In March 2009, Liftinstituut was accredited by ANSI as a Certification Body. Liftinstituut is the first to be recognized under the AECO program, which operates according to requirements defined in the international standard ISO/IEC Guide 65, General Requirements for Bodies Operating Product Certification Systems, and in ASME A17.7/CSA B44.7, Performance based safety code for elevators and escalators.

We are very proud to be accredited by ANSI.  Michael Douqué CEO Liftinstituut opened a bottle of champagne to toast on this new status. “It’s good to be recognized all over the world as a reliable independent partner and expert for product certification” .  And he promised “We will show that ANSI took the right decision”. 

Bas Mulder is responsible for the international activities of the Liftinstituut. He told us that with these allocations, two tracks have become one. “The Liftinstituut has been active abroad for a long time, but until now it has not been able to gain much of a foothold in America and Canada, simply because NoBos or AECOs were not yet in existence due to differently constructed regulations. Now they do exist. We can now also comply with the increasing demand of globally active lift manufacturers who want us to certify their products in North America.”

Fast-tracked
Investigation into these accreditations had already started earlier, but the process was fast-tracked in September 2007 due to the aid of Frank Tegel (Standards Specialist at the Liftinstituut). He enabled the preparatory project group to make contact with an external party in the USA, who had a good understanding of developments regarding accredited institutes in America. “We went to America for the first time in the spring of 2008.”

'Exam'
In order to comply with the ANSI requirements, the Liftinstituut had to undergo both a practical and theory ‘exam’. Mulder explained, “Where the theory was concerned, we collected and completed all the procedures and manuals that we use for product certification and had them translated. This was an enormous task. For the practical part, we set up a ‘gap analysis’ of the differences between the European and American/Canadian regulations – and there are quite a few of them. A test lift was made freely available so that we could carry out a product certification in the European manner as well as according to American/Canadian regulations. Ko Legez of the Dutch lift company All In Liften helped us enormously with this. The review of the ‘exam’ results raised a number of comments from ANSI, which were then demonstrated by the Liftinstituut.” Apparently everything went satisfactorily, for our accreditation has now become fact.

Knowledge and experience

Now that North America is open to the Liftinstituut, soon our first product certifications can be carried out. However, the accreditation does not only provide advantages for the Liftinstituut – North America also profits by it. Dennis Lindeboom, International Account Manager remarked, “They have a great need for international knowledge and experience where certification is concerned, and the Liftinstituut can certainly provide that. In Europe we are many years ahead of the competition regarding product certification. American manufacturers will gain a definite advantage because of that.”

Liftinstituut set up a ‘gap analysis’ of the differences between the European and American/Canadian regulations. A test lift in the Netherlands was made freely available for this.

Bas Mulder, Liftinstituut-manager international affairs: “With our NoBo- and AECO-status we are one of the first certification bodies for both European and American-oriented markets.’’