Product Certification

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Product Certification

About Product Certification

Product Certification or Product Qualification is the process of certifying that a certain product has passed performance tests and quality assurance tests, and meets qualification criteria stipulated in contracts, regulations, or specifications, typically called “certification schemes” in the product certification industry.

Most product certification bodies (or product certifies) are accredited to or aligned with ISO/IEC 17065 Conformity assessment — Requirements for bodies certifying products, processes and services

Certification Marks and Listing

Certified products are typically endorsed with a certification mark provided by the product certifier. Issuance of a certification mark is at the discretion of the individual product certifier. ISO Guide 65 does not require the product certifier to offer a certification mark in the event that a certificate is offered. When certification marks are issued and used on products, they are usually easy to see and enable users to track down the certification listings to determine the criteria that the product meets, and whether or not the listing is still active.

PROCESS FOR PRODUCT CERTIFICATION

Application including testing of the product – In many instances, prior to applying for certification, a product supplier will send a product to a testing laboratory. When the product to be certified is received at the testing laboratory, it is tested in accordance with the laboratory’s internal procedures and with the methods listed in the test standards specified by the certification scheme.
Evaluation – It is evaluated, does the test data indicate that the product meets qualification criteria.
Decision – The product certifier then reviews the product supplier’s application information, including the testing data. If the certifier’s evaluation concludes that the test data shows that the product meets all required criteria as listed in the certification scheme, and the decision maker(s) of the product certifier concur with the evaluation, then the product is deemed “certified”.
Surveillance – Certification bodies may require product suppliers to perform some sort of surveillance activity, such as pulling sample products from the marketplace for testing, in order to maintain their “listed” or “certified” status.