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 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.
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.