ON THE COVER
CPR and installation cables:
Today and tomorrow
Commercial trading within the European Union (EU) has come a long way, fighting a number of
technical barriers, as each country has its own national standards and testing protocols, says
Winfried Schultz, global marketing director at Black Box.
T
he Construction
Products Regulation
(CPR – EU/305/2011) is
a directive which aims
to streamline a set of
standards that were developed
in agreement between members
of the European Economic Area
(EEA), and create a common
technical language.
Fixed cabling
CPR for cables has been effective
since July 1 2017 and applies
to cables installed in buildings
and civil engineering works. The
directive adds higher mandatory
product safety standards, and
its purpose is to help prevent
the spread of fire in buildings in
order to save lives. It is applicable
12 | September 2017
‘Factory
terminations
inherently
provide better
connections
than those
done in the
field.’
to all types of cabling including
power cables, copper data cables
and optical cables, and has been
described as the most significant
regulation change in the way
construction products are sold
throughout Europe.
CPR requires that cable products
are classified according to a new
set of fire test methods by approved
third party test laboratories. The
output of the test is a EuroClass,
identifying the reaction to fire (fire
growth) of a cable design. The EU
CPR website lists the approved test
houses and each one has its own
reference number.
New cables launched on
the market require a CE mark on
the packaging (drum/box) and
a reference to the Declaration
of Performance (DoP) which
identifies the EuroClass. The DoP
is the document confirming the
EuroClass and is available for each
CPR CE-marked cable.
The CPR does not dictate
which EuroClass should be used
in individual EU countries. It is
up to each EU country to decide,
and it is the responsibility of the
end-user to select the correct
EuroClass for the country where
the cable will be installed.
Pre-terminated cabling
Although pre-connected systems
are not covered by CPR, (only ‘fixed’
cables), pre-termination assemblies
will require CPR cable as well in the
near future as these installations
could in some circumstances be
considered as fixed.