The fire properties of cables are of great importance from a fire safety perspective. As a result, cables have been included in the classification system under the European Construction Products Regulation (CPR), following the SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden Fire Research division’s proposal of the classification system to the European Commission. The European CEMAC project (CE-Marking of Cables), for which SP Fire Research has provided technical management, has recently been concluded. The results of the work will significantly reduce the volume of testing required for CE-marking of cables in Europe according to the CLC/TS 50576 standard for extended field of application (EXAP).
In September 2014, the CENELEC TC 20 (European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization, Technical Committee 20) published a product standard for cables–EN 50575 (Power, control and communication cables. Cables for general applications in construction works subject to reaction to fire requirements). EN 50575 was published in The Official Journal of the European Union (OJ) on July 10.
The publication of this standard leads to the following important dates:
- December 1st, 2015: CE marking comes into force – CE marking becomes possible for cables for use in permanent installations in buildings and civil engineering constructions in Europe
- December 1st, 2016: CE marking is mandatory (end of coexistence)
SP has applied to the national Swedish Accreditation Body SWEDAC in order to become a Notified Body for EN 50575. Once EN 50575 is published in Nando (New Approach Notified and Designated Organizations) Information System, which will be after December 1st this year, then SP will receive the Notification and consequently be allowed to issue CE-marking certificates.
In addition during this spring SP has on behalf of EUROPACABLE carried out a project with the purpose of proposing rules for extended field of application (EXAP) for Euro-classification of optical fibre cables. Test results from reaction-to-fire tests of optical fibre cables from different cable families have been analyzed and the results have been published in SP report 2015:32: http://www.sp.se/sv/publications/Sidor/Publikationer.aspx?PublId=23598
The proposal has become a Best Practice document of European Fire Sector Group SH02 and the Best Practice document will later this year be transferred into a Position Paper. Fire testing of optical fibre cables with reduced number of tests, in the same manner as for power cables, is possible already today based on the EXAP in the Best Practice document. After December 1st 2015, and once the Position Paper is published, CE marking of optical fibre cables with reduced number of required tests becomes possible.
Please make sure to stay updated at: www.sp.se/cables