A key part of FM Approvals' ongoing effort to provide a smooth post-Brexit transition for its customers is to continue to staff its offices in the United Kingdom and European Union with skilled, experienced staff.
In early 2021, FM Approvals appointed Martin Crowe as its second Certification Manager in its Dublin, Ireland office. Due to continuing Covid-19 restrictions, Crowe and other members of the Dublin office are predominantly working remotely; Crowe from his home office in Wexford, Ireland.
FM Approvals has been an EU Notified Body (EU NB) for the past 14 years, first as FM Approvals Ltd. based in Windsor, England, and since 2019 as FM Approvals Europe Ltd. based in Dublin (NB #2809). Post-Brexit, FM Approvals has moved its Windsor offices about six miles to the west to Maidenhead, England and is now a designated UK Approved Body (AB #1725).
With a BA in industrial engineering and extensive training as a toolmaker, Crowe worked initially as a toolmaker, workshop manager and CAD designer for new product development for several firms, including Sulzer Pump Solutions Ireland Ltd., a division of Sulzer Ltd, a Switzerland-based global firm with more than 15,000 employees.
Crowe worked a total of 16 years for Sulzer Pump Solutions, whose Wexford, Ireland location produces more than 100,000 pumps annually under the Sulzer brand. In later years at Sulzer, Crowe became an expert in the ATEX Directive and has numerous certifications that enabled him to become the senior design and compliance officer for the division.
He had responsibility for ensuring design compliance as a liaison with approval agencies to assist in both new product introductions and design changes. He helped identify and compile standard operating procedures for global operations and was responsible for maintaining full compliance with the ATEX, Machinery and Low Voltage Directives, the Construction Products Regulation (CPR) and other requirements.
"I picked up a copy of an ATEX standard one day and before I knew it I was the shop expert in product compliance," Crowe notes, downplaying his extensive certification training. Sulzer submersible pumps are used in commercial, industrial and municipal applications. "Along with our regular work assisting new and existing customers with FM Approvals certification programs, we spend a lot of our time helping manufacturers to transition certifications from the EU to the UK and vice versa.”
Crowe grew up in Cahore, Ireland, a small fishing village located about an hour south of Dublin. The village sits at the north end of South Beach, which extends for 20 miles (32 km) along the Irish Sea (Irish: Muir Éireann) making it the longest continuous sandy beach in Ireland.
Despite this apparent beach bounty, Crowe says, "Unfortunately, with this lovely sandy beach does not come warm weather. While our air temperature sometimes rises to around 17 °C (62 °F), the water remains cold at 10-14 °C (57 °F). We had a 'heat wave' one year when the air temperature hit about 30 °C (86 °F).