Door Industry Journal - Summer 2015

Also online at: www.dijonline.co.uk 86 THE door industry journal summer 2015 doorsets Steel Fire Doorsets the new Harmonised European Norm A New Harmonised European Norm for Fire Doorsets EN 16034 Teckentrup UK Limited, based in Warrington and part of the German company Teckentrup GmbH & Co. KG, is one of Europe’s major manufacturers of doors and specialises in fire rated doors. News of the introduction of a new Harmonised European Norm (hEN) covering fire doorsets comes at a time when the company is launching its range of insulated fire doorsets into the UK. This extended articles takes a look at the new hEN. The recent history of hENs “The construction industry is facing the most significant change for a decade in the way in which construction products are sold in Europe. From 1 July 2013, under the Construction Products Regulation 2011 (CPR), it will become mandatory for manufacturers to apply CE marking to any of their products which are covered by a harmonized European standard (hEN) or European Technical Assessment (ETA).” UK Trading Standards website The Construction Products Regulation, which replaced the Construction Products Directive (CPD), is a legislative act that is enforceable by law in all EU member states. One key purpose of a hEN is to achieve a common free market and, whilst there is no European building law and building regulations that set the requirements for the use of construction products in buildings are applied nationally or regionally, European directives, guidelines and norms must be part of national regulations. In short, if there is a hEN in existence it must be part of national regulations, which, in effect, mean hENs play a core role in the formulation and framework of UK building regulations. This was the state of play in 2013. With any major piece of legislation there is a period of coexistence where CE marking is permissible but not mandatory. For example HEN EN14351-1, which covers exterior doors, was introduced in 2007 and CE marking became mandatory in 2013. The new hEN On July 10th a new hEN 16034 was published that covers pedestrian doorsets including fire doorsets. From 1/12/2015 CE marking of doors is permissible and becomes mandatory on 1/12/2018. To CE mark a fire doorset, alongside certified standards of manufacturing business processes, producers must: • Test to BS EN1634-1. • Products with certification to BS 476 will need to re- test BS EN1634-1. • Provide a Declaration of Performance according to Construction Products Regulation. • Fire doors must be ‘sampled’ prior to testing – current test reports will not be accepted if sampling was not carried out. • What is allowed in extended applications (assessments) will be strictly defined and there will be no leeway. For example, only testing a double fire door will be insufficient – both single and double leaf configurations must be tested. The Impact – the opportunity for a best value competitive market The release of this new hEN has significant implications for both producers and specifiers of fire doorsets. Jim Rodger, Teckentrup UK’s Managing Director commented, “When there are different standards each requiring a different product configuration – the UK has BS, Italy UNI, France FNOR and Germany DIN, the size of each market has a dramatic effect on limiting volume manufacture. The introduction of a harmonised European Norm does just what is says – harmonises standards. With one benchmark for all of Europe, volume manufacture becomes brilliantly effective at doing the things everyone expects of mass production – high quality