually find a Baseefa Report, particularly an ExTR, to be a good starting point.
Certificates are not regarded as confidential documents, but copies required by third parties should normally be requested from the certificate holder rather than us. However, we will produce further copies when circumstances dictate it to be appropriate. You have an obligation to provide copies of certificates with supplied equipment, when requested, and an obligation to inform your customers of any Special Conditions for Safe Use given in a certificate with a number having a suffix X.
The various directives make specific provision for certain documentation to be held available for member states and the European Commission, and require that abstracted information from issued certificates is circulated on a routine basis.
We reserve the right to make that abstracted information publicly available.
Under certain circumstances we may also make the full text of certificates directly available to the public.
As the full text of every IECEx CoC is available directly on the IECEx web site, this is truly in the public domain and can be downloaded by any interested part. Note, however, that the certificate on the web site is considered the master and that any printed copy has secondary status.
Equipment intended for use in British Mines
Before electrical equipment can be used below ground in British Mines, it must comply with the relevant statutory requirements of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, and the Mines and Quarries Act 1954 and Regulations made there under, in particular with the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989, which include specific legal requirements for equipment used in mines susceptible to firedamp. Additional information is provided on our web site.
Trade Agents
It is a common commercial practice for a manufacturer to supply badged product; i.e. the product bears the name of the company to whom it has been sold by the manufacturer and who will, subsequently act as a supplier to the market. This supplier will also normally provide the market with all relevant documentation in his own name. We have procedures under both IECEx and ATEX to assist this process.
Applications for Type Examination
Contacting Us
We welcome applications for Type Examination from all customers who have registered with us. If you have not already registered, we will be happy to accept your request for registration along with your application for type examination. (Please see our Publication P01 General Information and Guide to Services.)
We provide an application form, for the use of those seeking type examination, but we will also be pleased to proceed on the basis of any written application (letter, fax, e-mail) provided that we have the information that would be obtained by the use of the form. Note that we can only accept orders signed by individuals with appropriate authority as designated on registration. We will obviously supply quotations to anyone who makes the request. The terms and conditions of our Type Examination Service, given at the end of this document, apply whether or not the form is used.
Quotations
For brand new products, we normally recommend that you ask us for a quotation. This will be supplied entirely free. We will recommend the best way to proceed with certification, including the use of our Technical Advice Service if you appear to need guidance on the way that the available standards can be applied to your product. Where the steps to completion of the certification process are reasonably clear, we will provide a fixed price quotation. Where there is still work to be done before we are ready to proceed towards certification, we will provide a firm quotation for the first phase of the work and a budget quotation for completion. Our quotation will normally offer staged payments where appropriate. Work can commence following receipt of your order confirming the acceptance of our quotation.
Direct Orders
For certain routine certifications projects where we have an agreed protocol with our customer, we will normally avoid the quotation process and accept a direct order on the basis of the agreed protocol. Our staff will discuss this with you if it appears likely to be of interest. (On this basis, we hope to maintain certification times of less than two weeks for those routine projects that do not require the provision of a testing facility.)
Other projects, such as simple supplementary certification, are also suitable for the direct order route. Should it become apparent that we cannot complete the project within a reasonable cost, we will provide an appropriate quotation, or otherwise obtain your agreement to the cost in writing before proceeding.
Provision of drawings, data and samples
The more information that we have when we provide a quotation, the more accurate it will be, so we encourage you to send drawings and data with the enquiry. Unless we ask for a sample at an earlier stage, we prefer that you wait until we have provided you with our quotation (which will specify the samples we require, together with details of any special preparation) and you have placed the order before we receive samples.
We are happy to receive documentation by e-mail and can handle anything in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format. We also have other software packages available to us (particularly for dealing with PCB artwork) so please ask if we can accommodate your native format.
Payment of Fees and Charges
We operate different payment schemes according to the amount of work placed with us by a particular customer and their payment record history.
For new customers, and for those with a poor payment history, we require most payments in advance and certainly before release of final documentation. Such customers will normally receive invoices based on the progress of individual projects.
For customers with an established good payment record, we will act as expeditiously as possible to get projects moving as soon as possible and shorter projects will often be invoiced on completion.
Customers may also elect to run a reserve account whereby the need for individual project payments is avoided and the rate at which invoices are sent depends on the rate of turnover of certification projects. We will supply a receipted invoice for each project that has been charged to the reserve account.
