The growing use of LANs in commercial office buildings has led to the growing use of integrated cabling, which has resulted in an increasing number of communications cables in the space under the ceiling or floor.
In Europe and Asia, there are no fire performance requirements, and some cables have poor or even unknown fire performance.
By contrast, in North America and Mexico, all communications cables must comply with one of four fire codes and must be marked.
These fire ratings are designed for different installation environments and are useful for fire, health and safety checks.
In addition, fire regulations vary widely around the world.
In North America, communication cables have fire codes that emphasize how to reduce flame expansion, fire spread, and smoke generation.
In Europe and Asia, fire codes do not exist for communications cables (fire codes do exist for other building products such as siding, ceilings and flooring). However, in some European countries some users are more concerned about reducing smoke and acid gases due to the existence of the Low Smoky Zero Halogen (LSZH) European standard for cables.
These standards are currently being revised, so let's take a look at new developments.
Criteria: When considering the fire resistance of communication cables, the following key factors must be considered: fire resistance (sometimes called circuit integrity testing);
Flame expansion and fire retardation;
Heat release degree and total heat release;
Smoke generation;
Toxicity;
Corrosivity of smoke