The manufacturer’s responsibility
Siebe, Gorman & Co Ltd is the manufacturer. Design authority, the technical file and the declaration of conformity stay with this company. Where production is placed with specialists, the legal duty to assess, document and declare does not move.
European Union and EEA
Life-support equipment is placed on the EU and EEA market only after assessment under Regulation (EU) 2016/425 on personal protective equipment.
Category III equipment — regulators and other respiratory protective devices — requires an EU type-examination (Module B) by a notified body and ongoing production surveillance (Module C2 or Module D). Only then may the product carry the CE mark followed by the notified body’s number.
Great Britain
Great Britain accepts CE marking or UKCA marking for this equipment. The European Union does not accept UKCA alone; products for the EU market carry CE.
ISO standards
ISO standards are the international family behind many of the EN texts below. They inform design and testing; they are not a separate house badge and do not replace the legal conformity assessment.
Heritage objects
The medals and historic helmets shown on this site are archive material. They are not certified equipment, they carry no conformity marking, and they are not for sale.
No inherited papers
Conformity claims require this company’s own assessments, approvals and test records; historical records cannot be used in their place.
Product-to-standard map
| Product | Principal standard | Typical PPE category |
|---|---|---|
| Regulators (demand valves) | EN 250 | III — drowning / oxygen-deficient atmosphere |
| Regulator and octopus combinations | EN 250A | III |
| Buoyancy compensators | EN 1809 | Assessed as PPE under 2016/425 |
| Diving suits (wet and dry) | EN 14225 | Commonly II |
| Rebreathers | EN 14143 | III |
| Cylinder valves | EN 144 | With pressure-equipment rules where they apply |
| Cylinders | Pressure equipment legislation | Separate from PPE |
EN 250 is the minimum breathing and cold-water performance for a recreational regulator intended to 50 m. A CE mark means that minimum was met. It does not mean every certified regulator breathes alike.
How conformity is established
1. Classification
Each product is classified by the harm a failure can cause. Breathing apparatus sits in Category III. Many suits sit in Category II. Accessories with no protective function may fall outside PPE and follow general product-safety law instead.
2. Technical file
Before testing we prepare the intended use (depth, temperature, gases), drawings, materials, risk assessment against the essential health and safety requirements, the standards applied, and draft instructions.
3. Type-examination
For Category II and III equipment an independent notified body examines a representative sample and the file (Module B). Breathing-machine tests, cold-water behaviour and marking are typical for regulators.
4. Production surveillance
Category III does not end at the prototype. A notified body either samples production at intervals (Module C2) or audits the quality system that makes the product (Module D). The CE mark is then followed by that body’s number.
5. Declaration and marking
Only the manufacturer signs the EU Declaration of Conformity. We keep the file for ten years after the product is placed on the market, investigate incidents, and correct or withdraw equipment if it is unsafe.
Worldwide certification
There is no single certificate valid in every country. CE is the European Union’s mark. It is not a world passport.
What can be global is the engineering type: one design, tested once against international ISO / EN methods. What cannot be global is the legal mark. Each market still requires its own homologation — a local decision that this type may be sold there.
We realise worldwide certification in three layers.
Layer 1 — one international type file
Every product starts as a single technical file: intended depth and temperature, materials, drawings, risk assessment, instructions. Tests are run against the ISO / EN family for that product — EN 250 for regulators, EN 1809 for buoyancy, EN 14225 for suits, EN 14143 for rebreathers, ISO 10297 and EN 144 for cylinder valves, ISO cylinder design standards where we supply vessels.
That file is reused everywhere. We do not invent a different regulator for each flag. We invent a different dossier cover for each law.
Layer 2 — national or regional homologation
When we open a market we appoint the legal role that market requires (manufacturer, EU authorised representative, importer of record), map the type file onto that procedure, and obtain only the mark that procedure allows. We do not ship until that step is closed.
European Union, EEA, Northern Ireland
What “certified” means there: CE under PPE Regulation (EU) 2016/425; Category III also shows a notified-body number
Process we follow: Module B type-examination, then C2 or D production surveillance, EU Declaration of Conformity, CE mark. EU authorised representative if the manufacturer is outside the Union.
