What is a Reasonable Testing Program?
All non-children’s products subject to a consumer product safety rule or a similar rule, ban, or standard enforced by the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC), must have a certificate issued by the manufacturer called a general conformity certificate or GCC.
A reasonable testing program for non-children’s products serves as the basis for issuing the general conformity certificate. A reasonable testing program is one that demonstrates with reasonable certainty that all consumer products certified to comply with the applicable standards will meet all the requirements of those standards. Certain standards issued by the Commission already contain unique testing programs that were developed by the Commission at the time the standard was issued and for which certification has been required. For the remaining rules, standards, and bans, testing will vary depending on the product and the performance characteristics being tested.
As a manufacturer of such goods, Advantus is responsible for developing a reasonable testing program that demonstrates that our products comply with the applicable rules, standards, or bans. This program contains the following elements:
(1) Product specifications that describe the consumer product and list the safety rules, standards, etc., with which the product must comply;
(2) Certification tests, which are performed on samples of the manufacturer’s consumer product to demonstrate that the product is capable of passing the tests prescribed by the standards;
(3) A production testing plan, which describes the tests that must be performed and at what intervals as long as the consumer product is being manufactured to provide reasonable assurance that the products as produced continue to meet all applicable safety rules;
(4) Remedial action plans, which must be employed whenever samples of the consumer product or results from any other tests used to assess compliance yield unacceptable or failing test results; and
(5) Documentation of the reasonable testing program and how it was implemented.
Products in the following groups determine participation in the Advantus Corp Reasonable Testing Program: