EuroWire March 2016

News Corporate

Extension includes large-scale vertical ladder fire test

▲ ▲ Vertical ladder fire testing

The British Approvals Service for Cables (BASEC) has extended its United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS) accreditation of its UK laboratory to cover a broad range of cable fire tests. This extension to BASEC’s scope under ISO/IEC 17025:2005 includes the large-scale vertical ladder test used for the EU Construction Products Regulation (CPR), EN 50399, and the full range of vertical ladder tests to the IEC 60332-3-21/25 series as well as many other familiar cable fire tests. These cable fire tests include small-scale circuit integrity tests in its three re-configurable fire test chambers, including a range of small-scale IEC 60331 series fire tests, the long-established BS 6387 tests, tests for fire alarm and emergency lighting cables to BS EN 50200/Annex E and BS 8434-2, and the enhanced attack test for larger cables BS 8491. Dr Jeremy Hodge, chief executive at BASEC, said: “With these new accreditations, BASEC is demonstrating its capabilities and commitment to the industry by investing in high quality personnel and equipment. Accreditation of the EN 50399 test, building on our existing accreditations to EN 61034, EN 60754 and EN 60332-1-2, will allow manufacturers and suppliers to confidently start their preparations for the introduction of CPR for cables in Europe with accredited tests. We are already using our facilities for regular BASEC cable approvals testing, and also for accredited testing for a range of customers in specialist areas such as marine, rail, fibre optic and communications cables.” BASEC has also upgraded its UKAS product certification accreditation to the new international standard ISO/IEC 17065, and has enhanced the scope of its UKAS management system accreditations under ISO/IEC 17021 to include cable distribution and wholesale. ISO/IEC 17025:2005 is an international standard that specifies the competence and quality management system requirements for laboratories that provide testing and calibration services. BASEC’s laboratory was awarded ISO/IEC 17025:2005 accreditation by UKAS in 2014 and it is one of the highest levels of recognised quality any testing or calibration laboratory can attain.

BASEC – UK Website : www.basec.org.uk

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March 2016