Reading certification claims: scope and evidence

A certification claim is easy to make and easy to misread, and the misreading is almost always in the same direction: a certificate that covers something is taken to cover everything near it.

The fix is mechanical. Find the scope. Read what it names. Compare that with what is on your order line. Most of the time the question answers itself, and when it does not, you now have a precise question to ask.

Five checks

• Which models does it name?A certificate names a product, a type or a family. If your exact model designation is not in that list, the certificate does not cover it until someone explains why it does.
• Which standard, which version?Standards are revised. A certificate against an older revision is not wrong, but it is not the current revision, and if your specification names the current one that difference is yours to resolve.
• Who issued it, and are they accredited for this?An issuing body has its own scope. Check that the body is recognised for the thing it certified.
• Is it current?Dates and validity. A lapsed certificate is a historical record.
• What does it actually certify?A product, a quality system and a test report are three different things. A quality-system certificate says something about how a factory is run. It says nothing about whether a specific valve meets a specific standard.

How ANYI handles it

ANYI's position on this is deliberately narrow. Certification scope is recorded per exact model and is confirmed before quotation, and we do not publish a certification claim on a product page that we have not confirmed applies to that model. Where you need documentary evidence, ask for it against the exact designation and we will tell you what exists and what its scope is.

We would rather answer "that is not confirmed for this model" than let a general statement stand in for a specific one. It is a slower answer and it is the one you can put in front of an auditor.