Accreditations

13633-QMS-001

Material Applications Ltd (MA Steel) comply with the requirements for CE Marking (See explanation below) and are accredited to EXC CLASS 3, this means we can undertake projects that carry a Class 1 to 3 standard requirements. We have an internal Registered Weld Co-Ordinator (RWC) as we as having arrangements in place for external resource inspection in the form of Non Destructive Testing (NDT), as the wording below describes it has now become a legal requirement that the construction supply chain ensures they are using an accredited organisation to carry out their structural steelwork fabrication.

CE Marking (originally Conformité Européenne) demonstrates compliance with the appropriate manufacturing standard for a product. As a symbol, it will be familiar as it has been a requirement for many years on products sold in the European Union such as toys and electrical goods.

Under the Construction Products Regulation, new legal obligations have been placed on manufacturers, distributors and importers of construction products used within the EU to CE Mark their products where they are covered by either a harmonised standard or European Technical Assessment. This applies not only to constituent products (such as steel beams, bolts etc) but also to fabricated elements and systems made from both CE Marked and non-CE marked products.

In the UK, Trading Standards is the enforcement agency for non-compliance. Penalties for non-compliance include suspension notices, prohibition notices, notices to warn, and application for forfeiture. For certain offences the penalties may include a fine, imprisonment or both.

The Construction Products Regulation required the CE Marking of all construction products from 1 July 2013 and the CE Marking of fabricated structural steelwork from 1 July 2014.

The Construction Products Regulation describes the legal obligations it places on the construction supply chain in terms of ‘manufacturers’, ‘distributors’ and ‘importers’. However, the construction supply chain in the UK would normally be described in terms of clients, designers, specifiers, contractors and specialist subcontractors. The purpose of this article is to provide some guidance to the UK supply chain on the implications of the Construction Products Regulation on steel construction.

The requirements of the Construction Products Regulation and CE Marking apply to construction products used on a project irrespective of whether that project was designed to National Standards (e.g. BS 5950[2]) or to the Eurocodes.