CE Wiring

[Killen]

I am banging my head against the wall trying to find someone in my area that would be interested in making some money wiring up lamps in the European Standard - CE Certified. I have spoke to several labs and they will simply not give me the name of someone they have certified. They want us to go through the certification process and wiring lamps is simply not our business.If you could help me find someone, if you could it would be most appreciated.

Thank you,

Jason

 

[dpc]

You might want to let people know where your "area" is.

Also, some information on what you mean by "lamp" might be helpful.

 

[mcgyvr]

Are you asking if someone who currently makes CE certified "lamps" will build your in-house designed product and give you a document of conformancy/CE marking simply because they hold CE marks on their similar products?

 

[Killen]

I am located in Dallas Texas. Needing CE (European Standarded) Certified wiring install.

Thank you,

Jason

 

[Killen]

Let me be a little more clear. I work for a import company. We buy and sell some lamps. We are exploring the European market, but must first find someone here in the region that has the proper certification to do so. For USA it is UL Certification, Canada CL, but for many European contries it requires a CE Certified stamp. We have our factories pre-wiring using UL Standards for our lamps currently, since most the lamps do not leave the USA. Our factory does not have the certification for CE, so we must find someone in this region to take the lamp from UL to CE standards, so we can export the lamp to Europe. I have done some reading on this - actually hours trying to hunt down someone in the area and much reading. We seem to have many test labs in the area, but they will not disclose who they have certified. They want me to bring them money and the business to this market simply does not justifiy the cost of getting certified outselves. Wiring is not our niche, so we leave that up to the professionals who have there documentation in place. Hope this help and please help!

Thank you,

Jason

 

[dpc]

...in this region...

And this would be where?

(There is a reason this is called the WORLD WIDE web)

 

[eng1ne]

Your positon is still quite unclear to me.

One doesn't need to be 'certified' to declare a product they manufacture conforms to the applicable directives.

Does your company actually manufacture the products; or simply import them?

If you import the goods, you may have work to do in persuading the manufacturer to invest in compliance if they don't already export it to Europe; unless you have enough bang as a buyer.

If what you mean is, the return from the market won't justify getting certification for your product, then don't do it.

If you manufacture the goods, you will have to invest in either having a consultancy advise you, or investing your own effort; and in addition any compulsory assessments by approved bodies if they apply. The product needs to be certified.

http://www.berr.gov.uk/whatwedo/sectors/sustainability/regulations/cemark/page11646.html

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=ce+mark

You may want to investigate the Low Voltage Directive. This is not my field and neither are International standards, but look for harmonised standards; you may find the product should, by implication, comply.

 

[VEBill]

I'm not an expert on this, but I saw something that seemed to indicate that the CE mark included much more than just wiring. For example, products (such as table or floor lamps) shouldn't topple over when subjected to a certain degree of tilt.

 

[ScottyUK]

Consider a European subscontractor. With the present exchange rates and the general shortage of work I would think you could find a company familiar with European regulations to work with. At risk of stating the obvious, it might be easiest with a UK subcontractor because the language problem is relatively small.


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If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!

 

[Killen]

To DPC: I answered the question the first time, sorry if you did not notice, but I am located in Dallas TX.

To Eng1ne: I do understand that our company does not need to be certified, we can even self-certify, but we simply do not want to do any wiring at our facility. As of now we only have a few lamps that need the CE (European Wiring). There are people out there that wiring in the European standard. We found one in Atlanta, but we would prefer to keep the business in Texas to save on freight cost or in closer states for that matter.

ScottUK: That would make the most sense, but we can not ask our factory to go through the certification process without knowing what kind of business it will bring.

 

[MacGyverS2000]

Has anyone thought to check if the UL wiring currently in place satisfies the CE requirements? If so, self-certify and be done with it.

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[Killen]

In some parts of Europe I hear UL is accepted in some areas. Like I said before, someone else can get self-certify and wire for us, but our company does not want to have that liability. I appreciate the feedback though.

