Product standards and safety: Can BS 8524 be used for active fire curtains right now?
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The Adexon Fire & Smoke Curtains Technical team explain the important role of product standards in ensuring the quality, safety and performance of active fire curtains
Product standards play a pivotal role in ensuring that products across various categories adhere to specific performance, quality and safety benchmarks.
These benchmarks are developed over time through the collaborative efforts of industry experts, who establish baseline parameters and best practice performance criteria for manufacturers to follow.
This also provides the consumer with confidence with regard to the expected performance for products conforming to their respective standards.
Product standards ensure a significantly higher level of safety
Product standards comprise several complementary product tests, culminating in a comprehensive evaluation as close to real life as possible in a test environment.
This holistic assessment of the product provides a significantly higher level of safety when compared to only testing a product to a singular product test, such as a fire test.
IMPORTANT: While standards provide excellent guidelines for manufacturers and specifiers alike and confidence to the consumer, regulations take precedence over them.
As BSi tells us: “Compliance with a British Standard cannot confer immunity from legal obligations” and “standards aren’t the same as regulations and following a standard doesn’t guarantee that you’re within the relevant laws.
In fact, standards rarely cite the law as legislation could change within the lifetime of the standard”. Regulations include the Building Regulations, the Construction Products Regulations and the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005 (FSO 2005).
Product standards for active fire curtains
Product standards for active fire curtains follow the same principles, defining the performance criteria and incorporating a series of rigorous tests.
This enables products to substantiate their performance capabilities. Within the United Kingdom, three product standards exist for active fire curtains:
- British Standard BS 8524:2013, Parts 1 and 2.
- International Standard ISO 21524:2021.
- European harmonised Standard BS EN 16034:2014.
The rise and fall of BS 8524-1
In 2013, the publication of the British Standard BS 8524-1 marked the transition from the previous fire-curtain specification, PAS 121:2007.
Although considered a constructive advancement at the time, the new standard contained deficiencies. This has led to the approval of sub-par products entering the market.
These deficiencies likely contributed to its demise, in conjunction with the European standard, BS EN 16034, becoming harmonised on 1 November 2019.
The harmonisation of BS EN 16034 made it a legal requirement to CE mark all vertical fire curtains
While BS EN 16034 initially had limited adoption in the UK, the harmonisation of BS EN 16034 meant it became a legal requirement to CE mark all vertical fire curtains to BS EN 16034.
The withdrawal of support for BS 8524-1 culminated in Warringtonfire and then IFCC pulling out altogether, leaving BS 8524-1 with no valid third-party certification as of 9 June 2023.
BS 8524-1 products should not be sold or purchased after this date, at least until there is valid Notified Body support for the standard again.
This may never happen as the standard will first have to go through a revision process and in doing so, may fall foul of the requirement in the harmonised standard BS EN 16034, that all conflicting standards are to be withdrawn.
BS 8524-1 conflicts with BS EN 16034 in that both standards cover the manufacture of active fire curtains, with identical testing for the fundamental performance criteria such as fire and smoke.
BS EN 16034 is legally required and its foreword states: “This European Standard shall be given the status of a national standard… and conflicting national standards shall be withdrawn at the latest by October 2019.”
If BS 8524-1 is to get through a revision it may regain Notified Body support again. However, there is an indefinite and lengthy timeline involved.
The different parts of BS 8524
Part 1 of BS 8524 brings together a number of tests, some good and some not-so-good, against which the product is assessed. Part 2 of BS 8524 is a code of practice for design, installation, commissioning, and servicing.
It is misleading to say, “BS 8524 Part 2 has third-party approval”, implying this is a unique benefit of BS 8524. Part 2 of BS 8524 cannot be third-party certified per se, as it is a code of practice.
The correct statement is: “SDI 05 is an IFCC scheme for third-party approval of the installation of fire and smoke curtains and this scheme covers products certified to the standards BS EN 16034, BS 8524-1 (when it had valid certification), and ISO 21524.”
Where does BS 8524 now sit in the UK market for fire curtains?
BS 8524 was the first product standard in the world to apply solely to active fire curtain barrier assemblies. While this was a step in the right direction 10 years ago, BS 8524 no longer has valid third-party certification.
No fire industry professional would advocate using a life-safety product without valid third-party certification unless they had a vested interest in saying so.
Additionally, since 1 November 2019, it has been a legal requirement of the Construction Products Regulations (CPR) to CE mark all vertical fire curtains to BS EN 16034.
BS 8524 didn’t ever achieve harmonised status so cannot offer a route to legal compliance with the CPR.
These two factors (legal compliance and third-party certification) mean BS 8524:
- Should not be used for any vertical fire curtains since 1 November 2019.
- Should not be used for any fire curtains (vertical, concertina or horizontal) since 9 June 2023 when the last valid third-party certification for BS 8524 expired.
Potential issues may arise if both BS 8524 and BS EN 16034 are applied concurrently, especially in the case of when the fire test conforms to BS 476, which is permissible under BS 8524 but prohibited by BS EN 16034.
In cases of conflict, it’s essential to prioritise compliance with the legally mandated product standard, which is BS EN 16034.
Even in the event that BS 8524 attains third-party certification in the future, it remains vital to recognise that CE marking to BS EN 16034 is a legal requirement.
Read more about why BS 8524 can no longer be used for fire curtains here.
Tom Bigwood
Technical Consultant
Adexon Fire & Smoke
Tel: +44 (0)151 294 3378
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