Anyone who wants to market an Ex-protected product in Taiwan needs approval from the OSHA administration (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) in Taiwan. To get this approval, the manufacturer must either have the Ex certification for the product made directly at the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), the technical arm of the authority, or have an existing IECEx certification recognised by it.
Which certification options have been available so far
The ITRI certification with the authority directly (i.e. not with existing documentation) requires, in addition to a formal application with comprehensive documentation, product testing in one of Taiwan’s accredited testing institutes as well as an inspection of production. Such an ex-certification is valid for three years and can be easily renewed.
However, with the beginning of the Corona epidemic, factory inspections outside Taiwan were no longer allowed, so that the only possible way was to apply with an existing Ex certification (IECEx or ATEX) (because the authority cannot simply waive individual steps of the certification, either one submits the application with all steps of the certification or one submits the entire documentation from abroad).
Until now, there were different levels of this ITRI certification with existing Ex certification: With ATEX documents (certificate, test report, audit report), manufacturers could basically apply for a one-year ITRI certification, which could not be extended. With IECEx documents from other testing institutes than those listed in the table below, manufacturers could still obtain a two-year, non-renewable ITRI certificate.
However, those who had IECEx documentation from one of these institutes (as of August 2022) could apply for a three-year, easily renewable certificate, just as with certification directly from ITRI:
| Country of origin | Testing institute |
| Japan | Technology Institute of Industrial Safety (TIIS) |
| Korea | Korean Safety Certification (KSC) |
| United States (USA) | UL LLC (UL) |
| Canada | QPS Evaluation Services Inc (QPS). CSA Group |
| United Kingdom (UK) | SGS BASEEFA Ltd (SGS BASEEFA). Eurofins E&E CML Limited (CML) |
| Germany | Physical-Technical Federal Institute (PTB). DEKRA Test AND Certification GmbH (DEKRAEXAM,BVS) TÜV Rheinland Industrie Service GmbH (TUV Rheinland) |
| France | Institut National de l’Environnement Industriel et des Risques (INERIS) |
| Netherlands | DEKRA Certification B.V. (DEKRA KEMA) |
| Hungary | ExVÁ Ltd (previously KBI) |
I.e. the existing documentation is fully recognised (however, technical documents on the product itself must also be submitted here, the pure ex-certification documentation is not sufficient). It is irrelevant whether both certificate and test report as well as audit report come from the same institute or from others, as long as all institutes come from this list.
What is changing now
However, from 1 November 2022, ITRI will only accept IECEx documentation from the listed institutes, i.e. with documentation from other testing institutes, ITRI certification can no longer be applied for. Either one has the Ex-certification run completely via ITRI (which, however, is currently still not possible due to the Corona travel restrictions) or one obtains the corresponding IECEx documentation from the non-Taiwanese testing institutes listed above before the ITRI certification.
As it takes an average of 60 days to process the certification application with existing documentation, applications with other documentation received after 31.8.2022 are unlikely to be processed in time. Keep this in mind in your planning, otherwise your certification may be delayed and incur significant additional costs.
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