SATRA’s footwear certification team

Introducing members of staff responsible for issuing SATRA EU type-examination certificates.

As many members will know, SATRA is a European Notified Body. This means that we are recognised by the European Commission to carry out certain duties under various directives and regulations. With regard to safety footwear, the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Regulation covers most items designed to be held or worn in order to provide protection against injury. This clearly includes a wide range of equipment – including hard hats, high-visibility clothing and, of course, footwear, with specific protective features such as safety toe caps or perforation-resistant inserts.

The job of the certification team is to ensure that SATRA’s duties as a Notified Body under the PPE Regulation are carried out correctly, and that the EU type-examination certificate is only issued to the manufacturer once all the relevant requirements have been met. Of course, it is vital that this job is done properly, as both the safety of the wearer and SATRA’s reputation are at stake. We are proud of our certifications and, by ensuring that manufacturers meet the strictest of requirements, the certificates are well respected in the market. One unfortunate side-effect of this, however, is that we are seeing an increased number of forgeries of these certificates, so any company given a copy of a SATRA certificate by a supplier is advised to check its authenticity with SATRA.

The certification team

Pete Doughty has worked at SATRA for over 30 years, and manages our Notified Body – the part of SATRA responsible for PPE footwear certification activities. Pete chairs BSI/PH1, the committee responsible for the UK input to standards such as EN ISO 20345, and is the convenor of VG 10 – a group of European Notified Bodies that regularly meet to discuss issues with the implementation of the standards.

Hannah Coe joined SATRA in 2012 as a footwear technician – a role that was split between footwear/component testing and automotive assessment. Three years later, Hannah transferred into the product certification team, where she could apply her experience in testing to safety footwear certification. While certifying a variety of safety products, Hannah is studying for a BSc (Hons) Open STEM degree based on engineering/business and management modules.

Daniel Cotter has 28 years of footwear experience, gained at two UK footwear factories in such roles as last storesman, backpart moulder, clicker and leather buyer. Daniel also spent six year in the Philippines working with the Department of Trade and industry (DTI) as a footwear technologist, assisting with the creation of a three-year training course and short-term programmes covering all facets of production. During this time, he also led courses for more than 150 students each year, and provided technical assistance to companies on shoemaking methods and the use of materials. In addition to certifying footwear PPE at SATRA, Daniel works on motorcycle protectors, equestrian body protectors, sports PPE and firefighters’ protective clothing.

Geoff Graham joined SATRA’s footwear testing team in 1999 as a technician, carrying out a variety of whole shoe tests while specialising in testing safety footwear and its associated raw materials. In 2007, Geoff transferred into the product certification team, enabling his safety footwear testing expertise to be applied to the field of certification. In 2017, Geoff relocated to Ireland to manage the SATRA Technology European office.

Publishing Data

This article was originally published on page 14 of the March 2018 issue of SATRA Bulletin.

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