As part of the ongoing standards process of publish, review and improve the standard for Portable Fire Extinguishers, BS EN 3 has been reviewed.
European Standards Bodies originally published EN 3 in 1996. The following parts remain in force, with future development of the standards due to replace these shortly.
Part 3: Construction, resistance to pressure, mechanical tests - the pressure vessel pressure
safety part of the standard.
Part 6: Attestation of conformity – how to achieve certification, production tests, test report format
BS EN 3: Part 7: 2004, characteristics, performance requirements and test methods was published in January 2004. This states ‘by publication’ that Parts 1, 2, 4 and 5 are withdrawn whilst Parts 3, 6 and 7 remain current.
Future developments
Moving forward, EN 3: Part 3 will be replaced by pr EN 3: Part 8, Low pressure – water, powder, etc and pr EN 3: Part 9 for CO2 extinguishers.
Both Part 8 and 9 are designed to incorporate Pressure Equipment Directive (PED) requirements. However, in Europe, manufacturers are already required to have PED approval to sell. This conflict has resulted in the delay of these standards, which is why they are still at draft stage.
pr EN Part 10, provision for evaluating the conformity of a portable fire extinguisher to EN3: Part 7 is the draft replacement for Part 6. This document is almost complete and may be circulated for public comment during 2005. Following this it will be published.
For further information on any of these publications, please Contact Us.
