Thanks for your quick reply. I don’t think i can fully imagine what load you have to carry on your shoulder, but your answers are always appreciated. I hope you and your team still enjoy the adventure. But keep this topic in mind, or delegate.
Maybe a bulk shipment would really simplify things. Can you provide any estimates how many glowforge are shipped to the EU?
Don’t feel pressured to answer right now. It is late in Seattle, take a nap.
Thank you
Thanks for the kind reply! I don’t know why some companies drop the ball on it - obviously, stamping it, without really testing against the directives leaves them open to lots of liability if they try to fudge the system. Yet, it being a self-certification leaves some leeway in certifying the final shipped product vs what we have at the present moment. It’d be great to proclaim CE certification today, I imagine, but their is always a paper trail! And certifying the final shipping product would make the lawyers a lot happier. 
I think somewhere recently it was mentioned they have some consultants hired for various certifications; I’d be surprised if a lot of the parameters (for those certs) those consultants are evaluating aren’t applicable to various CE directives in some way.
Regarding 2 - I don’t want that either! But, deferring shipment (if you do not receive the answer you’re looking for) is definitely better than stuck in customs!
Here’s to hoping we both see our Forges soon!
Whether or not they can self-certify depends on the directives they have to meet. Even if they do self-certify, and I believe they probably do, they will most likely have to perform some testing at a certified testing facility and wait for the reports to be issued. They have plenty of time for this before a December shipment, and you don’t want to do your testing too soon or you wind up repeating it, but you’d think they would have done preliminary testing several times by now just to make sure there are no head-scratchers when you test for real.
Of course you are right. If the only alternatives are deferring shipment or a glowforge for the customs office I would prefer to defer the shipment. Actually I think I would fly to Seattle, rent a boat and try to make it somehow back to hamburg .
Thanks for your kind words, you inspiring me with confidence that we will receive the glowforge this year.
(shoot…I’ll have to add the link. sorry)
This may help you get a better understanding of where all the orders have come from. Please, if you haven’t done so already, add yourself to the map.
Click through from here, so you can see the "rules"
Thanks for your insight. It sounds like you are familiar with certification processes.
I have the feeling that the glowforge could easily fulfill all requirements, because it seems to be a well designed and build machine. Considering this it would be so sad if something goes wrong, because of some legal issues.
Thank you! I know the map, I added myself quite some time ago. See if you can find me I am “happy owner”. Being also a “data geek” some rough numbers from @dan would be nice, to see how they correlate with the map.
Thank you, @jbv. The second time I tried doing what you suggested, and it did the same thing (added just a photo of the map) when I copied and pasted from the address bar. I probably missed some step in there. All is well, though…he’s already on the map.
Deutschland…Hamburg!
That was fast!
I must admit, I had to look up your country code; DE. I tried guessing and didn’t even come close. 
I’m no expert on certifications and such. I’m guessing that the GF peeps will do the work for us so we don’t have to worry about it, no mater the country you’re shipping to?
Worse case scenario you’ll let us know if there’s an issue? Right?
Greetings from Slovenia
is there already any news on CE certification?
Or NRTL listing?
We haven’t made any announcements yet.
i must think about a cancelling if nothing will happen with the CE - cause i should be deliverd in July - and my patience sorry is going down… if nothing is in work with the Certification … so sad 
Hi, I can understand how your patience is slipping, but I think @dan just said that there are no announcements about it yet, not that there hasn’t been any work done on it.
I think the angst about it is [EDIT:] unfounded. A substantial number of their orders are reliant on having it in order for the GF to be imported into those countries. It makes zero sense that they would not get the certification or that they would decide at this late date that they’re pulling the plug on international distribution. This is one of those items that’s in the same category as a user manual or shipping box - it’s not worth wasting any energy worrying that it won’t happen because it’s fundamental to their business.
I think calling someone’s serious concern about a very expense purchase silly is pretty silly. Yes, you are right that there are pretty far reaching implications to Glowforge not getting the appropriate certifications. I agree that it will very likely happen. That doesn’t make it any less stressful for someone waiting for their laser to not know for certain.