Cares caters for hot rolled flat steel
01 July 2018
Cares, a UK-based certification authority for reinforcing steels, has recently released a new quality and operations assessment schedule for hot rolled flat steel products for the steel construction and industrial applications under the Construction Products and Associated Services (CPAS) scheme.
As with all Cares certification services, this new schedule is UKAS accredited and the latest Cares schedule of accreditation can be assessed from the UKAS website, says a spokesman for the authority.
“Hot rolled flat steel is produced as a feedstock for coated steels and cold rolled flat steels, but also for direct use in a variety of steel construction and industrial applications including hot and cold forming, containers, pressure vessels, steel tubes used in transport and energy pipelines,” he explains.
This Cares assessment schedule describes the quality and operational requirements to ensure the consistent manufacture and compliance of the hot rolled flat steel products. It relates to the manufacture of these steels in the form of plates, coils and sheets commencing with the production of liquid steel and proceeding through casting to rolling in the plate/strip mill, he adds.
This schedule assures users that the hot rolled flat steels are fully traceable throughout the production process including stocking, dispatch and delivery to customer; and all approved companies have ISO 9001 quality management system certificate and a valid factory production control certificate consistent with EN 10025:1-2004 Annex ZA.
Another benefit of the new product certification schedule is that all approved companies maintain inspection, test and certification records for a minimum of 10 years.
The test programme for the initial assessment and subsequent surveillance inspections are witnessed by Cares assessors. Also, the process capability level evaluation is reviewed by Cares on a six-monthly basis during the surveillance audits.
Cares is an independent, not-for-profit certification body, established in 1983 to provide confidence to the users, purchasers and specifiers of constructional steels through a regime of regulation, testing and inspection. It operates for the benefit of the construction industry offering certification schemes for companies that produce materials, components or offer services, primarily to the reinforced concrete industry.
“Clients can specify Cares-approved companies and products with confidence that they will comply with the relevant product or system standards and without the need for verification testing by the purchaser or contractor,” the spokesman concludes.