 

[eng1ne]

As Macgyvers and I said earlier, look at harmonised standards. You may find the UL standards that they currently adhere to already comply with CE standards, in the majority of aspects. You will still need invest a bit of time.

"... we can not ask our factory to go through the certification process without knowing what kind of business it will bring."

You will have to pay someone and go through certification regardless of where you or they are in the world if you want to export to Europe. I would be examining the market before I even considered CE certification. You need to find out what business it will bring first!

Your reluctance and scepticism about certification and the market seem to provoke a 'quit while you're not behind' response!

 

[Killen]

Eng1ne: We will not have to pay someone to go through the certification process if they have already have been certified or have self-certified.


I do not know anything about harmonised standards, but I will do some research on it here shortly.

export.gov - will show you what countries require what markings)

 

[MacGyverS2000]

Global,

I think you're misunderstanding some of our posts. By "harmonised" standards, we mean if you're currently UL stamped, everything you need to check against to be CE-compliant may have already been taken care of by the simple fact that the design meets UL standards (therefore, the two standards are in harmony as far as your specific design is concerned).

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[Killen]

Even if UL Standards were acceptable, we need someone certified or self-certified to put their branding and mark the lamp with the CE Marking in order to export it to our client. The client we are working with is requiring it, just as we require the UL stamp from our vendors. Thank you for trying to help.

Simply put - we need someone who is CE Certified or self-certified that would like to take this stuff on.

I have heard that some UL marked items are accepted, but not for the country we are trying to get the lamp to.

 

[eng1ne]

"someone certified or self-certified" - no entity, individual or company is 'CE certified', the products they manufacture are.

"to put their branding and mark the lamp with the CE Marking in order to export it to our client." - you will make a lamp, or import a lamp, give it to another company so they can write "CE" on it and hand it back to you with a declaration of conformity?

Simply put - we need someone who is CE Certified or self-certified that would like to take this stuff on." - you also said: "To Eng1ne: I do understand that our company does not need to be certified, we can even self-certify."

Who makes the lamps? Who wires the lamps? Who is responsible for having the lamps certified to UL standards?

 

[Killen]

eng1ne: "to put their branding and mark the lamp with the CE Marking in order to export it to our client." - you will make a lamp, or import a lamp, give it to another company so they can write "CE" on it and hand it back to you with a declaration of conformity?

Global: That is correct! We have lamps wired overseas in the factory or we have someone local wire for our UL and CL markets. The company would need to be able to take it from UL to CE or the lamp will come with no wiring period and the company will need to be able to wire it (CE), place a CE marking, and give a copy of their certificate of conformity - that company will be responsible for anything that could come from a wiring related issue.

I know this is an easy process, but the business owners simply do not want to deal with any libility that could stem from a bad lamp or I woudl have laid this to sleep already. Though about doing it on the side, but conflict of interest.

eng1ne: Who makes the lamps? Who wires the lamps? Who is responsible for having the lamps certified to UL standards?

Global: The factories overseas or the Dallas local that does our UL and CL, both handle all of this.

I may just need to start a site and call it "CE Wiring for you". Maybe one day I might make it big off of this mess..

Jason

 

[eng1ne]

I'm still not sure whether 'the factories' are part of your company. Although I'm starting to get a better picture.

At what point does your company receive the lamps? As raw material, manufactured with no wiring, or as a workable lamp to relevant standards?

Someone might be able to clarify, but I'm not sure about separate companies declaring conformity to only a bit of a product.

By the way, the whole lamp needs to be certified CE, not just the wires? Like VE1BLL mentioned, it may possibly be subject to tilt tests for example.

I think you need to contact a consultant...

 

[ScottyUK]

CE mark applies to the overall assembly and takes in all manner of EU Directives depending on what the product is.


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If we learn from our mistakes I'm getting a great education!