Article 44 -Escalator Pre-shipment inspection (PSI)

How to inspect the escalators and moving walks in the country of origin

In this article, we intend to describe the Escalator Pre-shipment inspection. This inspection includes the escalators and moving walks in the country of origin to ensure their quality and conformity according to the standards as the following:

Given the fact the escalators and moving walks are used to convey people in high traffic public places, the passengers’ safety and comfort must be guaranteed. In this respect, manufacturers’ products must provide the highest level of quality and meet the strictest safety regulations.

Every country authorizes importing the escalators and moving walks based on their customs regulations under one of the acceptable international standards such as ASME or CE mark. The Inspection companies must take the responsibility to evaluate the product’s compliance in the country of origin through implementing Escalator Pre-shipment inspection (PSI).

Inspection companies are two types: free-market and state-owned. The destination country must approve both types. For more assurance of inspection reports' accuracy, it is recommended to choose state-owned inspection companies.

PSI is an abbreviation for Pre-Shipment Inspection through which the inspection companies inspect the escalators and moving walks before finalizing the preparation procedure in the factory. The implementation of Escalator Pre-shipment inspection (PSI)

assures the buyer that the manufactured escalators and moving walks conform to the contract and its related specifications, the governing regulations and standards.

The PSI is implemented in different phases during the preparation process to check the quality, the total amount of goods, required documents, packing list, and verification of conformity to the standards of the destination country.

What's Escalator Pre-shipment inspection?

To perform a Escalator Pre-shipment inspection (PSI), the buyer and supplier must agree upon how the inspection companies inspect the escalators and moving walks. In case the payment method is under a letter of credit (LC), the bank also must approve the inspection method.

After the PSI, the inspection company is supposed to issue a certificate of inspection (COI) to prove that the escalators and moving walks are in a good condition and they do not have any discrepancy with the standard. This certificate is one of the required documents for the importation of the goods to developing countries.

Also, the PSI implementation is mandatory for some countries in order to prevent under or over-invoicing to reduce the customs duties payment as well as evading foreign exchange restrictions.

On the other hand, the escalator manufacturing companies have to provide detailed documents in a report predetermined template for their products in A4-size papers which are called “Test Reports”.

The escalators and moving walks test reports must be provided and updated based on the latest version of the European standard (EN115-1:2017) and only test reports that comply with this number of the standard are approved by the inspection companies.

All the test reports issued from third-party laboratories or escalator factories need a calibration certificate based on ISO/IEC 17025. In case ISO/IEC 17025 laboratory can't test the goods, the test reports must conform to the latest version of the standard by escalator factory laboratory.

The inspection companies assess and examine the conformity of the presented test reports to the manufactured escalators and moving walks and when they are assured of the quality, reliability, and safety of the products and their accordance with the standard requirements, they issue a “COI” certificate.

A PSI report includes the visual and dimensional information is presented to the buyer along with a sufficient number of photos. By doing so, it is possible to manage and consider the requested escalator and moving walk options as well as the technical specifications.

Also, other important dimensions such as the escalator width, horizontal length, and the vertical height are mentioned. At the request of the buyer, it is possible to demand more information from the inspection company to add to the inspection report.

Apart from the inspection during production stages, the inspection is usually performed in the time of loading the escalator. This is to warranty the cargo’s safety before transportation.