50
JULY 2014 PRO INSTALLER
PRO BUSINESS
www.proinstaller.co.uk
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
‘must comply
with mandatory
EU regulations,
carry out
associated
procedures,
and develop
a system for
complying with
health and safety
requirements
and for
documentation’
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
standardised 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.
‘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.
‘to obtain a
‘Secured by
Design’ certificate
for any of the
above mentioned,
the performance
standards BS
6375 (all parts)
are also required.
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.