The close working relationship between Holzhof and TÜV PRODUCT SERVICE GmbH, located in Munich in Germany, began as long ago as 1994 with the first certificate issued by the prestigious agency to Holzhof on 18 December 1995. This recognised the company’s conformity with German industrial standard DIN 7926 (Deutsche Industrie Norm) as there were no European-level norms in force (at that time neither EN nor even UNI existed).
The TÜV (Technischer Überwachungs-Verein) is a supervisory body that certifies various product types on the basis of the conformity of their construction with current safety standards and laws; if the product meets all of the necessary characteristics and requirements, a GS certificate (from the German Geprüfte Sicherheit, i.e. “safety checked”) will be issued. This brand, created in 1977, essentially attests to the conformity of the product that receives it with the standards protecting and shielding the customer from the possibility of accidents. In 1999, the controls were extended by DIN 7926 to combine this standard with the new EN 1176 and EN 1177 standards, in order to move definitively to the latter by the year 2000. To be able to use the TÜV mark, which is also voluntary and therefore constitutes an added value to both company and product, conformity with specific, strict testing is necessary together with successful results in the periodic controls to which the company and its own products are subjected. The GS mark is valid for 5 years, following which the product must again be tested for its certification to be renewed. The mark guarantees that all aspects of the item have been carefully assessed (safety, toxicity, flammability, etc) to guarantee the functionality claimed by the constructor and the maintenance of its characteristics over time, and also – practically by definition – to exclude products of insufficient technical quality or whose credibility is uncertain.
All products in the Holzhof playground equipment range meet the necessary requirements for the use of the GS mark and are therefore certified and guaranteed by the prestigious TÜV Süd agency.