CE CONFORMITY
Centrum Pile First to meet CE Conformity
Centrum Pile Ltd, the UK’s leading and largest manufacturer of continuously reinforced precast concrete piles, has been granted compliance with the stringent new European Standard BS EN12794:2005 Precast concrete products. Foundation piles, allowing Centrum to produce and supply piles with the CE mark of conformity.
Centrum is the first precast concrete pile manufacturer in the UK to achieve CE conformity and together with its sister company, Centrum Pæle in Denmark, are also believed to be the first in Europe to meet these new CE conformity requirements. Centrum Pile is a wholly owned subsidiary of the specialist driven piling contractor Aarsleff Piling, which is itself a subsidiary of the leading Danish civil Engineering contractor Per Aarsleff A/S. Centrum Pæle is a subsidiary of Per Aarsleff A/S.
Centrum started about 18 months ago on the comprehensive and detailed process to meet the requirements of BS EN12794:2005. The company’s manufacturing process, system, products and mechanical joints have since been subjected to a stringent and exhaustive independent audit. Centrum was issued at the end of February 2007 with a Factory Production Control certificate, declaring compliance with BS EN12794. The audit was carried out by UK CARES, the certification and technical approval body for the construction industry under the Construction Products Directive offering the necessary Product Conformity Certification and Factory Production Control Certification.
The integral cast in situ mechanical pile joints were extensively tested for verification of robustness, rigidity, impact and bending by Centrum Pile and Centrum Pæle. These exhaustive tests were independently controlled and monitored by the accredited German testing and calibration laboratory MPA Braunschweig, which has been approved and notified as a civil engineering supervisory, inspection and certification body.
The Centrum single piece and jointed segmental piles achieve the highest Class 1 of the two classifications relating to reinforcement distribution in the pile shafts and the highest pile joint classification A of the four types of joint as set out in the new standard.
Each pile leaving the Centrum factory will have a label with the CE conformity marking, which will include mandatory easy to read information together with additional optional data of the pile characteristics. As part of Centrum’s continuous development the label will also eventually include a bar code that will enable Centrum and all its customers to trace the history of each pile from manufacture to its exact installed location.
The required quality system for pile manufacture has been running in Centrum’s Newark factory for the last 12 months. The UK’s precast concrete piling customers should expect that all the UK’s precast concrete manufacturers and suppliers will comply with the new standard and achieve CE conformity by 1 January 2008.
“This has been an extremely thorough and comprehensive audit of our pile and jointed segmental pile manufacturing process,” says Centrum Pile managing director Terry Bolsher. “Although previously confident I am pleased that all our products now formally meet the stringent requirements of the new European standard, allowing Centrum to carry the CE conformity symbol. The audit process has taken nearly 18 months and we are the first pile manufacture to achieve the CE conformity. Together with our sister company, Centrum Pæle in Denmark, we believe we are also the first in Europe to do so. The standard establishes a new level of transparency by which clients can satisfy themselves of the standard of product being installed.’’
The standard has been welcomed more widely in the industry too. Nick O’Riordan, a
Director of design and consulting business Arup, explains the importance of a manufacturer being granted compliance: “Reliable and predictable foundation performance is fundamental to a successful construction industry. This new manufacturing standard is a significant step towards providing the industry with an assured quality of precast piles to provide greater foundation certainty.”
Centrum Pile manufacturers a standard range of 200mm, 250mm, 300mm, 350mm and 400mm square section continuously reinforced precast concrete piles. The Centrum 400mm pile is believed to be the largest factory produced precast concrete pile available in the UK.
Centrum Pile focuses purely on the manufacture of continuously reinforced precast concrete piles at the modern factory in Newark and supplies piles to a number of contractors active in pile installation in the UK. To stay at the forefront of pile manufacturing technology Centrum has invested extensively in the latest concrete batching, transfer and mould filling equipment and fully robotic pile cage fabrication and is the UK’s largest manufacturer of fully reinforced precast concrete piles.
Centrum precast concrete piles, manufactured under quality controlled factory conditions to the new European standard, provide greater load bearing capacity per cubic metre of concrete than cast in-situ piles. In addition there is no spoil generated when installing precast concrete piles, unlike cast in–situ systems. These advantages, coupled with the national tax on raw materials and landfill tax on disposal of contaminated spoil, associated with cast in-situ piling operations, has led to the growth in the UK use of precast concrete piles.
