EXAP - Extended Application Service

Extended Application Rules Fire Safety

Fire behavior of products and elements for the construction sector: service of extended application of verification results

CSI as a Notified Body, is able to offer to companies producing construction elements and products, the extended application service that allows you to predict, based on the results of tests conducted on some products, the test result of other products of the same manufacturer. and of the same type.

Companies active in the construction sector can find in CSI a unique and reliable partner, thanks to the test laboratories that today offer the widest range of services in Italy in this particular field.

In the specific case of the Fire Prevention context for products and elements used in the construction sector, this service can represent a double competitive advantage for companies for the reduction of product certification costs and for the marketing lever of after-sales assistance of the produced to technicians engaged in fire certification activities.

Today, in the EU, many standards - called standards of extended application - allow us to overcome the obstacle represented by the direct field of application of experimental methods. Where products are subject to CE marking, the use of the extended application rules is the responsibility of notified bodies.

Standard for extension of results (EXAP)

The EXAP (EXtended APplications) standards are the group of standards to obtain the so-called Extended Application Report: This will allow manufacturers to leverage their full range of certifications and experiences.

The reference standard is EN 15725 which, citing the tests performed according to the classification standard EN 13501-2, indicates two types of aspects that can be extended:

• Product - technical characteristics (for example thickness of the material, composition, density) which may vary with respect to what has been tested in the laboratory

• Technical structural characteristics - variations in the characteristics or use and construction conditions of the product (such as size, orientation, method of assembly or installation of the product).

The evaluation can also be based both on the knowledge of the thermal or mechanical parameters that define the fire behavior of the material, and on the possible conditions of use of the product. There are several extended application standards, for each type of product, containing the rules and limits for granting the extension.

The extension is not automatically guaranteed but depends on the results of the analysis conducted on the test data made available by the manufacturer and owned by it.

Fire Engineering

For the extended application service of the fire behavior verification results of products and elements used in the construction sector, CSI makes use of fire safety engineering methodologies and techniques, or Fire Safety Engineering (FSE), a modern safety assessment of a building or an activity.

In the context of fire safety in the construction sector, the assessment of the fire behavior of products has historically made use of laboratory tests. Alongside the evolution of experimental methods, some of which are, to date, especially for non-structural products (e.g. fire dampers, fire doors) mandatory, technical and scientific research has increased the knowledge of the complex phenomena that arise in case of fire.

It is now possible to state, especially in the structural field, that analytical and numerical methods are available that make it possible to avoid, in many cases, the use of experimental methods. Fire safety engineering, if properly used, allows for an analytical and therefore quantitative assessment of the level of fire safety present in buildings to be achieved, in many cases avoiding the use of experimental methods.

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