INDUSTRYNEWS
MANDATORY CE MARKING
– A COMPLEX ISSUE
NICK COOPER, Technical Director at
AluK, a leading manufacturer of innovative
aluminium window, door and curtain
walling systems, joined AluK in 2013,
bringing with him a wealth of experience
in the contracting and fabrication industry,
with a strong background in bespoke
project development, project management,
procurement, planning and training.
Prior to joining AluK, Nick successfully
set up a new aluminium contracting division
within the BSW Group. As Technical Director
at AluK, Nick is responsible for research
and development, project support team
development as well as project specific and
general technical support. In this article, Nick
discusses CE Marking.
In recent years, the construction industry
has witnessed many standards and regulations
changes, including the safety and security
of products in the marketplace. In order to
establish common rules in the European
markets and rectify the inconsistencies of
the Construction Product Directive, the
Construction Products Regulation 2011
(CPR) removed technical barriers to trade for
construction products. This standardise d some
elements of testing and should provide many
benefits, ensuring that products across the
European market are produced on a like for
like basis.
As an effect of this change, mandatory
CE marking has now been introduced.
Manufacturers and exporters are now
confronted by new health and safety
requirements for their products. They must
comply with mandatory EU regulations,
carry out associated procedures, and develop
a system for complying with health and safety
requirements and for documentation. For
windows and doors manufacturers this is BS
EN 14351-1, Windows and doors – product
standard, performance characteristics; Part
1: Windows and external pedestrian doorsets
without resistance to fire and/or smoke leakage
characteristics (Published hEN).
The introduction of mandatory CE marking
also highlighted the necessity of well designed,
good value products that come with all the
right certifications. Furthermore, various
sectors have individual safety and security
requirements that need to be adhered to,
making CE marking a complex issue.
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JUL 2014
‘A passport for
technical data’
It is important to realise that CE marking is
only a ‘passport’ for technical data, enabling
a product to be placed legally on the EU
market. Responsibility for ensuring that a
product has the correct characteristics for
a particular application still rests with the
designers, contractors and local building
authorities.
A product must comply with building
regulations, which ensures that it is fit for
purpose; however, this does not mean that the
product is safe and secure for the application
or sector. Building regulations cannot,
therefore, be looked at in isolation; they need
to be considered alongside the products’
security standards.
There are various security test options
available, all of which give various
definitions of what is classified as ‘secure’.
The specification dictates the security
requirements; but what is the correct
specification for the application?
To answer these questions, it is necessary to
consider what security options are available.
There are many to choose from; however, there
are four particular security standards that are
being mentioned in specification documents
for doors and windows:
PAS24 – mechanical loading, manual attack,
commonly used in residential applications
EN 1627-30 – mechanical loading, manual
attack, commonly used in residential or
commercial applications,
LPS1175 – no mechanical loading, manual
attack, commonly used for commercial
applications
STS202 – no mechanical loading, manual
attack, commonly used for commercial
applications
Each of the above mentioned specifications
presents its own challenge to the system
designer, e.g. PAS24 applies a mechanical
load of 4.5KN, whereas for EN1627-30, the
commercial door is classified within RC3,
which requires a mechanical loading of 6KN.
These specifications create issues within the
profile design; for instance, to achieve a 6KN
load compared to a 4.5KN load will require
a thicker wall of the profile, and this increase
will drive the cost of the profile up.
It is worth noting that to obtain a ‘Secured
by Design’ certificate for any of the above
mentioned, the performance standards BS
6375 (all parts) are also required. Secured
by Design (SBD) is a scheme operated by
the Association of Chief Police Officers and
follows rigorous testing of the complete
products to ensure that it meets the latest
security standards.
Secured by Design – Design Guides
include:
• New Homes
• Refurbished Properties
• Schools
• Hospitals
We are anticipating the release of the SBD
commercial guidance documents in the
coming months to provide much needed
advice on the level of security to protect
commercial and public buildings. Without
the correct guidance it is very difficult for
a systems manufacturer to test a product
and make sure the test standard required is
sufficient; this can build in unnecessary costs
if the perceived crime risk is much lower than
the product has been tested to.
Working in partnership with manufacturers
and suppliers who can deliver innovative
products of the right quality, contractors are
able to deliver differentiation which will help
them to stand out in the market, whether this
is in terms of better service levels, performance
guarantees, hardware aesthetics and security
and energy performance.
To read more, visit www.clearview-uk.com