Rogue manufacturers operating in the ventilation and aircon sector are deliberately duping customers by testing and certifying one product but supplying another one.
“Our problem is that some manufacturers bring us a sample to test. This gets tested and certified but then they go and sell something completely different,” said Niall Rowan, EU product standard coordinator for Warrington Fire Research.
“However, we have a surveillance system in place to monitor this. We send an auditor to factories to make sure that the manufacturer is making products to the exact same specifications as the original product tested, and this can be traced.”
The allegations are supported by manufacturers within the sector. They say the abuse of certification schemes is rife in the Middle East, and they claim that manufacturers outsourcing production away from their home country could be compromising safety standards.
The issue is particularly prominent in the ventilation and aircon market, which is riddled with poor quality products, according to Giovanni Vincenti, managing director of Italian duct technology firm, Pal International.
“Some companies have their products made in cheaper markets according to what they believe to be the standard specified in their home countries,” he said.
“Competition is so stiff that manufacturers shop around the world to buy the cheapest possible chemical — be it from China, Korea or Japan,” he said.
“But the trickiest thing today is testing and certification. Products made according to the British standard were once deemed to be of the highest quality — it was a guarantee based on the oldest system in the world.
“But the growth in the number of certification bodies over the years has left the system open to abuse by some manufacturers,” he added.
“Some manufacturers will get a sample product made and tested to British standards, but then go and sell a cheaply made, sub-standard product.
“For example, sometimes panels sent to testing laboratories are covered in aluminium tape, so that the results of the amount of smoke generated from them when burned are minimal. But this doesn’t reflect the genuine product, just the one that’s given to the laboratories.”
Pal International’s products are tested and certified by Underwriters Laboratories, which is based in the US.
“They carry out about 18 different tests on the product so it is very comprehensive. If you get UL-listed they send assessors to your factory about four times a year to carry out spot checks, said Vincenti.
“If you fail once, they give you a warning to revert to the quality standard at which the product was certified. If you fail again, they’ll take the certification away from you.”
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