Smoke & fire campaigns
Overview
The European standard (EN 45545-2) and the French standard (NF F16-101) provide a classification system that specifies requirements for fire behavior of railway materials and products by categorising them in different groups which have to fulfill specific “requirement sets”. The standards also include test methods for laboratories.
Moreover, the EN ISO/CEI 17025 “General requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories” standard imposes the participation of laboratories in a test campaign, which is a prerequisite to be an accredited laboratory. It is on this basis that an independent body has to organise the campaign and only CERTIFER is authorised to organise and assess the fire behavior test campaigns and inter-laboratory comparison in the railway fields.
We organise for more than ten years an annual “inter-laboratory euro-comparison campaign on railway fire behavior tests”.
This campaign is available to all laboratories that are interested in providing their laboratory services in the railway sector. About 60 laboratories from Europe and around the world participate each year to the euro-comparison campaign.
The steps we oversee for the euro-comparison campaign are :
- Preparation of the campaign
- Launching of the annual campaign
- Test performance
- Compilation of results and analysis
- Final reporting
CERTIFER fire behavior tests
- Critical Flux at Extinguishment: CFE [ISO 5658-2] & CHF [EN ISO 9239-1]
- Maximum average rate of heat emission: MARHE [ISO 5660-1]
- Specific optical density of smoke at 4 min: Ds(4) [EN ISO 5659-2]
- Cumulative value of specific optical densities in the 1ST 4 min: VOF4 [EN ISO 5659-2]
- Conventional Index of Toxicity at 4 and 8 min: CITG [EN 45545-2 Annex C: method 1]
- Conventional Index of Toxicity: CITNlp [EN 45545-2 Annex C: method 2]
- Oxygen Index: OI [EN ISO 4589-2]
- Glow wire: EN 60695-2-11, NF F 16-101 and STM S001
- Cumulative value of specific optical densities in the 1ST 4 min: VOF4 [NFX 10-702 (1 to 5), NF F 16-101 & STM S001]
- Maximum specific optical density of smoke: Dm [NF X 10-702 (1 to 5), NF F 16-101 & STM S001]
- Maximum average rate of heat emission (MARHE) and maximum RHR on seat: ISO/TR 9705-2
- Maximum flame spread and flaming droplets: EN ISO 11925-2
- Height of charred zone front side and backside: EN 60332-3-24
Participate to our 2026 campaign!
CERTIFER has launched its annual interlaboratory comparison campaign dedicated to EN 45545-2: “Railway applications – Fire protection on railway vehicles – Requirements for fire behaviour of materials and components”.
CERTIFER is the only body organising this smoke & fire behaviour campaign worldwide.
Interested in joining the 2026 campaign?
Download more information and the application form here:
Please, complete the form and send it to Interlabo.fireandsmoke@certifer.eu
CERTIFER 2025 campaign results
Discover the list of laboratories which participated to the 2025 campaign according to the EN 45545 standard
Do you want to find more information about Smoke & Fire Campaign?
