Construction Products Regulation

Fire safety for buildings

Scope of the CPR

The Construction Product Regulation (CPR) is intended to ensure the free circulation of construction product in the EU removing trade barriers eventually created by technical specification. This is achieved by providing a “common technical language", offering uniform assessment methods for the performance of construction products throughout the European Economic Area.

These assessment methods are compiled in harmonised technical specifications. This common technical language is to be applied by all stakeholders in the construction industry (regulatory authorities, manufacturers, distributors, end users ...)

  • The regulatory authorities of Member States when specifying requirements for construction works and by
  • the manufacturers when declaring the performance of their products, and by
  • the distributors when making the products available to their customers and by
  • their users (architects, engineers, constructors, etc.) when choosing the products that are best suited for their intended use in construction works.

Cables concerned by the regulation are those intended to be used for the supply of electricity and communications permanently installed in buildings and other civil engineering works.

Note that at this point the harmonised standard for fire resistant cables is still under development. This means that they are not yet subject to the CPR requirements and that their entire fire behaviour (fire reaction and fire resistance) is still to be assessed against the current national standards.

Construction products regulation classification

The Euroclass Table defines seven classes (Aca, B1ca, B2ca, Cca, Dca, Eca and Fca) based on their fire reaction, such as heat release and flame spread/propagation.

In this classification, heat release and flame spread/propagation are the main classification criteria, but a series of additional criteria is also defined. Those additional criteria apply only to classes B1ca, B2ca, Cca and Dca and they regard:

Criteria Definitions

SMOKE PRODUCTION

Smoke opacity: s1, s1a, s1b, s2 and s3 – s1 corresponding to the best performance and s3 the least.

FLAMING DROPLETS

d0, d1 and d2 – d0 corresponding to the best performance and d2 the least

ACIDITY

a1, a2, a3 during fire – a1 corresponding to the best performance and a3 the least

The smoke classes s1a and s1b reflect requirements that have been in use for a long time in Europe. The acidity classes do also have a background in long traditions.

Are you aware of your responsibilities ?

AUTHORITIES

  • Regulate the fire performance of cables using the CPR Classification
  • Survey the market for correct application of the Regulation

 

SPECIFIERS

  • Must prescribe the level of fire performance required using the CPR classification
  • Evaluate eventual specific risks, which means understanding the level of fire performances of the cable

 

WHOLESALERS

  • Ensure that they place on the market only cables which follow the requirements of the CPR
  • Be sure that the product bears the CE marking and is accompanied by the documents required by CPR

 

INSTALLERS

  • Follow national installation standards
  • Only install CPR certified cables of the appropriate performance

 

Nexans CPR tutorial

Educate yourself on the CPR with Nexans' tutorial

Nexans tutorial for Construction products regulation

CPR awareness in your country

90
%

of European installers agree that fire safety is important, that CPR can contribute to it, and that non-conforming product introduces risk;

75
%

of European installers are confident that they can apply the CPR correctly in their work;

66
%

Of European installers are confident about the details of the various CPR classes, DoPs, etc.

50
%

But ... about half feel they often have to compromise safety against cost.

Fire safety cables for CPR
All you need to know about Construction Products Regulation (CPR)

All Nexans’ cables for building applications are CE marked according with the CPR. The family Declaration of Performance are available on the Nexans Tracker application. Please refer to local websites to get information about the required level of performance.

Other information available at cpr.europacable.eu

 

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