Certification of Materials and Components - Frequently Asked Questions

Classification verifies that a ship is designed, constructed and maintained in compliance with the class rules of a dedicated recognized classification society such as DNV.

Third-party verification ensures a design, component, system or operation meets specific requirements other than class rules. The requirements may be based on industry standards (e.g. API, ISO, IEC), project specifications or regulatory frameworks.

Inspection on behalf of owner ensures equipment or components being procured by a buyer meet the agreed technical specifications, quality requirements and contractual conditions.

Consultancy is the provision of expert advice, engineering support or problem-solving based on professional expertise.

Product certification customers can also use the newbuilding portal if the shipyard agrees. However, the newbuilding portal contract is normally between DNV and the shipyard, and the shipyard is typically considered the owner of the certificates. Subsequently, the shipyard can access comments and technical documents, even when these are restricted.

The product certification portal is designed specifically to protect the customer’s intellectual property and does not share any information with the shipyard. It is therefore up to you if you want to share certificates and status updates with the shipyard or not.

Class rules are considered the minimum technical or procedural requirements that must be met in order to ensure a ship’s safety. Therefore, class rules prevail.

No, this is generally not possible.

No. Our class rules require testing to be carried out in the presence of DNV staff.

Before a manufacturer can deliver certain components or materials, the classification society may need to approve the manufacturer’s:

• Quality management system
• Production processes
• Identification and traceability systems
• Testing facilities

Manufacturer approval is often a prerequisite for producing class-certified products.

No, not if the product is subject to mandatory class certification. Installing uncertified products may result in:

• Conditions of class
• Repair orders
• Refusal of class certificate
• Statutory non-compliance
• Commercial consequences for the owner

No. Ou staff witnesses testing and confirms that the tests performed are in compliance with requirements set out in DNV rules and standards.

We require that all tests be carried out by laboratories accredited by an official third‑party accreditation body in the respective country. The accreditation must explicitly cover the scope of services and test methods required for the assessment.

DNV recommends to have the Design Review completed first before proceeding with any manufacturing and testing to avoid any risk for re-work etc.

The documentation required to be handed in is provided in the relevant parts of the classification rules and classification programmes. Typical documentation includes:

• Technical drawings/data sheets
• Material certificates (e.g. 3.1/3.2)
• Test procedures and results
• Quality system documentation
• Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) procedures
• Previous approvals, if applicable

Requirements may vary by product type.

The cost of product certification depends on the:

• Type and number of products to be certified
• Type of certificate
• Required testing (e.g. fire test, pressure test)
• Surveyor’s travel expenditure and time

TBCs published in our Approval Finder tool are only a copy and an excerpt of the original certificate issued to the certificate holder. To prevent misuse, theft of intellectual property rights or unauthorized replication of TBC content, these documents do not bear a signature. The original TBCs issued to you are fully signed and include all the required information.

Our Approval Finder only presents copies and excerpts of TBCs featuring content as agreed with the certificate holder. The content shared is limited to protect your intellectual property rights.

Our certifications and approvals are issued exclusively to one customer: you, the contractual party. DNV does not share these with third parties, as they are your property. It is therefore your responsibility to share any certifications or approvals with other stakeholders as necessary.

Yes, as owner of your portal, you may grant access to third parties as you like. However, please keep in mind that such access includes the ability to generate orders on your account and the ability to access to all documents uploaded to the portal.

At the moment, it is not possible to provide limited access. Either all certification orders can be accessed or none – the content itself cannot be restricted. It is possible to provide time‑limited access for a user, but not selective access to specific orders or documents.