Background

On June 10^th, 2016 the EU Commission finally incorporated into statute Regulation EU 305/2011 laying down the harmonised conditions for the marketing of construction products and repealing Council Directive 89/106/EEC.

The European Union, conscious of the relevance of cables for safety during fire, listed in the EUOJ, in June 2016, the harmonized standard EN 50575:2014 and its amendment A1:2016 for power, control and communication cables. That listing makes cables subject to the Construction Products Regulation. The harmonized standard came into force on 10^th June 2016 and the coexistence period will end 1^st July 2017.

From the July 1^st it is required that any cable product permanently installed within a building or civil engineering construction was required to be classified in terms of the products reaction to fire characteristics and CE marked accordingly.

The characterisation of cables is required to be completed under the harmonised standard EN 50575. EN 50575 describes seven basic classifications levels which are intended to address and enable users and specifiers to routinely assess the safety of cables. The base classification is assessed by determining a bundle of cables ability to propagate fire. EN 50575 further smoke, acid gas generation and flaming droplets. Table 1 below summarises the characteristics and requirements of each class where Euroclass A_CA is classified as non-combustible and Euroclass F_CA is classified as flammable.

Table 1 has been extracted from EN 50575

Within the classification system described within Table 1 it is generally accepted that Euroclass A_CA does not apply to cables and that it is unlikely any data cable will ever realise a Euroclass B1_CA rating.

Table 1 Test methods for reaction to fire classes (Extracted from EN 50575)