Lamps and lanterns, as the traditional commodities of China's foreign trade, have developed rapidly in recent years, especially with the continuous improvement of energy saving awareness at home and abroad, energy-saving lamps, LED lamps and other low-energy products are favored by consumers all over the world. However, with the continuous growth of export business, the incidents of China's export lamps and lanterns being notified by foreign officials due to quality risks also occurred frequently, which adversely affected the reputation of "Made in China", and enterprises urgently needed to pay attention to it.
In 2012, RAPEX, the European Rapid warning system for consumer goods, and CPSC, the United States Consumer Goods Commission, notified more than 120 unqualified cases of Domestic lamps and lanterns, accounting for nearly 30% of the total number of mechanical and electrical products notified by Europe and The United States, and most of them are potential electrical hazards that may lead to personal injury. The quality of lamps and lanterns has aroused great concern in developed countries.
From the reasons of the notification, design defects become the main reason for export lamps unqualified. The lack of effective protection between insulating parts and live parts caused by poor product design, and the narrowness or lack of effective fixation of the power cord used in lamps have become the two main reasons for product recall. The existence of these hidden dangers indicates that such products in the design stage has not met the requirements of international mandatory standards.
In terms of notified products, LED lamps, which have emerged in recent years, have gradually become one of the main unqualified commodities, accounting for a quarter of the total notified lamps, and its proportion has caught up with traditional lamps such as decorative lamp strings. With the increasing use of LED lamps, spot checks in developed countries are likely to be further intensified. It should be noted that some lamps, although not clearly pointed out the existence of quality problems, but due to the violation of the use of UL** certification mark has also been notified.
Export lamps and lanterns are frequently notified by foreign countries, mainly for the following reasons: First, a few enterprises blindly produce according to customer samples. Some foreign customers are not familiar with the standard, pay more attention to the cost and appearance of the product, and ignore the quality problem. The phenomenon that the sample wire provided is too thin does not meet the requirements of the laws and standards occurs frequently. And the enterprise has insufficient audit control ability, and even blindly obey the requirements of customers to use all kinds of certification marks.
Second, the technical strength of small and medium-sized lighting enterprises is relatively weak. Export products due to the need to meet the requirements of the importing country and part of the small and medium-sized enterprise technical force is weak, standards and regulations on foreign collection ability and reading ability is limited, also the lack of perfect self-check self-control system, many did not strictly according to the standard before the products are exported to the necessary type testing and inspection, there are a lot of quality hidden trouble.
Third, technical trade measures of developed countries are becoming increasingly strict. In recent years, the technical standards and regulations of developed countries in Europe and the United States have been constantly updated. For example, Finland and other countries have notified China's export of LED lamp cups on the ground that they do not conform to EU EN 60968 and other standards. While some well-known certification companies in Europe use IEC 62560 standards for certification, resulting in qualified products are still notified of the risk. Therefore, enterprises in product certification should be strictly checked, in accordance with the principle of "high not low" certification standards, to avoid penny wise and pound foolish.
In view of the situation that China's export lamps and lanterns are frequently notified by foreign countries, inspection and quarantine departments remind relevant enterprises to be sure to improve the awareness of risk prevention: one is to pay close attention to industry dynamics and timely response. It is necessary to follow up and grasp the latest trade measures and the latest international standards of the lighting industry in time, do a good job of collection and sorting, and organize production in strict accordance with the standards and requirements of the importing country to ensure product quality. Second, pay attention to the design of the product. When signing foreign trade contracts, we should not blindly meet the requirements of customers. For products with design defects, we should communicate with customers to modify, and carry out necessary audits on the labels and marks of products to prevent risks from the source. Third, traditional lighting enterprises in the process of transformation and upgrading to strengthen the construction of self-inspection and self-control. Especially for LED lamps and other emerging products, do not blindly start before they do not have the corresponding inspection and control ability. Before exporting products, type tests should be carried out in strict accordance with IEC and other international standards to effectively avoid economic risks and reputation losses.
