Both EN 50399 and the modifications to EN 13501 were developed in CENELEC TC 20,WG10. The latter is now working on the proposals for Extended Applications for assessment of cable family fire performance that will 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, ISSEP, LSF and VDE.The project was led by Europacable and the RTD contributions were led by SP-Fire Technology. During both the FIPEC and CEMAC projects FTT fire scientists were seconded to Interscience to oversee calibration, test, data acquisition and analysis.We also worked with Interscience in CENELEC on the standard.


How are cables classified?


EN 13501 shows the test methods and performance criteria (see Table 1) that must be met in order for a cable to meet a particular classification (Aca


,B1ca


The 5 test methods used are: ■


,B2ca ,Cca ,Dca and Eca .)


Burning behaviour of bunched cables – Scenario 1 (EN 50399) - This test evaluates the potential contribution of a cable to the early stages of development of a fire, under direct exposure to a 20,5 kW flame source.The test is relevant for the classes B2ca


,Cca ■ and Dca .


Burning behaviour of bunched cables – Scenario 2 (EN 50399) - This test evaluates the potential contribution of a cable to the early stages of development of a fire, under direct exposure to a 30 kW flame source.The test is relevant for the class B1ca


. ■


Burning behaviour of single cables (EN 60332-1-2) - This test evaluates the flame spread of a cable under exposure to a small flame.The test is relevant for the classes B1ca


,B2ca ■ ,Cca ,Dca and Eca .


Smoke production of burning cables (EN 61034) - This test evaluates the potential contribution of a cable to obscuration of vision when burning under static air flow conditions.The test is relevant for the classes B1ca


,B2ca ■ ,Cca and Dca , in association with the additional classification for smoke.


Acidity levels produced by burning cables (EN 50267-2-3) - This test evaluates the potential contribution of burning cable materials to the hazardous properties of evolved gases.The test is relevant for the classes B1ca Cca


and Dca ■ , in association with the additional classification for acidity.


Heat of combustion test (EN ISO 1716) - This test determines the potential maximum total heat release of a product when completely burning, regardless of its end use.The test is relevant for the class Aca


. ,B2ca ,


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