General Cable, the leading company in the international cable sector, offers its customers and the market in general full information on the requirements of the new European Construction Products Regulation (CPR) on its corporate website.
On http://www.generalcable.com/eu/en/products-solutions/cpr it exhaustively details the contents of this regulation, which came into force last June, and also answers the most frequent questions about its application.
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The CPR is currently in a transitional period and its provisions will be binding for companies from 1 July 2017. The aim of this regulation is to facilitate the free movement of safe and harmonized construction products within the European Union, including electric cables. One of its main advantages is that it will now be easier for customers to compare the products that they acquire irrespective of the country in which they are manufactured. This will be of great use in decision-making. As it is a regulation, its transposition into the local laws of the member states is compulsory.

General Cable played a prominent role in the preparation of the CPR, participating actively in the process from the different European manufacturers’ associations which intervened, including the Spanish association FACEL. It likewise kept its customers informed from the very first day about the changes that this regulation involves, giving them advice to make their adaptation easier. The company’s R&D department was also a pioneer in the sector with the gradual approval of its products pursuant to the CPR. Safety is one of the strategic values of General Cable, which has led the sectorial initiatives aimed at improving the fire safety and fire resistance of cables in recent years. The CPR regulation represents the culmination of this effort.

Fire safety

CPR2.JPGOne of the main demands of the CPR is related to safety in the event of a fire in a building. Its rules detail the performance that the cable must have in the face of fire. The verification procedure includes functional factors, such as propagation of the fire, generation of heat, smoke emissions, flaming droplets and the acidity and corrosiveness of the gases generated. All these requirements are defined to increase the level of safety for people and material goods. Its field of application covers buildings and civil engineering work, such as tunnels, bridges and motorways.

According to the specifications of the CPR regulation, there are seven fire performance classes, going from A (very high level) to F (very low level). There are also additional criteria for classes B to D, such as smoke opacity, acidity and flaming droplets or particles. The CE marking of cables manufactured in accordance with the provisions established by the CPR must indicate their level of fire performance by means of the label which will accompany the product and the Declaration of Performance (DoP) document. This document will also be available on General Cable’s website (www.generalcable.com/eu).