Following approval by CEN, the new European Standard for dishwasher resistance of domestic ceramic articles (BS EN 12875-4: 2006) has now been approved and published.

This new Standard will replace the CERAM In House Method (WW1), as of Monday 19 June 2006.

This change does not affect the pass/fail criteria needed to meet PAS 54: 2003 requirements.

However, please note that this new Standard stipulates that a minimum of 4 identical articles are required to conduct the test. This new stipulation has forced CERAM to review the pricing structure of this test. Please contact Emma Tang for further details.

Further to information received from the Department of Trade and Industry, regarding toxic metal release testing of ceramic articles, we wish to inform you that as of 20 May 2006, for 12 month transition period, BS 6748 is in the process of being superseded by a new regulation, 2005/31/EC.

Therefore, as of now, CERAM recommends that ceramic articles be tested to this new regulation, rather than BS 6748.

However, BS 6748 will still be applicable for glass, glass ceramic and vitreous enamel articles.

The test price and number of pieces required shall remain the same as for BS 6748 (one article per category).

2005/31/EC directive has no impact on the way the article is tested, and the pass/fail limits remain the same as for BS 6748. The two major changes cover: extending the range of analytical methods that may be used to measure lead and cadmium, and more importantly, the manufacturer and importer are required to provide documentation demonstrating compliance with migration limits, via a Declaration of Compliance which will accompany the ceramic products throughout the supply chain. This directive requires Member States to prohibit the import of ceramic products that do not comply with these requirements.

Please contact either Jonathan Savage (+44 (0)1782 764355 or jon.savage@ceram.com)
or Emma Tang (+44 (0)1782 764428 or emma.tang@ceram.com) should you have any questions regarding this.

For general enquires please contact Emma Tang, emma.tang@ceram.com   tel: +44 (0)1782 764428.