Round-Robin Cable Burn Tests on a Single Fiber Cable

摘要

In July 2013 a new European Regulation, the CPR (Construction Products Regulation) became effective. One of the aspects to be addressed by this regulation is the "Safety in case of fire". As a consequence of that new legislation all products to be permanently installed in buildings need to be CE marked before they can be marketed on the European market. Thus power as well as communication cables, which are basic components for the infrastructure of a building, are affected. As a consequence all of these cables need to be certified by independent accredited test laboratories according to a well-defined procedure described in the so called "Product Standard" (CENELEC EN50575). Even though the new law cannot be executed because of the still not published standards, the cable suppliers are about to test their products according to the new requirements given in the fire classification standard EN13501-6. This paper shows the test results on a fiber optic cable from the same production lot which was tested by three different European test laboratories that want to become accredited test laboratories according to CPR. Surprisingly, the classification of the optical fiber cable sent to the three labs varied from B2ca to Cca, to Dca. Variation in the cable design could be excluded. The results will be analyzed and possible causes (e.g. variations in the set-up used for testing) will be discussed.