Great Britain
What “certified” means there: CE (currently recognised for many product laws) or UKCA
Process we follow: Same technical file. If a UK approved body assesses the type, UKCA may be applied. UKCA alone does not admit the product to the EU.
United States and Canada
What “certified” means there: No CE equivalent for recreational regulators. Cylinders are transport pressure vessels (DOT / TC). Electronics that radiate need FCC (US) or ISED (Canada)
Process we follow: We do not stamp CE and call it American approval. Cylinders and valves follow DOT or Transport Canada specification and periodic retest. Breathing apparatus is released against the type file plus applicable consumer-product and industry practice. Radio-bearing instruments take a separate EMC / radio grant.
Australia and New Zealand
What “certified” means there: Consumer law plus, for cylinders, AS 2030 and local periodic test (often annual hydro in Australia)
Process we follow: Type file mapped to Australian Consumer Law and cylinder standards. North American cylinder stamps and thread forms are not treated as valid there.
Japan and other national pressure / safety regimes
What “certified” means there: High-pressure vessels and some safety goods need domestic inspection marks
Process we follow: Local importer or representative files the type with the competent authority. Cylinder design and retest intervals follow that country’s table, not the European one.
Other markets (Gulf, Eurasia, Latin America, etc.)
What “certified” means there: Often a local mark (for example SASO, EAC, INMETRO) built on ISO evidence
Process we follow: We open a market only when the local scheme is identified, an importer of record is named, and the scheme’s certificate or registration exists. We do not list a country because we hope the ISO file will be enough.
Layer 3 — laws that sit beside the diving standard
A regulator can pass EN 250 and still be illegal in the box: pressure-transport law for cylinders, RED / FCC for computers that transmit, RoHS and REACH for materials, instructions in the official languages of the country of sale, incident reporting to that country’s authority.
- Pressure equipment and transport of cylinders — PED / TPED in Europe, DOT in the United States, AS 2030 in Australia. A cylinder legal in Florida is not automatically legal on a European fill station.
- Radio and electromagnetic compatibility — A dive computer or transmitter needs RED in the EU and FCC in the United States, in addition to any diving standard.
- RoHS, REACH and equivalent chemical rules — Materials declarations sit in the same file.
- Language and after-sale duties — Instructions in the official languages of the country of sale; incident reporting to that country’s authority, not only to Brussels.
How a model reaches a new country
- Freeze the type and finish the international test core.
- Name the market and the exact regulation for that product class.
- Appoint the local representative or importer.
- Submit file, samples and translations to the body that market names.
- Receive the local mark — or do not ship.
- Keep production identical to the examined type; notify the body of safety-relevant changes; keep the file for the period that market requires.
That is worldwide certification. It is slower than printing flags on a carton. It is the only version that remains true when an inspector in Marseille, Sydney or Houston asks for the paper.
What this page does not claim
- ●Historic Siebe Gorman apparatus, exhibition medals and archive photographs are museum material. They are not CE marked and must not be used as diving equipment.
- ●We are not the dissolved historic manufacturer and we do not inherit its certificates.
- ●Country of manufacture is not a substitute for type-examination. Parts may be made in Europe, North America or Asia; the conformity file stays with this company.
- ●A listing on this website is not itself a certificate. The mark on the product, the declaration, and the instructions that travel with it are the legal documents.
- ●It lists no notified-body identification numbers, because none have been issued to this company yet.
- ●It lists no certificate numbers, because no certificate exists until a notified body issues one.
- ●It puts no CE mark on any product until the paperwork behind that mark exists.
- ●It puts no conformity marking on medals, helmets or any heritage object.
Documents supplied with equipment
Each life-support product shipped for a regulated market is accompanied by user instructions in the required languages and by a declaration that names the product, the standards applied, and — for Category III — the notified body. If those papers are missing, the item is not complete.
Siebe, Gorman & Co Ltd · Company No. 16643174. Company details: About the company