LNEC as a Notified Body (NO)

Within the scope of the Construction Products Regulation (CPR), a manufacturer must declare the product's essential characteristics to prepare the declaration of performance and affix the CE marking to its product.

These characteristics, which are related to the intended use of the product, are listed in the Harmonized European Standard or the European Technical Assessment applicable to the product, in which the assessment and verification of constancy of performance system (AVCP system) applicable to the product or the family of products in question, established by the European Commission, is also indicated.

Depending on the AVCP system, the manufacturer is responsible for carrying out all the tasks provided for in its scope (system 4) or must resort to the intervention of notified third-party bodies for some of these tasks (systems 1+, 1, 2+ or 3).

Notified Bodies

Notified bodies can be certification bodies (both for products and for factory production control) or testing laboratories, and constitute entities authorized to perform specific tasks of assessment and verification of the constancy of performance of products, provided for in Annex V of the Construction Products Regulation. (Document in Portuguese)

Notification is an act by which an EU Member State communicates to the European Commission and the other Member States which bodies in its country meet the required requirements and are qualified as suitable to carry out specific tasks of assessment and verification of constancy of performance (AVCP) of products.

LNEC as a Notified Body

LNEC is accredited by the Portuguese Accreditation Institute (IPAC) and notified to the EC by the Portuguese Institute for Quality (IPQ) for the systems provided for in Annex V of the CPR, as recorded here.

LNEC as a Notified Certification Body

LNEC is notified as a product certification body, according to system 1+, for cement and fly ashes for concrete. According to the IPAC procedure, LNEC provides its "List of Certifications under Flexible Accreditation" (Document in Portuguese). This activity is framed by the rules and procedures summarized in the following documents:

• Cement information dossier (Document in Portuguese)

• Cement remarking information dossier (Document in Portuguese)

• Fly ash information dossier (Document in Portuguese)

LNEC as a Notified Laboratory

LNEC is notified as a testing laboratory, according to system 3:

• for exterior doors (without fire compartmentation characteristics) and for windows; regarding windows, LNEC is also notified for the determination of essential characteristics by calculation;

• for thermal insulation products;

• for the essential characteristic reaction to fire ("horizontal" notification, regardless of the construction product in question).

NANDO Database

The NANDO database, created and kept updated by the European Commission, is important for the correct application of the Construction Products Regulation. In fact, this database gathers, for each of the harmonized European standards and European Assessment Documents, information relating to the Notified Bodies authorized to intervene in AVCP tasks.

The NANDO database is thus important:

• for manufacturers, as it allows knowing the technical specifications and the respective notified or designated bodies in the European Economic Area;

• for consumers, as it allows verifying whether the notified bodies mentioned in the CE marking of a product as having intervened in the respective AVCP tasks are actually in that database;

• for national market surveillance authorities, for the reasons indicated above for manufacturers and users.