Voluntary certification programmes offered by FIW München

Voluntary certification schemes developed by FIW München offer the possibility to obtain additional certification for properties or performances of a construction product that cannot be declared according to a European product standard (in contrast to the KEYMARK). They can be tailored individually in terms of the scope of testing and the implementation of certification (e.g. implementation of product sampling or certificate creation), allowing requirements from national application rules or bilateral agreements from manufacturers and customers to be taken into account.

As in the past (during the era of national technical approvals - Zulassungen), manufacturers of thermal insulation products are able to demonstrate to the planner, building contractor or end customer that inspections of the manufacturing plant, the manufacturer's laboratory as well as the annual random sample testing and confirmation of usability have been carried out. In addition, they also receive quasi automatically test results from a notified testing laboratory, which assist with the extension of a national approval for application (Bauartgenehmigung) that might be required.

Voluntary certification schemes run by FIW München always require product certification, which means regular testing of all the relevant properties on one and the same product sampled during a factory inspection. Twice-yearly auditing of the factory production control (FPC) is just as much a part of the programmes as the transparent and consistent procedure of certification with the issuing of certificates and their revocation in case of repeated non-compliances.

FIW München's certification body is accredited according to EN 17065 by the DAkkS (German accreditation association) to carry out certification in accordance with voluntary certification schemes. FIW München has been developing and operating certification schemes since 2015 and offered the following ten schemes for different products and requirements in 2020:

Certification scheme for ETICS insulation materials made of expanded polystyrene (EPS)
Extended certification scheme for ETICS insulation materials made of expanded polystyrene (EPS)
Certification scheme for ETICS insulation materials made of mineral wool (MW)
Certification scheme for ETICS insulation materials made of polyurethane foam (PU)
Certification scheme for ETICS insulation materials made of wood wool (WW)
Certification scheme for ETICS insulation materials made of phenolic foam (PF)
Certification scheme for thermal insulation materials for buildings made of polyurethane (PU)
Certification scheme for insulation boards made of extruded polystyrene foam (XPS) as thermal insulation outside the waterproofing layer of buildings
Certification scheme for insulation boards made of expanded polystyrene foam (EPS) as thermal insulation outside the waterproofing layer of buildings
Certification program for insulation boards made of cellular glass (CG) as load-bearing layer and thermal insulation outside the waterproofing layer of buildings

Are you intereseted in your own product coordinated certification programme or have you got questions to the consisting certification programme? Wie gladly expect your request.

Herr Claus Karrer

Phone.		+49 89 85800-49
Mobile:		+49 174 23 15 194
Email:		karrer@fiw-muenchen.de

The Q-mark

The Q-mark is a registered European certification mark which demonstrates that an insulation product has been extensively certified and is reliable.

The Q-mark is a registered european certification mark, which demonstrates the extensive certification and the reliablity of a insulation material. The Q-mark is regristered as a certification mark at the EUPIO, the european office for protection of intellectional property, which can be viewed here. Details to the awarding and the accompanying obligations for the user are regulated in a statute. This always refers to rules in the various certification programmes offered by FIW München. Certification obtained through a voluntary certification scheme is therefore always a prerequisite. A certification according to a voluntary certification programme is therefore a basic requirement for the marking of insulation product with the Q-mark.

Requirements for the awarding of the Q-mark

The certification schemes that underpin the Q-mark always include:

At least two factory inspections per year by an auditor delegated by the certification body with product sampling, of which at least one is unannounced or as part of which random sampling is ensured by alternative measures
Twice-yearly testing of all the properties relevant to the application of the thermal insulation product, taken from a single batch during factory inspections
An audit of the factory production control system at least twice a year to check the reliability of the performance and the test results, based on the European product and conformity standard and additional application-related requirements
The transparent and consistent certification process with temporary certificates and/or registration of the certificates on the FIW homepage

The Q-mark can be awarded of the certification body of the FIW München or a partner institute, which has been qualified for the procedure of the certification. Through round tests and a regular exchange of experience of the involved certification and testing bodies it is secured, that the awarding of the Q-sign takes place on the same high level.

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