How does ACRS
certification work?

Steel all looks the same, but it isn’t. ACRS Steel Certification provides peace of mind to everyone through the supply chain

Sorry, your browser does not support inline SVG. 1 Steel Mills 2 Importers 3 Manufacturers 4 Planners 5 Architects 6 Specifiers 7 Engineers 8 Contractors 9 Builders 10 Developers 11 End Users

A 'one stop shop' for demonstrating compliance with nominated Standards, ACRS certificates give continuing assurance of compliance beyond that provided by steel mill certificates.

There are four points in any construction project when product compliance can and should be assured and verified:

ACRS provides a steel specification mechanism up front at engineer/contract time, prior to purchase and fabrication of structural steel.

With an ACRS certificate of product compliance specified up-front, early in the project, designers and contractors can feel confident that the steel manufacturer has been certified as producing compliant steel.

Timing is essential. An ACRS certificate confirms that the steel manufacturer has been checked for compliance by ACRS at the steel mill, and through fabrication processing. Specifiers and customers can be confident that rigorous independent, third-party certification meets their requirements for verifying that the materials they order meet AS/NZS Standards.

If the up-front ACRS specification is not in place, then there could be delays to the project at delivery stage while product sourcing and conformity assessment of delivered steels are verified.

As ACRS Schemes are a two-stage, “book-end” process, they certify both steelmaking at the steel mill of origin, and any subsequent processing or fabrication of that steel, to ACRS Product Requirements.

Certificates are awarded to both steel mills, and to the subsequent steel processor or fabricator of the steel. Both certificates must be reviewed where appropriate.

Knowing that the steel delivered to a project is from ACRS-certified suppliers makes it easier for designers and specifiers if structural alterations are required at a future date. ACRS certification of the original steel supplied makes it simple to verify that materials meet standards, without expensive and time-consuming onsite sampling and testing.

At all points the recipient should check the certificate for the specific product(s) they are using, as only products listed on a manufacturer’s certificate are verified by ACRS. An ACRS-certified manufacturer may sell other kinds of steel products for which they have not been certified.

How to identify
ACRS steel onsite

All ACRS-Approved Materials are labelled and supplied with the necessary electronic or paper documentation to enable the products to be traced. This comprises the ACRS mark and the manufacturer’s unique identification mark, as shown under Marks & Tags

Non-ACRS certified producers cannot be issued certification post-manufacture. ACRS is regularly asked to verify that steel meets the required end-use Australian and New Zealand Standards, either when the steel has already arrived on site or after construction has been completed. For ACRS-certified suppliers, this can be achieved, but not for the non-ACRS-certified.

In most instances, the enquirer has a test certificate supplied, often not in English, or has taken a few random samples and sent those for independent testing either in Australia or New Zealand, or at overseas test laboratories.

For ACRS-certified mills and fabricators, this subsequent certification is acceptable and considered part of the ACRS two-stage process.

However, for non-ACRS certified producers, this post-manufacture certification is not possible. ACRS is unable to verify the validity of the material being supplied by these stages of construction projects, as it is unable to employ the all-important two-stage certification process, the first stage of which requires sample testing of the product at the certified mill's manufacturing source. Read more about why sample testing is not sufficient >

ACRS also needs to test each certified rebar processing, mesh producing, or welded section fabricating facility to ensure that the finished steel product supplied to any construction site has not been adversely affected during these subsequent processes.

This testing is an important part of demonstrating full adherence to the specific AS/NZS Standard.