1. Project Background

With the acceleration of global economic integration, the demand for daily small home appliances in the market is increasingly strong, and export trade has become an important development direction for many manufacturers. However, the EU and the US, as the world's major home appliance consumer markets, have established strict technical regulations and standard systems, such as the EU's CE certification, RoHS directive, REACH regulation, and the US's UL certification, FCC certification, etc. These certification requirements cover product safety, electromagnetic compatibility, environmental protection and other aspects, becoming the "threshold" for daily small home appliance manufacturers to enter the EU and US markets.

The customer in this case is a manufacturer specializing in the production of daily small home appliances such as rice cookers, coffee machines, and hair dryers, with many years of production experience and a stable domestic market share. To expand its international business, the customer plans to export its products to the EU and US markets, but faces many problems such as unfamiliarity with EU and US certification standards, insufficient independent testing capabilities, and complex certification processes. It urgently needs a professional testing service company to provide a comprehensive inspection and certification solution.

2. Project Objectives

To help the customer's main products such as rice cookers, coffee machines, and hair dryers successfully pass the relevant inspection and certification in the EU and US, obtain the necessary "passport" for entering the EU and US markets, ensure that the products meet the technical regulations and standard requirements of the EU and US markets, reduce export risks, and enhance the competitiveness of the products in the international market.

3. Inspection and Certification Project Plan

3.1 EU Inspection and Certification Projects

• CE Certification: This is a mandatory certification for products to enter the EU market. We will conduct tests in accordance with the corresponding harmonized standards based on the characteristics of different products. For rice cookers and coffee machines, the tests are mainly based on EN 60335-1 (Safety of household and similar electrical appliances - Part 1: General requirements) and EN 60335-2-15 (Safety of household and similar electrical appliances - Part 2: Particular requirements for kitchen machines); for hair dryers, the tests are based on EN 60335-1 and EN 60335-2-23 (Safety of household and similar electrical appliances - Part 2: Particular requirements for personal care appliances). The test contents include electrical safety (such as protection against electric shock, insulation resistance, leakage current, dielectric strength, etc.), mechanical safety (such as structural strength, protective devices, etc.), thermal safety (such as temperature rise limits, fire performance, etc.).

• RoHS Directive: Restricts the use of certain hazardous chemical substances in electrical and electronic products. We will test the hazardous substances such as lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, polybrominated biphenyls (PBBs), polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in the products in accordance with the IEC 62321 standard to ensure that the products meet the requirements of RoHS 2.0.

• REACH Regulation: Requires enterprises to register, evaluate, authorize and restrict the chemical substances contained in their products. We will assist the customer in the investigation and testing of chemical substances in the products to ensure that the products do not contain substances restricted in Annex XVII of the REACH Regulation, and notify the substances of very high concern (SVHC) that exceed a certain concentration threshold.

3.2 US Inspection and Certification Projects

• UL Certification: It is one of the most authoritative safety certifications in the US and an important guarantee for products to enter the US market. For rice cookers and coffee machines, tests will be conducted in accordance with UL 60335-1 and UL 60335-2-15 standards; for hair dryers, tests are based on UL 60335-1 and UL 60335-2-23 standards. The test items include electrical safety, mechanical safety, fire safety, etc., which have different focuses from CE certification tests but are equally strict.

• FCC Certification: Covers more than 50 states in the US, Colombia, and areas under US jurisdiction. It is a mandatory certification required by the US Federal Communications Commission for imported and domestic radio communication products. For small home appliance products with wireless functions (such as some smart rice cookers and coffee machines), FCC certification is required to test whether their electromagnetic radiation meets the specified limits to avoid interfering with other electronic devices.

• FDA Certification: For small home appliance components that come into contact with food, such as the inner pot of rice cookers and the brewing components of coffee machines, they need to meet the relevant requirements of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). We will test these food-contact materials to ensure that they do not contaminate food and comply with the provisions of FDA CFR 21.

4. Project Implementation Process

4.1 Pre-consultation and Program Customization

Our professional team had in-depth communication with the customer, and detailedly understood the customer's product types, technical parameters, export target markets and other information. According to the customer's needs and combined with the latest regulations and standards of the EU and US, we customized a comprehensive inspection and certification plan for the customer, and explained the process, cycle and cost of various certifications in detail to the customer, and answered the customer's questions.

4.2 Sample Testing and Rectification

The customer provided representative product samples according to our requirements, and our laboratory conducted comprehensive tests on the samples in accordance with the established standards and plans. During the testing process, we timely fed back the testing progress and preliminary results to the customer. For the non-conformities found in the tests, our technical engineers worked closely with the customer's R&D team to analyze the causes of the problems and provide professional rectification suggestions. After the customer adjusted and improved the products according to the rectification suggestions, we conducted a re-inspection of the samples until the products met the relevant standard requirements.

4.3 Certification Application and Certificate Acquisition

After the samples passed the tests, we assisted the customer in preparing various certification application materials, including product technical documents, test reports, application forms, etc., and submitted the certification applications to the relevant certification bodies. During the audit process of the certification bodies, we actively cooperated and timely provided the required supplementary materials to ensure the smooth progress of the audit. After strict audit by the certification bodies, the customer's products successfully obtained a series of necessary certification documents for export, such as EU CE certification, RoHS directive compliance statement, REACH regulation compliance report, and US UL certification, FCC certification, FDA relevant test reports.

5. Project Achievements

• The customer's rice cookers, coffee machines, hair dryers and other products successfully passed various inspection and certification in the EU and US, and successfully obtained the "passport" for entering the EU and US markets, clearing the technical obstacles for product export.

• Through this inspection and certification project, the quality of the customer's products has been effectively improved, and the safety, reliability and environmental protection of the products are in line with international advanced standards, which has enhanced the competitiveness of the products in the international market and laid a solid foundation for the customer to expand the EU and US markets. According to customer feedback, after the products were exported to the EU and US markets, they were recognized and welcomed by local consumers, and the export orders gradually increased.

• Our professional and efficient service has been highly praised by the customer. The customer has established a long-term cooperative relationship with us and will continue to entrust us with the inspection and certification work of other new products in the future.

6. Our Advantages

• Professional Team: We have a professional team composed of senior engineers and technical experts, who are familiar with various technical regulations and standards of the EU and US, have rich experience in inspection and certification, and can provide customers with professional technical support and solutions.

• Advanced Laboratory: Equipped with internationally advanced testing equipment and instruments, the laboratory has obtained CNAS accreditation, and can conduct various testing items in accordance with international standards to ensure the accuracy and reliability of test results.

• Efficient Service: With a complete project management process and rich resources of certification bodies, we can provide customers with one-stop inspection and certification services, shorten the certification cycle, improve certification efficiency, and help customers obtain certification certificates as soon as possible.

• Full-process Tracking: From pre-consultation, program customization to sample testing, rectification, certification application and certificate acquisition, we will provide full-process tracking services, and timely feed back the project progress to customers to ensure that customers understand every link of the project.

If you are also a daily small home appliance manufacturer facing inspection and certification problems when exporting to the EU or US, please feel free to contact us. We will provide you with professional and comprehensive inspection and certification services to help your products successfully explore the international market!