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Analisis · 2026-10-03

Cables, two sets of requirements and two kinds of evidence

Wires and cables are the clearest case in industrial goods of one product carrying two unrelated sets of rules at once. Seeing the two lines apart is worth more than remembering any single standard number.

One cable, two lines

A cable looks like an electrical product, and that part is right. But as soon as it is installed inside a building it is also a construction product, because when a fire starts, how the cable behaves decides where the smoke goes, how the fire spreads, and whether people can get out.

Compliance therefore splits into two parallel lines. One covers electrical performance and hazardous substances: insulation withstand, conductor resistance, flame-retardant additives. The other covers behaviour in a fire, expressed as reaction-to-fire classification. The two rest on different regulations, involve different tests and produce different documents. Checking only the electrical half is the most common gap in this category, and it is the half that only gets tested when something goes wrong.

EU: the electrical half is clear, the fire half sits in construction products law

The electrical half rests on the Low Voltage Directive 2014/35/EU and the EMC Directive 2014/30/EU, with hazardous substances under RoHS-type requirements. We hold the texts of these, which makes this the best-evidenced part of the article.

The fire half sits under the Construction Products Regulation, currently (EU) No 305/2011 with (EU) 2024/3110 phasing in, as covered in article 12 of this series. It sorts cables into seven reaction-to-fire classes, with the classes and their criteria set out in the annex to Delegated Regulation (EU) 2016/364: Aca, B1ca, B2ca, Cca, Dca, Eca and Fca, from highest to lowest.

The scale measures not pass or fail but how far a cable may burn. The top class, Aca, requires the material itself not to burn and looks only at the calorific value, tested to EN ISO 1716 and capped at 2,0 MJ/kg. From B1ca down to Dca, cables are tested in bundles under EN 50399: B1ca with a 30 kW flame source, and B2ca, Cca and Dca with a 20,5 kW source, with the limits on flame spread, peak heat release and fire growth rate relaxed step by step. A lower class is not a defect; it is permission to burn further. The bottom two classes, Eca and Fca, turn only on whether a single vertical burn test produces charred length above 425 mm.

The manufacturer tests to the target class, issues the declaration of performance and applies the CE mark. So the question for a buyer is which class the cable holds, not whether it passed.

One item remains open. We have not anchored the number of the harmonised product standard for cables in an official document. The class system itself is now in place, on the basis of the delegated regulation above, but getting from there to which product standard a test was run against needs the harmonised standards list published in the Official Journal, and our access to the EU Official Journal is not working at present.

China: cables are inside the CCC catalogue

The firmest point on the China side is that wires and cables are inside the CCC mandatory certification catalogue, requiring certification through a designated body and including a factory inspection. That comes from the itemised catalogue we hold, so it can be checked line by line.

On standards, power cables have their own GB/T series, and cable fire-resistance test methods have a more recent standard. On our check, that latter one is a recommendatory GB/T rather than a mandatory standard, which is an easy thing to get wrong when writing. For both we hold only the search entry in the national standards portal, not the text, so the page gives names without years or clauses.

US: the NEC, adopted by states

There is no federal wire and cable admission act in the US. The real obligation comes from the electrical code adopted by states and localities: once the National Electrical Code, NFPA 70, is adopted locally it becomes a local requirement, and it in turn references UL product standards, listed by cable type. Communications cable carries its own flame spread classification requirements.

As with construction products and machinery, US compliance here is a chain of adoptions. A buyer checks which edition of the code the project location has adopted, and whether the product holds a listing from a recognised third party, rather than looking for a federal mark. We hold the regime only, with no primary text.

Japan, Korea, Brazil, Australia-NZ, Gulf

Japan regulates under the Electrical Appliance and Material Safety Act, and cables count as non-specified electrical appliances carrying the circular PSE mark, which means self-declaration. Korea works through its electrical appliances and consumer products safety act, with KC. Brazil applies mandatory INMETRO certification to wires and cables, with ANATEL for communications cable. Australia and New Zealand use AS/NZS standards with EESS tiers and the RCM. The Gulf states regulate under the GSO low-voltage electrical equipment regulation, with Saudi Arabia routing through SABER.

For these markets we currently hold the regime described but no primary text, so the page states the regime and no document numbers.

Ten markets side by side

Laying the two lines side by side shows at a glance which half is missing:

The table really says one thing: a cable compliance list has to be written on both legs. Ask about one and a supplier answers with one, usually the electrical leg, because that is the one buyers ask about most.

What to ask before you order

Ask cable questions in two groups. On electrical and substances: conductor cross-section and material, insulation compound, test reports for the finished cable, and substance testing, particularly on the RoHS-type restricted items. On fire behaviour: which class it was tested to, one of Aca through Fca, which laboratory issued the report, and which installation scenario the report covers.

Add one more question: whether the cable is for indoor or outdoor use, and for an ordinary circuit or a fire-rated one. Fire-rated circuits have separate endurance requirements, and those are usually not among the standard items in a cable test report. To work through these in order, start with the free verification checklist. The previous article in this series is construction products; the next, measuring instruments, closes the series with a different regime again, built on approval and verification. To see how certifications and test reports are recorded, look at a report sample, or get in touch.