EoW July 2013

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Technical article
July 2013 43
Many of our cable businesses are
international. Therefore companies need
standards experts who are intimately
familiar with several national standards.
New materials must meet the same
performance criteria of developed
materials, and receive temperature ratings
based upon standards performance
protocols such as relative thermal
index. The issued standard creates a
level performance playing field for
manufacturers. This enables companies to
act by investing in product development
resources(28).
3 Standards
Development
Organizations (SDO)
• ASTM International develops both
Standard Test Methods and Product
Standards
• UL and CSA related to the respective
country National Electric Code in the
US and Canada
• Insulated Conductor Engineers
Association
• ISO and IEC, discussed previously
• Other international organisations
include GB/T (China), NOM (Mexico),
and BS (Great Britain)
ASTM International is a globally
recognised leader in the development
and delivery of international voluntary
consensus standards(29). Today, some
12,000 ASTM standards are used around
the world to improve product quality,
enhance safety, facilitate market access
and trade, and build consumer confidence.
ASTM’s leadership in international
standards development is driven by
the contributions of its members, who
include more than 30,000 of the world’s
top technical experts and business
professionals representing 135 countries.
Working in an open and transparent
process and using ASTM’s advanced
electronic infrastructure, ASTM members
deliver the test methods, specifications,
guides, and practices that support
industries and products worldwide. UL
and Canadian Standards Association
(CSA) undertake development of safety
standards(7) in the United States and
Canada, respectively.
These two organisations make a
significant contribution to the national
electrical code of their country. In the
United States, the National Fire Protection
Association (NFPA) issues the National
Electric Code. Materials suppliers and
cable manufacturers can propose
changes to the UL and CSA standards
and subsequently obtain changes in
the national electrical code. This occurs
after demonstrating that new materials
or cables product meet rigorous and
demanding performance capability.
For North America, UL and CSA have a
significant stake in assuring the safety
of products that provide expected
performance.
IEC wire and cable product standards
are harmonised and international. The
harmonisation efforts are complex since
each country has an opportunity to
comment and vote on the technical merits
of a standard under development or being
revised.
The International Standards Organization
(ISO) develops standards for the world
so that products such as automobiles
or electro technical products that are
manufactured on several continents are
developed and produced to uniform
standards. Your input is needed so that
cable manufacturers, suppliers and
other experts work with the standards
development organisations to create new
standards, update standards as a result of
evolving technology, and review existing
standards to ensure that relevance and
value is maintained.
There is always a need to develop
standards more rapidly for the evolving
materials development work constantly
ongoing. These efforts by people are
required to provide the highest quality
standards to meet electrical, fire safety
and performance criteria. This makes your
participation critical to the process.
3.1 Why Help Develop
Consensus Standards?
a Working on standards developments
helps people to see another company’s
perspective
b Working on standards helps a person
to understand the reason behind a test
or a product standard
c The understanding gained allows your
company to develop consistency and
repeatability in testing and reporting
d Your company brings its experiences
to standards development. Having
standards experts in your organisation
is essential for continued success
Test Type Test Test Comment
D1929(17) Ignition Temperature Measures ignition
temperature of plastics
D2863(18) Oxygen Index Percent of oxygen needed
to sustain flame
D3801(19) Extinguishing
Vertical flame,
extinguishing
characteristics
D3874(20) Ignition Ignition of material by
hot wire sources
D5424(21) Smoke Vertical cable tray
smoke measurement
D5485(22) Corrosion Cone calorimeter
corrosion test
D5537(23) Fire load Heat release, flame spread,
mass loss
E 662(24) Smoke Spread Amount of smoke
UL 1685 (25) Cable Vertical Tray Vertical tray fire spread,
smoke release
UL 2196 (26) Fire Resistive Cable Tests for fire resistive cable,
(fire stop)
▲ ▲ Table 1: Standards examples of ASTM and UL wire and cable fire and smoke tests(7)