Certificate of Conformity

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According to the standardised terminology accepted in Russia, the certificate of conformity is the document issued in accordance with the demands of the system of certification, certifying that the properly identified product, process or service meets the specific standard or another normative document.

In the International Organisation for Standards rules and in the ISO Guide 2:1992 General Terms and Their Definitions Concerning Standartisation, Certification and Accreditation of Testing Laboratories, the meaning of the term is explained as follows: "Cetification of conformity is the operation carried out in order to confirm (by means of the certificate of conformity) that the product or service meets the specified standard or technical conditions".

According to the established rules of product certification "GOST R Certification Systems. The procedure of product certification", ratified by the Gosstandart of Russia decree of 12.09.1998 № 18, there are several schemes of certification of goods and services.

The actual schemes of certification of goods and services:

* Tests of the products on the basis of evaluating one or more samples, which are typical for these products.

** The product's liability for the test, the amount of testing and the place for selecting the samples are determined by the product certification body , considering the results of the inspection control of the certified quality system.

Schemes 1-8 are accepted in the international practice and are classified by ISO.

Schemes 1a, 2a, 3a and 4a are extra ones. They are modifications of schemes 1, 2, 3 and 4 respectively.

Schemes 9 to 10a are based on the supplier's declaration of conformity, accepted in the European Union as an element of confirmation of the product's conformity to the specified requirements.

Certification schemes 1 to 6 and 9a to 10a are used for certifying series-produced products which are issued by the manufacturer during the certificate validity period; schemes 7 to 9 are used for certifying a consignment already issued or a single product.

1. Scheme 1 is used when the volume of sales is limited and specified beforehand and will be supplied or sold within a short period of time by parcel as the products are manufactured. In the case of imported goods, scheme 1 is used when the contract is a short-term one; in the case of domestic products it is used when the production volume is limited.
2. Scheme 2 is used for imported goods when the contract is a long-term one or the series-produced goods are supplied on a regular basis with inspection control on samples from consignments imported into the Russian Federation.
3. Scheme 3 is used for products when the stability of their serial production is absolutely certain.
4. Scheme 4 is used in case of necessity for comprehensive and strict inspection control of series-produced merchandise.
5. Schemes 5 and 6 are used for certification of the following products:
• the actual amount of sampling is insufficient for the objective evaluation of the production;
• fabrication processes are sensitive to external factors;
• the demands to the stability of the products' characteristics are excessive;
• the product's lifetime is shorter than the time needed for the test in an accredited testing laboratory;
• the product's modifications change rapidly;
• the merchandise can be tested only after installation.

Scheme 6 can be used under the condition that the manufacturer has a testing system which includes controls to certify that all characteristics of the goods meet the requirements specified for certification of such goods. This should be confirmed by an extract from the survey report and quality system evaluaion.

Scheme 6 can also be used for certifying imported goods of a supplier (not manufacturer) if the supplier has a quality system certificate, if the nomenclature of the characteristics being certified and their values meet the requirements of normative documents accepted in the Russian Federation.

Schemes 7 and 8 are recommended in cases when the production or sale of the given products is a one-off (they are produced or sold as a consignment or single articles).

Schemes 9 to 10a are based on the use of declaration of conformity with enclosed documents confirming the goods' compliance with the specified requirements as a proof of conformity.

In the declaration of conformity the manufacturer/vendor, in the person of his authorised representative, declares, at his own risk, that his goods meet the specified requirements.

The declaration of conformity, signed by the director of the producer (vendor), along with enclosed documents and covering letter, is sent to the certification body.

The certification body considers the provided documents and, if needed, requests additional materials, such as consumers' complaints, results of production process checks, documents of the goods' conformity to the specified requirements given by the executive authorities operating within their competence. Concurrently, the certification body compares the sample of the goods with the provided documents.

If the results are positive, the certification body gives the certificate of conformity to the manufacturer.

Certification schemes 9 to 10a can be applied under the condition that the declarant has all the necessary documents which confirm, explicitly or implicitly, the goods' conformity to the declared requirements. If the said condition is not fulfilled, the certification body suggests that the declarant certifies his products using other certification schemes; separate proof of conformity from the provided documents can possibly be used.

These schemes are recommended to use for certification of small business products and also for certification of small non-recurrent consignments of imported and domestic goods.

• Scheme 9 is used for certification of small non-recurrent consignment of imported goods, manufactured by a company which has already approved itself on the world or Russian market as the manufacturer of high-quality goods; for certification of a single item or set of items, purchased for designated purpose of equipping domestic production or other objects, if the production forms and records are enough to prove the product's safety.
• Scheme 9a is used for certification of domestic goods, including sole traders, who have registered their activity within the legal terms, if the manufacturing of the goods is irregular and depends on market demands and inspection control is impractical.
• Schemes 10 and 10a are used for certification of goods produced in small amounts.

Schemes 1a, 2a, 3a, 4a, 9a and 10a are recommended to use instead of the respective schemes 1, 2, 3, 4, 9 and 10 if the certification body does not have any information about the possibility of production of the given goods and the stability of its characteristics, confirmed by testing.

The indispensable condition for using schemes 1a, 2a, 3a, 4a, 9a and 10a is the participation in the state of production analysis of quality system certification experts or product certification experts who have passed a course which included production analysis.

If the obligatory certification is carried out according to these schemes and the manufacturer has the quality system certificate of conformity, production condition evaluation is omitted.

If the obligatory certification is carried out according to schemes 5 or 6 and the manufacturer has the production certificate of conformity or quality system certificate of conformity (if the model is the same or more advanced than the one used when certifying the products), certification of the production or quality system is not needed.

The listed schemes are set in the rules of certification of homogeneous goods, taking into account the peculiarities of the goods and their production, handling and usage.

The specific scheme of certification for the given product is fixed by the certification body. Documentary proof of conformity which the declarant has obtained outside the certification can be used in the certification patterns, if that does not contradict the certification sytem rules. This proof can be grounds for omitting part of the inspection process.

The estimate of the possibilty of using additional documentation should take into account the particularities of the merchandise, its potential hazard, the production value and duration, the stability of the factors of production, the enterprise's reputation as regards the quality of the products being certified, the quality of the components and materials used, degree of belief for third-party evaluations, etc.

• protocols of the tests (acceptance test, periodic test, inspection test);
• sanitary-epidemiological conclusion (hygiene certificate);
• Goskomsanepidnadzor's (the Russian Centre of Sanitary Supervision and Disease Control) Territorial Service's report on the production's sanitary state;
• merchandise's fire safety certificate;
• the supplier's certificates (declarations of conformity) on the components and materials, wrapping and boxing;
• field certificate and soil quality certificate, issued by the agrochemical service;
• the regional centre for plant protection and the agrochemical service's declarations on the use of chemical affinities (fertilisers, pesticides, stimulant fertilisers, biologies, and ameliorants);
• plant quarantine service's conclusion in case the plants have undergone quarantine processing;
• veterinary health certificate;
• foreign production certificates and the supplier's quality system certificates;
• certificate of origin;
• protocols of tests in foreign laboratories;
• technical documentation (construction, technological, service, and other documentation).

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