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The CE marking on paving stones, paving slabs and kerbs

The CE marking relating to precast blocks, paving slabs and kerbs belongs to Conformity System 4. This means that the manufacturer, under its own responsibility, declares that it carries out the required product checks and production control procedures in accordance with the relevant standards and keeps all necessary records. No external body or organisation checks the correct and/or true Declaration of Conformity of the manufacturer. In practice, therefore, the CE marking cannot be applied by manufacturers of blocks, slabs and flagstones who do not maintain a testing laboratory for daily quality control with calibrated equipment from an external body or who do not send samples of their production to a notified body on a DAILY basis for laboratory testing.

What does it mean if the manufacturer of blocks, slabs, flagstones that applies the CE marking (which is an AUTHORISATION) also applies an ISO 9001 quality management system? This gives an increased assurance to the final consumer that the manufacturer is in fact applying all the procedures foreseen for the CE marking. This is because, during the annual inspection by the external accredited body that checks the implementation and compliance with ISO 9001, the supporting documentation for the CE marking is inevitably checked, since it must be integrated into the ISO 9001 quality management system!

So beware:

The CE marking is much more than a simple "piece of paper" affixed to the product by the manufacturer that "declares" that it meets the specifications and applies the European control standards! The CE marking (must) be:
1) Daily checks of the production process
2) Daily sampling checks of manufactured products
3) Most importantly, however, it is an infrastructure of product quality backed up by TEST BOOKS - RECORDS OF RESULTS - SPECIFIED LABORATORY EQUIPMENT - SPECIFIED MEASUREMENT EQUIPMENT OF THE MANUFACTURER stating its application!
In conclusion
1) The manufacturer of blocks, slabs, flagstones cannot "declare" that he applies the CE marking if he cannot prove this declaration with data and not with unverifiable documents
2) As defined by the European Standards ELOT EN 1338, 1339 and 1340, in the case where conformity testing is not carried out by an external accredited body (as in the case of these products, which belong to conformity class 4 "self-labelling") then, a sample check by the final consumer is required before acceptance of each load of product! Especially if it is a public body!

The CE marking on paving stones, paving slabs and kerbs

So beware:

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