Recently, Certification and Accreditation Administration of China (CNCA) issued the “Proclamation of SAMR and CNCA on Reforming and Adjusting the China Compulsory Certification Directory and its Implementation Mode”, making clear that aerosol fire extinguishing devices (“aerosol”) are no longer subject to China Compulsory Certification (3C), making it the only fire protection product to be removed from the certification directory.
First of all, let’s briefly introduce the relation between product inspection report and product certification: inspection reports are only responsible for products submitted for inspection and have little relevance to actual production and are not validly binding. The State uses the certification system to prevent products submitted for inspection from being inconsistent with actual production, and products certified are subject to onsite supervisory inspection or spot check at factory or construction site at least once every 12 months (the inspection frequency may be appropriately relaxed when a certain category is reached) in order to ensure consistency between product manufacturing and certification of products submitted for inspection.
According to China’s Regulations on Compulsory Product Certification, in order to protect national security, prevent frauds, protect human health or safety, protect life or health of animals and plants and protect environment, the national regulations provide that related products are subject to certification (China compulsory certification) and may not be shipped, sold, imported or used in other business activities until after being marked for certification. Certifications related to firefighting equipment mainly include China Compulsory Certification (3C), voluntary product certification and product technology appraisal, which basically cover all firefighting equipment, with the sole exception of aerosol. The fact that aerosol was removed from the certification direction is mostly likely due to defects in products (such as production dangers or secondary risk after ejection).
In fact, we all know that aerosol has evolved through three generations, the first two of which were put out of use due to tremendous secondary damages (corrosion-caused equipment scrapping, and fire caused by high temperatures at nozzles). The third-generation aerosol is less corrosive due to increased strontium salt content and reduced potassium content, but its fight extinguishing efficiency has been remarkably reduced and extinguishing agent usage increased, in addition to corrosiveness and high-temperature ejection. A glimpse of developed markets abroad suggests that fire product vendors will actively seek related certifications despite the dominance of private certification agencies (such as FM and UL in the US, LPCB in the UK and VDS in Germany), and that fire products without endorsement of certification would be unsellable on markets.
In summary, we can predict that aerosol without certification or effective regulatory control will surely be given up by markets and gradually disappear from markets.
