HARDWARE & SECURITY |
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manufacturers and suppliers . Further administration would also be required as each time a change in product scope is requested , the hardware manufacturer must apply to the doorset manufacturer in order to have the product included on their EXAP report .
This could affect the timber fire door manufacturer as follows : It is the current situation that the standard for internal fire doorsets EN 14351 2 is not harmonised therefore there is no mandatory requirement to test to EN 1634- 1 in UK . There is a therefore a huge amount of existing fire test evidence to BS 476 22
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which would effectively be of no further use as this would no longer be acceptable under the new EN classification proposal . This would mean a huge increase in testing costs as door manufacturers would need to test their doors to EN 1634-1 in order to receive the classification required under EN13501-2 e . g . E30 , E60 . Extra testing would also be required for industry to have same level of scope enhancement as currently exists under BS 476 22 .
This could also drive the industry further towards standardised restricted door sets and less towards door
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assemblies , where more variation is permitted . It should also be noted that timber doors which currently pass under BS 476 22 may not pass the EN 1634 1 test which is a more onerous test . This could mean further costs being borne to re-engineer specifications in order to pass the EN 1634-1 test . The proposed changes could have further implications across the industry including potential revision on key British Standards , which feature BS 476 22 heavily including BS 9991 , BS 9999 and BS 8214 . It would also affect existing third-party certification |
schemes for both hardware and doors which have existing assessments under BS 476 22 .
Under the consultation these would no longer be accepted therefore new scheme rules would need to be written under EN 1634-1 .
The Guild has recently collected members thoughts on these proposed changes and submitted a strong challenge to the UK Government on behalf of its members . The GAI will share any updates via its website and the full response can also be read there .
www . gai . org . uk
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