BS EN 1090

Execution of steel structures and aluminium structures

The European standard for fabricated structural steelwork and aluminium; Part 1 governs conformity assessment and factory production control for UKCA and CE marking, Part 2 the technical requirements for steel by execution class.

Structural steelwork placed on the UK market as a construction product must be UKCA (or, in Northern Ireland, CE) marked, and BS EN 1090-1 is the harmonised standard that governs how: the fabricator operates a factory production control system, certified by a notified (approved) body, and issues a declaration of performance for each product. BS EN 1090-2 sets the technical requirements for the steel itself, graded by execution class from EXC1 (low consequence, static loading) to EXC4 (extreme consequence), which the designer specifies and which drives the level of welding inspection, the qualification of welders and procedures, the tolerances and the traceability required.

The pieces a fabricator has to have in place: a factory production control system (in practice ISO 9001-shaped, with welding coordination to BS EN ISO 3834), qualified welding procedures (WPS backed by WPQR), qualified welders (BS EN ISO 9606-1), a Responsible Welding Coordinator with the competence for the execution class, material traceability to certificates, inspection and testing at the levels the execution class requires, and control of nonconforming product. The FPC certificate from the notified body is the licence to mark; without it, the steel cannot lawfully be placed on the market as a construction product. For a small fabricator it is the single biggest accreditation hurdle and the one that opens main contractor work.

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