Important: GS Certification Update
According to recent updates by the ZLS, there are 2 significant clarifications for factory inspection requirements and the usage of CB reports for GS certificates. Please find the details below:
CB Report to GS Certificate
In the document of FAQ 10-04 published on the ZLS homepage http://www.zls-muenchen.de, the regulation states GS Certification Bodies are not allow to accept CB test reports from manufacturers or other laboratories for predominate part of tests to grant GS certificates. GS Certification Bodies, like Bontek, has to carry out the predominate part of the required tests by itself or assign suborders.
The only exception of transfer of test reports are from one GS Certification Body to another. Even between GS Certification Bodies, they are strictly required to evaluate and process the transferred files before granting the GS mark and to decide if further tests are appropriate.
GS Inspection
In the document of FAQ 10-02 published on the ZLS homepage http://www.zls-muenchen.de, the regulation for the maximum validity of factory inspection reports (FI-reports), used in conjunction with granting of the GS-mark, is specified. A FI-report used for a new or based on technical changes updated certificate shall not be older than 6 months. This implication may effect the inspection in various situations such as:
Scenario 1 - New certifications without previous inspection
Pre-license Factory Inspection must have been completed no longer than 6 months prior to the issue date of a new GS certificate. Certification body will define the interval of Follow-up Inspection, usually every 12 months.
Scenario 2 - New, technical update or re-issue certifications with previous inspections
For each new, technical update or re-issue certificate, Pre-license Factory Inspection is required as with any new certificate but if a Follow-up Inspection was completed in the last 6 months of issue date and is for the same product category and without findings, then the Pre-license Factory Inspection can be omitted.
A pre-licence inspection report can be accepted up to 12 months if the same product was inspected.
Scenario 3 - Certification Update with only administrative changes
For OEM certificates and updated certificates that are without any technical changes to the product, no additional inspection is required even if the last inspection was completed more than 6 months ago. However the referenced Follow-up Inspection Report shall not be older than 12 months and shall be for the same product category and without findings.
This update is released by ZLS and is applicable to all GS certifications regardless of which certification body you have it with. If you have any additional enquiries, please feel free to contact our office for more information.
