Fidgety Bits of Information

tacofries

Hi,

Bit of a strange one but I am at the stage where I am very close to finishing product design. The main things that are now left to do is to find out what only can be described as fidgety bits of information similar to the examples listed below:

• does the CE mark have to be printed onto our unit. I know it does in Germany, doesn't in Ireland, but what about the UK & US?
• do recycling symbols have to be printed onto our unit?
• does safety symbols have to be printed onto bags that contain components which represent possible choking hazards?
• other questions similar to things like the above.

In essence I am looking to find out who I can go to, to show our product to and then have them audit it to make sure that we are 100% legally compliant for selling into the Irish, UK, German, Italian, US and if possible Canadian and Australian markets. Would I have to go to an import specialist for each individual market or can anyone recommend someone that can tick a few of those countries of the list? Our main priority is the UK, Germany and US markets.

Our products are bathroom accessories,

Thanks for any help at all,

antoinolachtnai

By the sounds of it, you have your product idea. It is really time to talk to potential distributors, and see what they say about packaging.

tacofries

antoinolachtnai wrote: »

By the sounds of it, you have your product idea. It is really time to talk to potential distributors, and see what they say about packaging.

Distributors don't suit our business model for the next 12 months and I am not willing to show them our products until we are actually ready to do business with them, so at the moment that is not an option unfortunately. Thanks for the reply Anto,.

mrawkward

NSAI will advise on CE marking. CE means nothing in the USA, UL is their equiv.
Plastic bags must be marked with Recyling and over a certain size for suffocation risk. Not required on product.
Cardboard packaging should have the appropriate RESY code

tacofries

mrawkward wrote: »

NSAI will advise on CE marking. CE means nothing in the USA, UL is their equiv.
Plastic bags must be marked with Recyling and over a certain size for suffocation risk. Not required on product.
Cardboard packaging should have the appropriate RESY code

According to the NSAI website we do not need a CE mark but am looking to make sure for definite. Would a small parts or choking warning be needed on the polybag that contains screws?

Really I am looking to go to a specialist in this area so that they can look at the product and suggest areas where there may be legal issues//reuirements that I haven't even thought of yet.

CIARAN_BOYLE

whats your produce. some people here might be able to name names in relation to electronics that wouldn't be relevant to children's toys.

Be careful because guidelines are different for the EU and for the US.

If you have a distributor they are going to want their info on your packaging too. So its important to leave space on boxes for text etc. And not to do a big print run before you know who is selling your product. Otherwise you get into stickering stuff which is expensive and messy

Im not sure which bodies to go to to find out all this information for all areas, but it wouldn't be a bad start to get competing products from the locations your going to be selling them in from reputable brands and use that as your base to work from.

antoinolachtnai

I would expect that Enterprise Ireland will be able to direct you the right way.

These aren't just stamps. UL is a completely different thing from CE. CE is a self certification. UL is a commercial, privately owned business ('Underwriters' Laboratories') which actually tests stuff.

Stuff like warnings in relation to children really depends on where and how you are marketing the thing. The marketing context determines a lot.

tacofries

Deleted User wrote: »

Be careful because guidelines are different for the EU and for the US.

Its important to leave space on boxes for text etc.


It wouldn't be a bad start to get competing products from the locations your going to be selling them in from reputable brands and use that as your base to work from.

We have no graphics on packaging so plenty of room for distributor info.

I have actually bought a number of products from the desired locations however each one seems to label and package things differently. I absolutely hate being unsure of something hence why I am looking for a specialist to go over it all.

The reason that I want to tick all of the boxes for both the EU & US right now is to more easily allow us to scale as quickly as possible. Its is a right pain in my backside at the moment but by future planning and getting things correct from the start, I am reducing all of the hassle of sourcing new components, getting revised quotes, changing artwork etc in the future. All of this will be worth while in the long run.... hopefully..

Ill get in contact with EI tomorrow and see if they can do anything!

tacofries

mrawkward wrote: »

NSAI will advise on CE marking. CE means nothing in the USA, UL is their equiv.
Plastic bags must be marked with Recyling and over a certain size for suffocation risk. Not required on product.
Cardboard packaging should have the appropriate RESY code

Do plastic polybags definitely have to have a recycling symbol on them? I originally thought that they did however I have now bought quite a number of products that don't have any info on them. Also, it turns out that the bags we are using are under the size limits for the suffocation warnings.