CE Marking of Reinforcing Steel
The European Regulation (UE) No 305/2011 of the European Parliament and the Council of 9 March 2011, laying down harmonised conditions for the marketing of construction products, and repealing Council Directive 89/106/EEC, abbreviated as Construction Products Regulation (CPR), will apply entirely as from 1st July 2013. This regulation exclusively concerns construction products covered by a European harmonised technical specification, (harmonised European Standard [hEN] or European Assessment Document [EAD).
Whilst both Reinforcing Steel and Prestressing Steel are intended, eventually, to be covered by a harmonized European standard, at the time being no such document exists and therefore no type of reinforcing steels (common steels, galvanised steels, corrosion resistant steels, steel fabric or lattice girders) or pre-stressing steel (bar, wire or strand) will be covered by such a harmonised technical specification, as required by the CPR, as of the 1st July 2013.
As introduced by the CPR, the obligation of manufacturers for the responsible placing of a construction product on the market of the European Union is to provide a Declaration of Performance (DoP) and to affix CE marking to the product. As no harmonized standard or EAD is currently in place for either reinforcing or prestressing steels, this requirement does not apply at this time.
CARES undertakes to inform both its approved firms and potential users of these materials manufactured by its approved firms, by website announcement, of any significant move toward the finalisation of such standards, or of a change to the above.
The above is explained in CARES' letter 
please click on link to download (PDF 236KB).
There are many differences between CARES certification and that of CE Marking. The table describes five of the most important differences that relate to Reinforcing Steel. There is as yet no harmonised European product standard for reinforcing steel. This is in progress and is to be termed EN10080. This analysis is based on the most recent documented standard (prEN10080) as placed before the relevant BSI committee. It is recognised that requirements may change in the future.
Why choose CARES?
| CARES Strength | CE Marking Provision |
| Reinforcement from a CARES certified supplier is marked in such a way as to identify the steel’s strength, ductility and manufacturer. Consequently specifiers and users of steel from CARES Approved sources can assure themselves that the correct reinforcement has been supplied to site by a quick visual inspection and without the need for further testing. In addition reinforcement from a number of CARES certified suppliers can be mixed on site with confidence. | CE Marking requires product information relating to strength and ductility. The generic strength and ductility should be rolled onto the bar itself as described in the product standard. Interpretation of this information will require access to the manufacturer’s website. There is therefore no obvious indication of strength and ductility. This presents a risk to safety in use. |
| CARES certification provides full traceability from the molten steel to the construction site by addressing all of the following activities: steelmaking;casting;rolling;delivery to processor;processing (e.g. cutting and bending);and delivery to the construction site. | CE Marking is only concerned with the product as it comes from the steel mill. |
| The CARES scheme requires that the reinforcing bar/coil manufacturer issues a works test certificate for each batch, and that there is strict traceability to production conditions for each cast of steel. | CE Marking requires only a declaration of performance (DOP) by the manufacturer, with no test results to cast. Hence, the actual test results may be unknown to the user. The European standard for reinforcing steel does not require traceability to production conditions for each cast of steel. |
| For each company in the supply chain i.e. that CARES certifies, CARES certification addresses three distinct areas: compliance with the product standard, management system complying with ISO 9001, and also process control. CARES considers that process control is very important. | CE Marking does not require the assessment of process control, as practiced by CARES. Furthermore, the European standard requires the existence of only Factory Production Control (FPC) rather than compliance with ISO 9001. |
| CARES certification requires the analysis of three different sets of test results: As Witnessed, As Independently Tested and As Produced. This process provides an independent check of the accuracy of the manufacturer’s test methods as well as the consistency of the production. | CE marking requires initial type testing and surveillance testing by the manufacturer under supervision, but no statistical analysis of test results, such as practiced by CARES. There is no mandatory requirement for independent testing. |
CARES scheme for Cutting and Bending
There are NO plans to create a European standard for cut and cut and bent reinforcement. This means that the compliance of processed rebar as covered by CARES remains unhindered by CE Marking. Please note that the cutter and bender of reinforcing steel is termed a Fabricator.
The independent verification of this vital service by CARES is described in the Table below:
Strengths of CARES Scheme covering Fabricators.
| CARES Cutting and Bending scheme |
Provides a system by which a Fabricator must operate in order to be CARES approved. This includes:
|
| Purchasing and processing of steel from approved Suppliers. |
| Full Traceability for each cast of steel and each Supplier. |
| Record keeping and retention. |
| Handling of Complaints – both against the Fabricator and its Supplier. |
| Fabricating by competent people. |
All of this is conducted in an environment in which the Fabricator must improve its performance.The above points are audited twice-yearly by CARES auditors that are fully conversant with the product and industry. Approval is maintained if auditor reports are satisfactory.
