CE marking is a familiar badge or ‘statement’ that a product complies with relevant standards and is safe to use for the intended purpose. Products without a valid CE or UKCA mark cannot be sold in the EU or UK.
If you’re a retailer who has to withdraw a non-compliant consumer product from the market, that’s an inconvenience. If you’re a construction contractor who has procured structural steelwork that isn’t CE marked for the intended execution class – that’s an altogether bigger problem to unravel.
Unfortunately, it’s a situation that happens from time to time. Typically it occurs when the procurement team chooses a lower cost option without appreciating the significance of CE marking and the relevant execution class. As a structural steelwork supplier accredited to execution class 3, FTE is then called in to help retrieve the situation.
This isn’t just about paperwork. We’re talking about ensuring the safety of people who will use the finished asset. For a public building or a bridge, for example, that’s a huge potential liability. It’s critical risk management.
Execution Classes
There are four execution classes for structural steelwork, with four being the most onerous. Without getting too deeply into the details, there are three components to the execution class: ‘consequence class,’ ‘production category’ and ‘service category.’ If you want to understand more about execution classes, head over to our information hub.
The consequence class considers risks from a structural failure or collapse. Production category considers the complexity of the fabrication. Service category considers the actions and stresses that will be imposed on the structure.
Compliance with the execution class incorporates material selection and inspection, design, process control and quality assurance. You can probably see from this why it’s not a simple matter to retrofit certification to structural steelwork that’s already fully or partially fabricated, and why appropriate certification should be a critical factor in procurement from the outset.
So while we can, and do, help out when CE marking of structural steel has been overlooked, it’s always more time and cost-efficient to choose a fabrication company certified to the appropriate execution class from the outset.
You can find out more about CE certification, as well as how FTE’s innovative intelligent integration approach could benefit your projects by accessing our free information hub.
