EuroWire November 2015

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Technical article
November 2015 52
Jörg Bör
CABX Cable Expert Dipl-Ing
Aachen
Germany
Tel: +49 163 439 1964
Email:
This need is taken into account in
the European Constructive Products
Regulation[6].
We have seen there are two aspects of fire
protection: fire avoidance and reduction
of fire impacts. How do these aspects
correlate to the regional differences in fire
protection strategies?
4.1 Fire Avoidance
The common fire protection philosophy in
America is to prevent fire at any cost. There
are high amounts invested into research
and investigation and the results are very
challenging regulations regarding the fire
performance of indoor cabling in terms of
self ignition, flame propagation and fire
resistance. To meet these requirements
there is no other way than to use halogens
as flame retardants in cable compounds,
as well as in building materials.
This approach risks the threat of personal
injury by acid fumes and of emergency
exits being hidden by dense smoke.
4.2 Reduction of Fire Impacts
It seems to be complete nonsense to
reduce potential fire impact but to do
nothing to avoid fire. And it really is,
because there are so many and various
impacts of fire.
There may be very specific situations
where such a scenario makes sense, but
such an exotic application shall not be
discussed in this paper. Nevertheless we
do not know any regulations which just
support this approach.
Reduction of fire impact cannot be a fire
protection strategy itself but it should be
an important part of a combined strategy,
as it is European standard.
4.3 Diverse Redundancy
It is said that Europeans and especially
Germans have a preference for multiple
safety. We are happy to know there is a
second protection instrument if the first
protection instrument should fail.
Combined safety strategy is well-known
in many technologies relevant to safety.
So in safety discussions regarding
nuclear power plants the idea of diverse
redundancy is a basic approach.
This means there must be an additional
safety procedure which works completely
independently from the first one in case
the basic safety procedure does not work.
So in Europe it is the consensus to avoid
fire as much as possible but at the same
time to keep low the consequences on
health or goods if a fire happens. Due to
physical reasons a better reduction of
the effects is achieved by reduced fire
avoidance.
But in total the risk according to Equation
(1) is significantly lower. This is also shown
in Figure 2.
To protect people’s health in case of fire it
is widely required to use halogen free, low
smoke materials for buildings including
indoor cabling. This is mandatory in
public premises but also recommended in
residential areas.
5 Conclusions
Due to cultural differences the focus of
fire protection in America is to reduce the
probability of fire, but in Europe mainly the
dimensions of possible health injuries and
material damages are to be controlled.
Due to these differences in fire protection
strategies there are wide differences in
technical standards, requirements, and
specifications for cables as well as for other
construction components regarding fire
performance.
The European approach follows the
theory of diverse redundancy. Even if the
requirements to each single parameter for
cable fire performance are lower, there is a
much better protection with less effort in
total.
Different fire protection strategies are
related to intercultural differences. To
sell a product in a region it is not only
necessary to meet all specifications but to
understand the needs and fears of humans
living there. Just by addressing these
aspects it is possible to convince potential
customers of the advantages a product
offers. Thus cultural relativity has to be
taken into account in worldwide business.
Cross-cultural awareness is an important
skill in global product management.
6 Acknowledgments
Special thanks to Prof Dr Armin Wittmann
from Trier University of Applied Sciences
for providing information regarding risk
management.
Nicolai Bör from GIZ (German Association
for International Cooperation) for
giving an increased understanding of
intercultural differences and their effects
on the B2B business.
ICYE (International Christian
Youth Exchange) and its national
sub-organisations whose activities
intensified the experience of cross-cultural
awareness. n
7 References
[1] G Hofstede, “Management Scientists Are
Human” University of Limburg, The Netherlands
Management Science, Vol 40, No 1, (Jan 1994)
[2] C Chapman, S Ward, “Project Risk Management:
Processes, Techniques, and Insights”, 2nd Ed, John
Wiley & Sons Ltd (2003)
[3] Robin E McDermott, Raymond J Mikulak, Michael
R Beauregard,“The Basics of FMEA”, 2nd Ed, Taylor &
Francis Group LLC (2009)
[4] Society for Risk Analysis (SRA);
[5] Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; http://
[6] European Commission: “Regulation (EU) No.
305/2011of the European Parliament and of
the Council of 9th March 2011 laying down
harmonised conditions for the marketing of
construction products and repealing Council
Directive 89/106/EEC”; OJ L 88 of 4th April 2011
Paper courtesy of the 63rd IWCS Technical
Symposium, Providence, Rhode Island, USA,
November 2014.
Material Flame retardant Low smoke Halogen free
PVC X – No
Polyolefin – – X Yes
Polyurethane – – X ?
TPE – X ?
FRNC + X Yes
Fluorpolymer + + No!
▲ ▲ Table 2: Typical fire performance properties of cable compounds