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BCSA's David Moore explains this new and relatively unknown concept.
What is Execution Class?
How it's applied
Why so unknown?
Wider implications
With the introduction of a new European law - the Construction Products Regulation on 1 July 2013 - all construction products covered by either a harmonised standard or a European Technical Assessment are required to be CE-marked by the manufacturer that places the product on the EU market.
On 1 July 2014, the harmonised standard for fabricated structural steel and aluminium components, EN 1090-1, came into force.
The introduction of both the CPR and the harmonised standard, EN 1090-1, and their implications for the constructional steel and aluminium industries have come as a shock for a large number of smaller fabricators.
However, an issue that is even less well known is the relatively new concept of 'Execution Class'.What is Execution Class?
Execution Class was first introduced in the fabrication standards EN 1090-2 and EN 1090-3, where it is used to define a set of quality and assurance controls for the fabrication process.
There are four execution classes, ranging from Execution Class 1, which gives the lowest set of controls, to Execution Class 4, which gives a higher, more stringent set of controls.
Annex B of EN 1090-2 gives the following relationship between Consequences Class, Production Category and Service Category for determining the Execution Class of a particular structure:
Recommended matrix for determination of execution class(from BS EN 1090-2: 2008+A1: 2011)Consequences ClassesCC1CC2CC3Service CategorySC1SC2SC1SC2SC1SC2Production CategoriesPC1EXC1EXC2EXC2EXC3EXC3aEXC3aPC2EXC2EXC2EXC2EXC3EXC3aEXC4a EXC4 should be applied to special structures or structures with extreme...