Network Communications News (NCN) October 2016 | Page 24

F E AT U R E

CPR requirements

Each EU member state is obliged to adopt CPR terminology into its national regulations.

manufacturer, whilst System 1+ also
includes factory audit and continuous
verification through production
inspection and warehouse sampling.
Each of these assessment systems needs
to be carried out by a Notified Body
accredited by the EC.
When cables are assessed according
to these systems, manufacturers are
entitled to draw up a Declaration of
Performance (DoP), which is a mandatory
document to be made publicly
available to show CPR compliance.
This DoP needs to contain the unique
reference number and description of
the cable type, its EuroClass and s/a/d
classifications according to EN50575 and
the ID number of the Notified Body who
carried out the testing.
This same information needs to
be reflected on the label of the cable
packaging (drum or box) including
the CE mark. It is allowed - but not
mandatory - to have the CPR information
on the cable sheath.

Mandatory compliance
The coexistence period of CPR for
cables commenced on 10th June 2016,
meaning that manufacturers are entitled
to start making cables ready for CPR.
As of 1st July 2017 it will be mandatory
to comply. It is important to clarify that
no manufacturers (or importers) will be
allowed to bring cables to market in
the EEA without CPR compliance after
the date of 1st July 2017. Cables that
have been brought to market before
that date, however, and are available
in distributors’ stocks, are still allowed
to be sold and installed after that
date. Whether or not these will still
be acceptable in certain installations,
however, is a different matter and will
depend upon how CPR is adopted in
every EU country.
Although we now have a
harmonised European standard defining
performance levels for reaction to fire
of cables, it is still down to every EU
member state to determine which
EuroClasses are re