All products that are required to display the STS logo must be certified by a STS accredited test house. For more information on the certification process for certifying products to STS compliance, click here. The basic steps in obtaining certification are as follows:
Once the test house has performed the certification testing, a recommendation letter will be sent to the STSA secretariat. The STSA secretariat will then issue a certificate of compliance to the manufacturer if the test was successful.Note: the test house will not ship samples back to the manufacturer. It is the responsibility of the manufacturer to arrange for return shipping, or instruct the test house to destroy the test samples. One sample may be retained by the test house as a gold sample.Note: the latest edition of the certification documents will always be used for certification testing. It is the responsibility of the manufacturer to ensure that the latest version of these documents is used for pre-certification testing.Please visit the STS website at www.sts.org.za for more information.
Certification of a product is necessary because -
Once a product is certified, it remains certified for as long as no changes are made to the product, and as long as the manufacturer is still a member of the STSA. If a manufacturer ceases to be a member of the STSA, then only products manufactured up to the time he ceased to be a member are permitted to display the STS logo - any products manufactured subsequent to his membership termination are no longer considered to be STS compliant, even if no changes have been made to the product. If any changes are made to the product, then the product must be re-certified. The latest edition of the certification tests will then be used to certify the product.
Self certification is a process by which a manufacturer can certify his own product provided that:
The manufacturer can apply for self certification on the STS website. More information on self certification is contained in the STS2100-3 document.
This will depend on the test house doing the certification and the backlog of testing, but should typically take two weeks from receipt of the test samples, provided that all documentation supplied with the samples is present and correct.
If a product fails certification, it must be updated and re-submitted for testing. A new testing fee will have to be paid (at the discretion of the test house depending on the nature of the changes and how much of the test was completed).
Please visit the STS website at www.sts.org.za to request a quotation since these prices may vary from time to time.
The certification process tests a system - i.e. the payment meter or vending system, as well as the user interface. Certification is therfore done on the entire system. If a manufacturer has multiple user interfaces which require certification, then they must all be certified independently, since the payment meter or vending system responses are given on the user interface when testing and therfore require certification.
All the STS531-x certification documents are available form the STS website at www.sts.org.za under the "Services" tab.