(pressebox) (Würzburg, 30.10.2024) The Plastics Center SKZ with its testing division sees itself as a system provider when it comes to confirming the suitability of products for drinking water hygiene. With an accredited certification body, trained hygiene inspectors and an accredited testing laboratory, we support customers, suppliers and certifiers in the certification process. In the future, this will also be done at the European level.

The 2nd Amendment Ordinance to the Drinking Water Ordinance (TrinkwV) in December 2012 created the mandate to establish binding assessment bases for materials and substances in contact with drinking water. When the German Environment Agency's assessment bases came into force, requirements were defined for which products in contact with drinking water must comply on the German market. In order to ensure compliance with these quality requirements, a recommendation for a declaration of conformity was created at the same time, which provides for a certification program based on the 1 + system (type testing, self-monitoring and external monitoring).

Three pillars of certification, inspection and testing

The SKZ was accredited by the German Accreditation Body (Dakks) at an early stage in order to be able to offer product manufacturers a comprehensive range of services. With its three pillars of certification, inspection and testing, the Würzburg Plastics Institute is able to competently support the complete certification process and to act throughout the entire process. As SKZ is constantly developing this area, the new EU regulations (Implemented and Delegated acts) have already been applied for at Dakks in 2023.

Different duration of certification

The duration of a certification can vary greatly and depends strongly on the complexity of the products and the materials used. The reason for this is that all parts that come into contact with drinking water must be taken into account, and an individual recipe evaluation must be carried out for each part. The recipe evaluation is a particularly time-critical factor for organic materials (e.g. plastics, elastomers, silicones...) – currently, a period of nine to 15 months can be assumed.

More information about testing of fittings

More about the new EU regulations

Über SKZ - Das Kunststoff-Zentrum: The SKZ is climate protection company and a member of the Zuse Association. This is an association of independent, industry-related research institutions that pursue the goal of improving the performance and competitiveness of industry, especially SMEs, through innovation and networking.