Terms and Conditions for Type Examination Work
1) All type examination work is subject to the General Terms and Conditions of Baseefa which are confirmed as applicable on registration. In addition, the following specific terms and conditions apply.
2) When we provide a quotation or estimate, or we accept an order for work leading to the issue of a Type Examination Certificate (or similar document), this should not be taken to imply that we will issue such a certificate. A certificate (or similar document) can only be issued once the appropriate evidence has been assembled and, in some cases, once the appropriate arrangements have been made to cover the production phase.
3) Unless subsequently clarified, work will be carried out in accordance with the standards specified at the time of application, quotation or order. Care may need to be taken in specifying options contained in the standards (for example; apparatus group, temperature classification, ATEX Category, etc. for explosion protected equipment).
4) Where an application is incomplete, or does not provide sufficient information for us to prepare a quotation, we may refer the application back to you or, at our discretion, prepare the quotation on the basis of assumptions that we will communicate back to you.
5) You may submit changes or additions at any time during the course of the type examination work. We will discuss with you the implications of such changes on the project (cost, timescale, technical compliance) and advise you of your options as to how we may proceed.
6) We wish all projects to be completed to time and on cost to the satisfaction of our customers, but we reserve the right to treat a project as withdrawn or abandoned if:
a) Within six months of the date of requesting further information drawings, data or samples they are not received; or
b) Designs or samples submitted are found to be non-compliant and revised designs or samples are not received within six months;
c) The accumulated response time in accordance with the above exceeds six months.
7) Sample equipment for testing should only be sent to us when requested, and in accordance with our specific delivery instructions.
8) We will not accept liability for loss or damage of samples during transit or storage. Some tests are potentially destructive. If destruction of a particular sample is an issue with you, please discuss with our staff.
9) At the completion of the project we will normally either return the samples to you or arrange for their destruction and disposal as requested at the time of application. You will be liable for any costs incurred in return or disposal. We reserve the right to retain individual samples, but will normally only do so with your agreement.
10) Certificates are issued in the name of the Certificate Holder. This will normally be the manufacturer and, in any event will be the body responsible for controlling the design. Where the manufacturer does not control the design and does not have the certificate issued in their name, special provisions will apply. You must make clear to us the relationship between design and manufacture.
11) A Certificate Holder may apply to have documentation issued in the name of a Trade Agent. Please see separate information.
12) Copies of certificates and their schedules shall be made available on request to all purchasers of certified equipment.
13) The front page of a certificate shall be accompanied by the full schedule of the certificate and shall not be supplied or displayed in isolation.
14) Where certification documents contain Special Conditions for Safe Use, normally identified by a suffix X to the certificate number, all such specific information must be made available to purchasers of the equipment.
15) Ownership of the certificate remains with Baseefa and we may withdraw a certificate if:
a) It is discovered that it should not have been issued (either through false information provided to us, or through our own error).
b) You fail to abide by these terms and condition, or misuse the certificate in any way.
c) The certificate includes provision for the use of a production mark (particularly those issued under the Explosive Atmospheres Directive 76/117/EEC or the Gassy Mines Directive 82/130/EEC), and the conditions applicable to the use of the production mark are no longer being met.
16) You may not transfer the certificate from one company to another without the express permission of Baseefa and without instituting the related control procedures.
17) You must retain the certificate and associated documents for your future reference and, where relevant, for inspection by us or any other body responsible for supervision of production. Certain legislation, for example the ATEX Directive, places a legal requirement on you to retain these documents for a stated period (normally ten years) after the last production.
18) We will retain copies of the documents as a Technical File for a defined period in accordance with our service for retention and storage of technical files.
19) Applications for supplementary certification should include a description of the relevant change or addition to the equipment. Baseefa will not necessarily check all details on accompanying documentation to seek out further changes, but will rely on the description provided by the applicant. Any changes that have not been disclosed are not considered to have been covered by any subsequent certification.
20) Baseefa Certificates bearing the crown and tick logo relating to national accreditation of certification bodies by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) indicate that the work leading to the issue of that certificate has been done in accordance with the accreditation of Baseefa by UKAS. It should not be construed that the product, system or device to which that certificate relates has been approved by UKAS.
21) Our acceptance of a drawing showing marking detail which includes the European Community CE Marking should not be construed as confirmation that we have given permission for the CE Marking to be applied to any particular item of equipment. Applying the CE Marking remains the responsibility of the manufacturer in accordance with the appropriate EU legislation.
22) We reserve the right to publish summary information on certificates issued and withdrawn. |
