Products covered by technical approvals are always certified to ensure that the product specified in the technical approval text corresponds with the product that is placed on the Belgian market.

In the framework of the technical approvals, product certification is an assessment and impartial attestation performed by third parties, the certification operators designated by the UBAtc, that fulfilment of the requirements specified in the technical approval text has been demonstrated.

Contrary to most other certification schemes, the continuous fulfilment of the requirements is not documented in a separate certificate, but in the technical approval text. The availability of the technical approval text on the UBAtc website presumes the fulfilment of the requirements in the technical approval text by the products placed on the Belgian market.

Given that the technical approval process starts from a risk-based case-by-case approach, the content of certification takes will vary from one technical domain to another.

For those knowledgeable of certification activities, the product certification scheme used is type 5 in accordance with NBN EN ISO/IEC 17067, i.e. it concerns

• the approval testing, accepted by the certification operator as type testing,
• initial and periodic assessment of the production process and audit of the management system, and
• periodic testing of products from point of production and of the market

The initial assessment of the production process and of the management system is normally performed during the approval process.

In some cases, ensuring that evaluating the fitness for use of products and certifying the products concerned may be considered insufficient to prevent risk on construction sites. In such cases, the approval and/or certification operator may judge it necessary to foresee additional measures, such as certification of raw materials or components, training of designers and/or of contractors, etc.