Exactly–the true urgency isn’t in knowing before purchase, but knowing before you can’t cancel for a full refund.
yes so it is… and it would be trustfull to hear a statement from Glowforge…
I am sure @dan will make sure that everyone gets their Glowforge. It’s not something that one just forgets to do when shipping world wide.
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What does CE certification buy you? I’m in the US and my understanding is that CE is self-certification by the manufacturer, as opposed to independent 3rd party testing by UL or another NRTL (nationally recognized testing laboratory).
The CE marking is the manufacturer’s declaration that the product meets the requirements of the applicable EC directives.
Its needfull to import /export anything in the european countries
Not yet, as it’s too early in the process, but we plan to.
In the extremely unlikely event that something goes awry with certification, we’d let everyone know immediately (before shipping of course). My CTO is the expert here, having gone through it multiple times, but it’s not something we’re going to overlook.
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Hi Dan, did i understand right - that you will get this Certification and if its not possible - you let everyone who need it (europeans) know that we had to cancel the order. Is this possible - maybe it could be in spring or later ?
Yes, we’ll get the certification, and if something prevents that, we will let people know so they can get a refund.
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Hi Dan, are you still heading for CE Certification ? I am a little concerned after reading your emaill.
You wrote this:
Use of your Glowforge may be subject to local laws, regulations, and ordinances in your jurisdiction. We cannot guarantee that the device or its use is permissible in your country and jurisdiction.
If the Forge has the Certification you are allowed to use it in your country. That´s what the Certfication is for !
Greetings fro Germany
CE allows you to import it into Europe. If you operate it in a work place you probably need to comply with lots of health and safety rules as well. If it is for your own use at home it probably doesn’t matter unless you injure somebody else. Although you might have problems with insurance if you burn your house down.
Dan will have to answer this… But while you are waiting for his reply, this “implies” some level of approval or certification. [quote=“dan, post:4, topic:319”]
Long story but the power boards we’ve designed aren’t cleared for use yet, so we have to use 3rd party power supplies,
[/quote]
He has also indicated that they plan to get CE approval so I would assume other certifications (UL?) are intended.
Still as rpegg says: we plan to do both UL and CE, and will announce when they’re done or in the very unlikely event that there’s a serious problem.
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Thanks @dan. It’s probably not an issue for the vast majority of your users but the lab I worked in required that all electrical devices have NRTL listings or they were subject to evaluation by a company inspector. It was surprising to see some of the issues that some brands had, even with an NRTL label.
Hey Folks, Hey @dan, are there any news so far concerning the CE certification?
Greetings from Germany!
Mathis
I’ve never certified a laser, but I have had electrical equipment certified before (and hopefully another one soon.) What we’ve always done is preliminary testing during development to make sure we don’t have any issues/have a solution for the ones we run into. The official certification comes at the end because 1) you need production equivalent hardware and 2) if you change anything you may need to re-certify.
All of the components that make up the system are available in Europe (electrical equipment, high-voltage power supply, WiFi and lasers), so if other people have done it they can do it. Also, all of those systems have similar certifications in the US. So if they miss something that is only discovered in certification testing, it will most likely go wrong for all of us. That just means a delay as they have $28 million to fix it.
Nope!
Hey @dan, could you please outline your furthers step a little bit more? My stomach churns hearing just “Nope!”. I am quite sure that this is really important for all “glowforgers” in the EU. Being a backer of the original Pebble watch, I know what it feels like when your products is retained by the customs and finally send back, because of missing documents.
You often mentioned that it is most important for you that we have our glowforge on our desk by December and I believe you 100%, but please bear in mind, that shipping a product doesn’t just mean solving technical problems. Having the glowforge sitting on the the desk in a customs office near me, doesn’t help me at all. Being myself an entrepreneur I can understand your focus, I am myself more interested in solving software and hardware problems, but sometimes I have to do “the legal stuff”.
Please understand our concerns. If there is anything we can do, e.g. translating the manual I will do my best to support you.
Many thanks in advance.
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I hope I’m not speaking out of turn on this but a few things come to mind -
-
CE marking is a self-proclaimed marking
A. It has nothing that has to do with going through a certification/approval process from a 3rd party (I.e. Long waits for government approval, etc)
B. By self-proclaiming conformity with European ESH/HSE standards, Glowforge takes the responsibility for its product conforming to those standards
C. No reason to proclaim CE marking/meeting EU ESH standards until the final iteration is rolling off of assembly lines with all of the final production components, manuals, etc. -
When the final product is rolling off the manufacturing line and being boxed for shipping, if GF hasn’t proclaimed CE marking, and it’s your turn to ship, know that you can delay shipment when asked for your shipping address or obtain the full refund.
However, I can understand your questioning after the experience with the watch! How frustrating. 
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