SGS 1st Certified Testing Lab in Shanghai

May 23, 2011  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in on May 24, 2011 The Shanghai lab of SGS North America has become the first Chinese testing facility certified by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to provide crib safety testing services for compliance with new CPSC rules that go into effect in June.

The accreditation provides local testing resources for Chinese factories that produce full-size and/or non-full-size cribs that will be sold in the U.S.

The CPSC regulations were enacted in response to a recall of more than 11 million, drop-side cribs since 2007.  At least 32 infant suffocation and strangulation deaths have been associated with detaching drop-side rails since 2000, and there have also been additional deaths related to faulty or defective hardware.

The new 16 CFR 1219 and 16 CFR 1220 federal standards address the safety issue by prohibiting the manufacture or sale of traditional drop-side rail cribs, strengthening crib slats and mattress supports, improving hardware quality, and requiring more rigorous testing. The new standards apply to all cribs manufactured in or imported to the U.S. on or after June 28.

Under the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008, compliance must be certified by the manufacturer, importer or private labeler of record based on testing performed by an approved third-party conformity assessment body.

€œA large percentage of cribs sold in the U.S. are manufactured in China," said Piyush Shah, toy and juvenile products lab manager of SGS North American Consumer Testing Services. "With the new CPSC crib standards, having testing services near the point of manufacture is going to be essential in order to avoid delays in getting new models to market. Our Shanghai lab has all of the equipment and instrumentation in place to provide these services immediately.€

SGS Shanghai is the first of several company labs that will be offering crib testing for compliance with the new CPSC standards worldwide. Certification of the Shanghai facility for crib testing is also part of a major global initiative on juvenile products testing that was announced earlier this month.

In the U.S., the company€™s facility in Fairfield, N.J., has expanded its services to provide safety testing for compliance with 20 current ASTM standards covering juvenile products from baby bouncers and booster seats to toddler beds and toy chests.

Overseas, the company is also preparing to add or expand juvenile products testing services at lab locations including Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Taiwan, France and the United Kingdom as well as Shanghai.