EN 13501-6 European CPR: Electric Cables
Similarly to wall, ceiling, flooring and linear pipe thermal insulation products, flooring, all
electric cables used in member states are tested using the same test methods and classified
using the same classification system.
Cables are tested using five test methods, and classified by the provisions of EN 13501-6
which is a parallel standard in the existing CPR classification standard EN 13501-1 "Fire
classification of construction products and building elements" to include electric cable
requirements. EN 13501-6 shows the test methods and performance criteria that must be
met in order for a cable to meet a particular classification (Aca , B1ca , B2ca , Cca , Dca and Eca ). The five test methods used are:
| EN 50399 | Burning behaviour and smoke production of bunched cable |
| EN ISO 1716 | Reaction to fire tests for building products – Determination of the heat of combustion |
| EN 60332-1-2 | Vertical flame spread of single cable |
| EN 61034-2 | Smoke production of burning cable |
| EN 60754-2 | Acidity of gases produced by burning cables |
Of these standard tests the new standard EN 50399 is the major test procedure for reaction
to fire of cables, this test specification derives from work done in an EU funded project
called FIPEC, Fire Performance of Electric Cables. This work was performed by a research
group consisting of SP, Interscience Communications, ISSEP and CESI. The FIPEC project
included a study of cable installations and relevant reference scenarios as well as a
comprehensive test program of different kinds of cables. This, together with subsequent
Industry test data, was used in the development of the proposal for the European testing
and classification system. Two round robin exercises have been carried out on EN 50399.
The first was performed by the developers of the system, the FIPEC laboratories. The second
round robin was performed through CENELEC and included many test sites. The results were
good and comparable to the results of the SBI test used for linings in Europe. Thus the test
procedure used is quite robust and well developed. The test results are validated for real
fires by using reference scenarios in the FIPEC project and through further analysis and
comparisons to other building products under the CPR.
The reaction-to-fire classification system is built in the same way as that used for linings and
pipe insulation. However, it also included the possibility to declare optional acidity of the
smoke gases, the sub-classes a1, a2 and a3. Both EN 50399 and the modifications to EN
13501 were developed in CENELEC TC20 WG10 along with the Extended Application rules.
The latter was for assessment of cable family fire performance to enable representative
cables to be used to qualify cable groups.
The Extended Application rules were developed in the CEMAC project which was financed
by the European Cable Industry in close co-operation with a group of research laboratories,
consisting of SP, Interscience Communications, ISSEP, LSF and VDE. The project was led by
Europacable. During both the FIPEC and CEMAC projects FTT fire scientists, now part of
firelabUK, were seconded to Interscience Communications to oversee calibration, test, data
acquisition and analysis.
EN 13501-6 shows the test methods and performance criteria (see Table 4) that must be
met in order for a cable to meet a particular classification (Aca , B1ca , B2ca , Cca , Dca and Eca ).