Each printed issue of Torque Magazine gets the input of a top industry executive in the Guest Editor role. Torque Magazine’s September-October 2021 issue had Barbara Sorgato Secretary General of ECAP, take on the role, where she discussed digitalisation in construction…
The European Regulation on Construction Products (CPR) is currently under review, and one of the key aspects will be the digitalisation of information.
The aim is that all information on construction products is not delivered any longer as PDF files, but become part of the common repository for all relevant building data used for informed decision making and information sharing within the construction sector, among building owners and occupants,
financial institutions and public authorities.
The Declaration of Performance (DoP) is not only a requirement before placing a product in the Single Market, but it has become the most important tool to deliver information on the performance of a construction product. DoP need urgently to be accessible in XML format (human and machine readable) from the link included in the CE marking.
This link will allow the use of “smart” devices connected to the internet (mobile phones, tablets, computers, etc) to use this information through internet browsers, applications or software and, finally, BIM models and Digital Logbooks.
In this way, the big investment made by manufacturers to be able to issue a DoP (product tests, factory production control and, particularly for post-installed fasteners, the intervention of third parties such as external laboratories or notified bodies), will be fully exploited.
That’s why the construction industry is developing XML formats for each harmonised product standard. The European Organisation for Technical Assessment (EOTA) is aware of the challenge, and asked the industry to develop XML files for those EADs that are conceived like standards and deal with a family of products (the old ETAGs). A first draft of XML format for post-installed fasteners (former ETAG 001) has been developed under the umbrella of CPE – the Construction Products Associations with the technical support of ECAP’s members, continuing and strengthening the cooperation started in 2018 with the publication of the CEN workshop agreement CWA 17316.
Barbara Sorgato
Secretary General of ECAP
www.ecap-sme.org
You can read the full issue online.
