SEC(LOVAG)04.015, March 2004

LOVAG CERTIFICATION SCHEME

1) GENERALITIES

• The certification scheme is the whole of the regulations on the basis of which the certificate of conformity with the referred Standards is issued, maintained, suspended or withdrawn.
• LOVAG scheme complies with the Standards EN 45011 / ISO/IEC Guide 65 “General requirements for bodies operating product certification systems” and with the LOVAG Agreement and LOVAG Rules.
• A LOVAG Certificate is a Certificate of conformity to IEC or EN Standards issued by one of the signatories under the LOVAG mutual recognition agreement between the signatories (from now on named LCB=LOVAG Certification Body)
• The LOVAG certificate can be issued by a LOVAG member for low voltage electrical apparatus for industrial purpose.
• The LCBs are listed in the web site LOVAG www.lovag.net
• LOVAG certificate is a type testing certificate according to EN 45011 - paragraph 1.2 a) and b)
• The certificates of conformity issued by LOVAG members certify that the tested sample complies with the relevant European or international Standards or with a test sequence of these Standards.
  The responsibility for conformity of any apparatus having the same designation with that tested rests with the manufacturer or responsible vendor.

2) PRODUCTS AND PERFORMANCES SUBJECT TO CERTIFICATION

A LOVAG certificate may be issued for:

1. a single product
2. an homogeneous product series, that is products having the fundamental parts in common and differing in some components only (e.g. a series of identical circuit breakers with different releases).

A LOVAG certificate may be issued for tests to:

1. the complete standard
2. compliance sequence(s), if any, as defined in a standard.
3. an individual requirement not included in a sequence, if any mentioned in a standard

A LOVAG certificate of supplementary tests may be issued for:

extending the applicability of an existing LOVAG certificate. This certificate is issued for apparatus on which successful supplementary tests have been conducted in accordance with the relevant IEC or EN standard to verify an additional rating feature or characteristic.

A LOVAG certificate can be issued for the products which - according to the Manufacturer’s declaration - differ for the brand name only, by performing the tests on one of them only, making visual comparison checks between them and issuing for each of them a certificate.

3) REQUIREMENTS OF CERTIFICATION APPLICANTS

• A LOVAG certificate may be issued to a manufacturer or a responsible vendor.
• If the applicant is neither the manufacturer nor the responsible vendor of the product to be certified, he shall be given by one of them a written authorisation and he must have a legal entity.
• The applicant shall have all the necessary documentation for the recognition of the product subject to the certification.
• The applicant is the direct interlocutor of the LCB during the certification process.

4) CERTIFICATION PROCEDURE

4.1 Certification application

The application shall be made to the LCB.
The manufacturer and the responsible vendor (if different from the manufacturer) shall always be made known to the LCB.

4.2 LOVAG registered laboratories

The certificates are issued on the basis of tests carried out in laboratories registered by LOVAG, complying with the Standards ISO/IEC 17025 and performing tests according to LOVAG rules. They are identified in the certificate with the LOVAG code.
LCB, after checking the application, appoints, in agreement with the applicant, the laboratory which operates on its behalf.

4.3 Test procedure and test report

The tests are carried out in compliance with the LOVAG test instructions and recorded by the LOVAG test report forms.
The sample under test must be representative of the production.
The LCB verifies the correspondence of the samples to the recognition documents;
They must be kept and must be available for examination by the LCB.

An observer, responsible towards the LCB, staff of the laboratory, witnesses the tests in order to insure that they are performed in accordance with LOVAG requirements, LCB carries out the supervision.
The LCB shall reserve the right, for justified reasons, to witness the repeat of any test prior to the issuing of a certificate.

5) USE OF CERTIFICATES

The applicant shall guarantee a correct use of the certificate and, in particular, he:

• shall distribute only integral reproduction of the Certificate or reproductions of the front page accompanied by any page(s) on which are stated the tests performed and the assigned rated characteristics of the apparatus tested.
• shall not use it to certify compliance with the Standards of products different from the tested one. Exception is made for products with declared differences, which are not relevant for their performances.

6) SURVEILLANCE ON THE USE OF THE CERTIFICATES

The LCB shall reserve the right to ask information on the use of the certificates to verify the compliance with the prescriptions of clause 5.

7) SUSPENDING AND CANCELLATION OF THE CERTIFICATE

The LCB shall reserve the right of suspending the certificate, that is to prohibit temporarily its use, when it is verified that the applicant has not complied with the conditions established at clause 5).

The LCB shall reserve the right of cancelling the certificate if further investigations and relations with the applicant after the suspension should not lead to adequate corrective measures.

8) CLAIMS

The applicant can appeal against the decisions of not issue, suspension and cancellation of the certificates making a written request to the LCB within 30 days from the notification of the decision.

CONFIDENTIALITY

The LCB guarantees to the Applicant the confidentiality of the information on the products object of the certification and on the relevant documentation.