THE TRANSPOSITION OF EUROCLASSES 

Throughout the EU, existing national classifications for the performance of building products in fire do not automatically equate with those arising from the new Euroclasses, so products cannot typically assume a Euroclass unless they have been suitably tested or documented as 'classified without further testing'. 
To enable the use of the Euroclass system in support of national Building Regulations, the government regulators of each member state have agreed to make 'a progressive transposition' to include Euroclasses within published guidance or requirements. The Euroclass transposition may vary from one EU member state to another, according to national needs, but all EU countries will use the same Euroclass classification system.

The transposition documents are/will be expressed in terms of the new EU Classification systems for Reaction to Fire and for Resistance to Fire, as supported by published European Product Standards, classification and fire test methods. Currently, Scotland has already declared new Technical Standards incorporating Euroclasses. England & Wales have published selected Amendments to Approved Document B - further Amendments are likely because transpositions for the whole range of building products are only possible when the relevant Product Standard has been published.

Some of these Product Standards are still being finalised. However, the Product Standard for Mineral Wool Insulation was one of the first to be published and it has been possible to include the Euroclass in CE Marking for Mineral Wool Insulation products since March 1st 2002. Further, these products must have CE Marking labels from 1 March 2003 if intended for cross-border sales, and into or out of the UK.

The 'transpositions' for various countries are indicated below.

. Transpositions for England & Wales

. Transpositions for Scotland

. Transpositions for Republic of Ireland

. Transpositions for Northern Ireland

Transpositions for England & Wales
The Euroclass system permits wider and more comprehensive differentiation of products for their fire performance than the 'old' British Standard system. This makes it a welcome tool for specifiers.

Amendments 2002 to Approved Document B (Fire Safety) 2000 edition, were published in December 2002 - and applicable from 1 March 2003. The text is only concerned with transposition issues and does not amend the intended guidance.

The full document is available on www.safety.odpm.gov.uk/bregs/brads.htm or from the Stationery Office at mailto:orders@theso.co.uk by e-mail. It is envisaged that further amendments - for product use not yet covered - will be published when it becomes viable to do so and the amended guidance will subsequently be included in reprints of Approved Document B. 


REACTION TO FIRE
In broad terms, the transpositions for Reaction to Fire can be summarised as:

Notes.

1. When a Reaction to Fire classification includes 's3,d2' this means that there is no limit set for smoke production and/or flaming droplets/particles.

2. References to 'ratings' provided by manufacturers and trade associations should be carefully checked to ensure that the product is suitable, adequate and applicable for the construction to be used. Small differences in detail, such as thickness, substrate, colour, form, fixings, adhesives etc may significantly affect the 'rating' or classification.

RESISTANCE TO FIRE
In the case of Resistance to Fire, the transposition process is primarily concerned with the introduction of the REI format of classification. The specific provisions of test for fire resistance periods remain effectively unchanged, even though the European fire test methods are considered more onerous for some elements of construction.

The Amendment document contains Notes to Tables to explain various apparent differences between the 'old' and 'new' systems - for example, in regard to Cavity Barriers the requirement becomes EI 30, but note 11 clarifies that an insulation value of 15 minutes will be deemed to satisfy in this instance. New commentary is also given on the minimum size of steel elements that are deemed to satisfy the minimum period of 15 minutes fire resistance to EN fire test methods.

Transpositions forScotland
Scottish Technical Standards D & E were amended in September 2001 for application from 1 March 2002. The changes included transposition to Euroclasses. The full documents should be read for all conditions to be taken into account.

The Scottish process demanded that the changes were made before all the finalised EN documents were available. Therefore, the Euroclass categories used for Reaction to Fire may need to be updated to include reference to Smoke and Flaming Droplets/particles in any subsequent review. However, the lack of reference to these properties is not considered a barrier to trade by the Scottish Office, as there are currently no requirements set for them in Scotland. Nevertheless Scottish manufacturers would need to include information for production of smoke and flaming droplets/particles in their CE Marking if the products are to be sold in other EU countries.

REACTION TO FIRE

Scotland has introduced the concept of 'risk' to the application of Reaction to Fire classifications for construction products, as indicated in the following table.

NOTE:
A sandwich panel used for internal walls or linings in a building of purpose groups 1 or 2 must be fully filled with a core that consists of non-combustible material [paragraph D7.3].

RESISTANCE TO FIRE
Scotland has also introduced the concept of 'duration' to periods for Resistance to Fire, as well as the European REI classification format.