The SATRA certification team

Introducing members of staff responsible for issuing SATRA EC type-examination certificates.

As many members will know, SATRA is a European Notified Body. This means that we are recognised by the European Commission to carry out certain duties under various directives. With regard to safety footwear, the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Directive covers most items designed to be held or worn in order to provide protection against injury. This clearly includes a wide range of equipment – including hard hats, high-visibility clothing and, of course, footwear, with specific protective features such as safety toe caps or penetration-resistant inserts.

The job of the certification team is to ensure that SATRA’s duties as a Notified Body under the PPE Directive are carried out correctly, and that the EC type-examination certificate is only issued to the manufacturer once all the relevant requirements have been met. Of course, it is vital that this job is done properly, as both the safety of the wearer and SATRA’s reputation are at stake. We are proud of our certifications and, by ensuring that manufacturers meet the strictest of requirements, the certificates are well respected in the market. One unfortunate side-effect of this, however, is that we are seeing an increased number of forgeries of these certificates, so any company given a copy of a SATRA certificate by a supplier is advised to check its authenticity with SATRA.

Introducing the team

Who are the key members of SATRA’s safety footwear certification team?

Pete Doughty has worked at SATRA for over 25 years, and manages our safety product centre. This is the part of SATRA responsible for the certification of PPE, including safety footwear. Peter chairs BSI/PH1, the committee responsible for the UK input to standards such as EN ISO 20345, and is the convenor of VG 10 – a group of European Notified Bodies that regularly meet to discuss issues with the implementation of the standards.

Daniel Cotter has a footwear background that predates his employment with SATRA, having trained as a footwear technologist before working for two UK-based footwear manufacturing companies. He also worked for Voluntary Service Overseas in the Philippines for six years, where he assisted the government in setting up and running a footwear school. Daniel’s role at SATRA involves the certification of a variety of PPE products.

Geoff Graham joined SATRA’s footwear testing team in 1999 as a technician, carrying out a variety of whole shoe tests. In recent years, he has specialised in testing safety footwear and its associated raw materials. Since transferring to the SATRA safety product centre in 2007, Geoff has been able to fully utilise his safety footwear testing expertise within the field of certification.

Publishing Data

This article was originally published on page 46 of the December 2013 issue of SATRA Bulletin.

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