Paving stones for the driveway to meet European standards

In order to secure the free movement of goods in the European Union, practically all concrete products should be CE marked. In Denmark, most manufacturers of concrete products are affiliated with the voluntary inspection arrangement “Betonvarekontrollen”, BVK. This allows the manufacturers to have their production and product quality checked. It also grants the possibility of using the “∆” mark, a guarantee of quality.

Since 2004, concrete manufacturers affiliated with BVK, assisted by the Danish Technological Institute, have worked on the implementation of the new harmonized European standards.

- It has been a major challenge to implement the new standards, says Ms. Pernille Nyegaard from the Danish Technological Institute. For instance, there is no longer a common system for evaluating test results which we had in the former Danish standard, DS 400-2. Furthermore, the standards do not cover all types of pipe and well products, so on what basis should we assess those products?

The Danish Technological Institute identified a number of circumstances which required that concrete manufacturers operate differently than before, for example:

• The test method to determine the strength of paving stones was changed
• New statistical methods to evaluate conformance of the paving products
• Strength testing of well products must be performed on drilled out core samples rather than on poured samples
• CE marking and preparation of product declarations.

The consultancy services for the BVK members from the Danish Technological Institute have comprised assistance to implement the new harmonized product standards concerning the introduction of new test methods, preparation of documents relating to the CE mark, revision of production control systems (BVK’s quality manual) and the preparation of product declarations. Finally, the Danish Technological Institute has held various courses for the manufacturers.

- It has been a great help that the Danish Technological Institute has united the trade in the effort to implement the new standards. It would have been an exceedingly large workload for the manufacturers, should each one have done it individually, and by working together, we also make sure that all in the trade agree on how the new requirements should be met, says Esben Mølgaard of IBF Betonvarer.