fire testing standards
Standards are voluntary documents that set out specifications, procedures and guidelines to help ensure products, services and systems are safe, consistent and reliable.
They cover a variety of subjects, including consumer products and services, the environment, construction, energy and water utilities... and fire safety.
To ensure they keep pace with new technologies, standards are regularly reviewed by Standards Australia technical committees (click the link below to visit the Standards Australia website).
There are three categories of standards:
international standards
These are developed by ISO, IEC, and ITU for countries to adopt for national use.
Standards Australia embraces the development and adoption of international standards.
Regional Standards
These are prepared by a specific region, such as the European Union’s EN standards or joint Australian/New Zealand standards.
National Standards
These are developed either by a national standards body (like Standards Australia) or other accredited bodies.
Any standards developed under the Australian Standard® name have been created in Australia or are adoptions of international or other standards.
In Australia an accredited testing laboratory takes the raw data from the various international standards. That data is put through AS4100 regression analysis to arrive at the data required to protect elements to the required FRLs.
On their own, standards are voluntary... there is no requirement to comply with them.
However, state and Commonwealth governments often refer to Australian Standards (AS) or joint Australian/New Zealand Standards (AS/NZS) in their legislation.
When this happens, these standards can become mandatory.
How do I meet the standards?
There are many different standards applicable to different situations, applications, equipment, fire ratings levels and many other criteria.
You can search for documents that set the standards for your particular situation at the Standards Australia website. The different standards documents (and there are many of them) are downloadable (for a price).
Alternatively you can engage a company that is familiar with the standards to check your installations for you. They also, of course, charge a fee but, with their comprehensive knowledge of standards compliance, engaging them usually results in considerable savings in the long run.
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