The European Union, with the aim of improving the safety of buildings, has created a construction product classification system in agreement with their fire behaviour, which is common for the whole of Europe within the Constructions Products Regulation (CPR).
The Institutions’ concern to protect people against fire is fully shared by Cables RCT and by the cable industry in general, and thus cables with low smoke and toxic gas emission have been developed. These cables give more time to evacuate in the case of fire and are less harmful for the protection teams, facilitating rescue tasks.
The CPR, with its new product classification system and the quality control requirements entailed by this classification, represents an important step towards improving the performance of cables and their safety level, moving forward along the path that the cable industry has been setting for the last few years.
What is the Construction Products Regulation (CPR)?
The Construction Products Regulation* CPR, is the European legislation that establishes the basic requirements and essential harmonised characteristics that all products designed to be permanently installed in construction works must satisfiy within the EU application scope.
Due to its legal nature, all social agents affected must directly comply with it: administration, manufacturers, dealers, users, etc. All the existing regulations and legislation in the European Union must be adapte before its entry into force to the harmonised technical specifications.
(EU) Regulation no. 305/2011, 9 March 2011 (published on 4 April 2011 in the Official Journal of the European Union) establishing harmonised conditions for marketing construction products, and abolishing EEC Directive 89/106 of the Council.
What is the objective of the CPR?
There are different legislations for cables at European and national levels that result in different safety levels. The CPR regulation introduces new classification criteria and common classes, the so-called Euroclasses, for the entire European space, creating a common language and a classification, assessment and certification system for all member countries, for construction products. With regards to fire behaviour, it permits establishing common standards to carry out assessment comparisons in equivalent conditions, guaranteeing the veracity of the information the products subject to this regulation.
Who does the application of the CPR affect?
The players involved in the application of the CPR are the manufacturers, the dealers, the installers and engineering companies, as well as the competent Authorities of the EU member states.
Manufacturers and dealers are obliged to manufacture and market the products in agreement with the standards indicated in the CPR. Furthermore, manufacturers must make a “Declaration of Performance” (DoP), ratifying that the product meets the performance set by the CPR for a certain Euroclass. Products must be identified with marks and tags that show their classification. Finally, these properties and compliance with them must be validated by an independent body, the so-called Notified Bodies and Laboratories.
The competent authorities of each member state are responsible for determining the conditions that the materials of each national territory must satisfy, establishing the safety levels that must be reached in agreement with the type of construction or installation, and verifying that the products marketed or installed satisfy the respective application requirements.
Installers, engineering companies and end users are obliged to select the appropriate products in agreement with the construction, and they must satisfy the requirements established by the national authorities. Where appropriate, importers must also adopt all the necessary measures to ensure that the products they place on the market are in agreement with CPR requirements and with the mandatory national requirements.