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CE Mark under the Construction Products Regulations (CPR) and EN 1090 is now the law and is required for Steel fabrication being sold (or “placed on the market”).

Under EN 1090, there is a requirement for Responsible Welding Coordinator (RWC). The availability of a suitable trained RWCs has been a significant hurdle for Steel fabricators needing to comply with the CE Marking. The training and qualification approach to the RWC has been developing in the last year. The present situation is:

1. IWE (International Welding Engineer) or IWT (International Welding Technician) are the gold standard to fulfil the RWC requirements and are particularly required for Execution Class 3 and 4. However because the CPR requirements are new, there are very few IWE or IWTs available.
2. This led to recommendation to use IWE or IWT as external Consultants. However there are few such consultants, so there can be lack of continuity if the RWC not available and they can be expensive. Additionally under the new National Annex, it is proposed that, the external RWCs will be required to monitor ongoing operations, which will involve increased onsite presence and associated costs.
3. RWC Courses for Execution Class 2 – normally a 2 day theory course with an additional 1 day assessment on-site of the RWC’s application of the RWC role and responsibilities. Initially they were set-up under certain Trade Bodies. For those Fabricators, who are not Members, this was a problem. However a few new open or public courses have been started, which are approved by at least one Notified Body.

For more details, contact Charter 4