Material Certificates Explained: EN 10204 Types 2.1, 2.2, 3.1 and 3.2
When a fastener failure triggers litigation or a fleet recall, the material certificate is the paper trail's spine. EN 10204 defines four levels of assurance.
The four types
- 2.1: declaration of compliance with the order — no test results. Adequate for non-critical commercial hardware.
- 2.2: test report with non-specific test results — the mill tested representative production, not necessarily your melt.
- 3.1: inspection certificate with specific results — tests performed by the manufacturer's authorized inspector on your actual melt/lot. The industrial default for load-bearing fasteners.
- 3.2: like 3.1 but witnessed by an independent inspector or customer representative — aerospace, nuclear, offshore.
What 3.1 should contain for fasteners
Melt number, chemistry, mechanical test results (tensile, hardness), heat-treat batch reference — and traceability from your delivered lot back to that melt. A certificate naming a different lot than your delivery is decoration.
Topprecision issues 3.1 certificates as standard for alloy and stainless product lines, with lot-level traceability maintained for ten years — because the cheapest audit is one that finds everything.
