All You Need To Know About EN 1090 And Structural Steel
If you are involved in any kind of construction work you are probably familiar with EN 1090, a standard that regulates steel and aluminium structures. But did you know that you are breaking the law if you disregard the demands of EN 1090?
EN 1090 applies to structural components, which are those “to be used as load-bearing parts of works designed to provide mechanical resistance and stability to the works and/or fire resistance, including aspects of durability and serviceability which can be used directly as delivered or can be incorporated into a construction work”.
Therefore, it’s a criminal offence to supply structural metalwork that fails to conform to EN 1090. But what must you do to comply with the standard? Here are the facts to help you understand:
EN 1090 parts
- EN 1090 comes in three parts:
- EN 1090-1: Requirements for conformity assessment for structural components.
- EN 1090-2: Technical requirements for the execution of steel structures.
- EN 1090-3: Technical requirements for the execution of aluminium structures.
- Part 1 calls for CE Marking, which demonstrates compliance with the appropriate manufacturing standard for a product.
- Parts 2 and 3 demand that welders have undergone tests against an approved weld qualifying procedure before being able to weld products deemed to be structural.
CE marking
- EN 1090 requires purchasing systems to be set up to buy only CE marked sections, bolts and welding consumables.
Safety
- The standard insists that designers identify the execution class of the product, which is determined by the potential risk to the public if the component or structure fails.
- It is the buyers’ responsibility to ensure that structural steel products are purchased from a firm that is accredited.
Testing
- Prototypes must be produced and subjected to initial type testing. Where type testing is impractical – for example, on bespoke designs – the company can use calculations instead.
Welding
- Where welding is part of the process, a welding quality management system is needed that conforms to EN ISO 3834 ‘Quality Requirements for Fusion Welding of Metallic Materials’.
- The company should employ, or have access to, a responsible welding co-ordinator (RWC) to control its welding quality management system.
The British Standards Institution’s clarification document offers a broad definition of the types of structural components that are covered by EN 1090 and a number of these components are supplied by ECEX.
That’s why ECEX is accredited to the EN 1090 standard and has an in-house RWC who has been externally approved to act in this role.
ECEX can, for example, demonstrate that all fabricated products have had welds tested in line with documented test regimes. It can also demonstrate that all welding equipment is independently serviced and tested.
The company has a team of skilled metalwork fabricators operating from its workshop in Newbury which can survey and design bespoke metalwork solutions whatever the issue.
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