Certification – a process of conformity assessment of products or services, regulatory requirements. In most cases we are talking about the requirements for quality and safety. Certification takes its origin in ancient Greece. It was from there we know the first case of certification – certification of building columns made of bronze (standards were first introduced). Certification is divided into obligatory and voluntary.

In principle, the difference inherent in the title. Mandatory certification involves testing of safety requirements, and voluntary certification – requirements for quality (usually). In fact, a bit more complicated. In Russia there are more than 130 certification systems. Among them are voluntary and mandatory, and mixed. But faced with the need to get as many certificates to one type of product is impossible. Of all the certification schemes should be allocated gost R fire certification, certification of conformity, hygienic certification and others.

The process of obtaining a certificate is almost the same in all systems of certification. It all begins with the filing by the applicant (customer certification process). Typically, the certification process is preceded by consultation with expert certification, as few manufacturers able to immediately determine the certification scheme, for which he needs to get certificate. After filing the certification body makes a decision on the application. That's it (along with internal purchase orders) is the basis for certification testing. Depending on the certification scheme assessment of production and by sampling. The samples are sent to the testing laboratory, which establishes the compliance requirements of the samples. According to the results of laboratory tests prepares a test report. Based on the test and the act of production expert evaluation of the certification authority shall decide on issuing the certificate (or a reasoned refusal). It is very important to understand that the issuance of motivated refusal to grant a certificate of previous work which were not different from the amount of work done by the successful issuance of the certificate. Thus, the manufacturer may pay the cost of certification, but did not receive a certificate. In this case, you should not submit the certification authority claims like 'well, we will pay you money! where our certificate? " It is also worth to note that there are now more Declaration of Conformity (instead of certificates). In the case of the declaration of the applicant itself provides proof of product compliance. However, a declaration can only be obtained by determining the list products.