BENOR: QUALITY YOU CAN TRUST
Whether it has been for your public or private projects, the BENOR label has been your main quality assurance guarantee for construction materials for the past 50 years. From the raw materials to the finished product, your construction project deserves total control over quality. So always demand that the construction products used on your site are certified and that they have the BENOR label!
50 YEARS OF FIGHTING FOR QUALITY!
Driven by growing interest in quality in the construction world, the BENOR label for building products continues to enjoy increasing success with clients and developers alike, who prefer BENOR certification to other forms of advance technical inspections of the products they are about to use. Basically, people are looking for both security and simplicity. This change in mindset has enabled the constant development of the BENOR label with public and private clients alike.
Technical requirement standards (TRS) are not imposed by Belgian regulations when it comes to building materials. The same applies to the BENOR label. But what the BENOR label aims to do is meet demand from the market to obtain independent, dependable certification regarding the conformity of building products in relation to the technical specifications for the project and their specific suitability for use.
When the detailed specifications for a construction project stipulate that building products must comply with norms and technical requirement standards (TRS), the fact that products are BENOR-certified becomes a contractual obligation.
BENEFITS
- BENOR is a quality label that is well known and recognised in Belgium.
- The BENOR label is managed and monitored by all of the parties concerned: private and public clients, the producers of certified materials, developers, architects, insurers, design and project bureaux, collective research centres, inspection bodies and independent certification organisations, etc.
- BENOR provides the certainty that the building products supplied have undergone an in-depth in-house quality assurance check, supervised by an independent external inspection body.
- A BENOR product enables the project manager to focus entirely on using the products supplied.
- The quality of construction materials plays an essential role for the stability, safety and durability of building works. Material that is BENOR-certified offers all of the guarantees required in this regard.
How do you recognise materials or products that are BENOR-certified?
You’ll see the BENOR logo featured on the product itself or on the packaging, as well as on the documents accompanying delivery.
THE BENOR LICENCE
The BENOR label is owned by the Standards Bureau (NBN), which is the body responsible for the development and sale of standards in Belgium. The NBN is a public interest body, whose supervising Minister is the Federal Minister for the Economy. The NBN’s mission is set out in the Standards Act of 3rd April 2003, amended by the Act of 28th February 2013 introducing the Code of Economic Law.
The BENOR label certifies that a product or service complies with a technical quality reference framework adopted by all of the parties involved in placing that product or service on the market. Once adopted, this reference framework is detailed in a standards document called Prescriptions Techniques – Technische Voorschriften (PTV), or Technical Requirements.
The BENOR label systematically covers all of the relevant features of the product or service for its practical application and implementation by the user, whether public or private. As a result, the performances stated on the product or service will comply with the quality expectations of the sector in question, as well as its customers.
The BENOR label is managed by an independent non-profit organisation, which is the association for management of the BENOR label. This association is made up of all the stakeholders concerned by the products and services that it covers. This is regardless of whether they are public or private users, manufacturers or service-providers. It also brings together the sector-specific bodies that handle the day-to-day management and the de certification process of the label.
HOW DOES THE BENOR CERTIFICATION PROCESS WORK?
A BENOR licence is always based on the certification of products or services. This means that:
- The manufacturer of the product or the provider of the service guarantees that its product or service will continue to be compliant, based on industry or sector self-inspection.
- Based on a periodic external inspection, the certification body confirms the existence of a sufficient level of confidence in the ability of the manufacturer or service-provider to guarantee its product, providing proof by issuing a BENOR certificate for the conformity of the product or service.
The manufacturer’s production check covers the raw materials used, as well as the production process itself and the product supplied. The measuring and testing equipment for products also forms part of this check.
The aim of the period external inspection is to assess the validity and reliability of the self-inspection exercised by the manufacturer. For this purpose, samples are taken for testing in an external laboratory.
The content and organisation of the industry or sector self-inspection of the manufacturer or service-provider, as well as the external inspection and tests are described in the BENOR regulations.
Granting a licence to use the BENOR label is always accompanied by a certificate. This document features all of the relevant information about the holder of the label and the authorisation and product certified.
BENOR certifies the conformity of the products and services that it covers for the necessary requirements to reach the quality levels required, as determined by all of the parties involved in a production, construction or service process.