This handbook presents an overview of the technical, regulatory and administrative framework within which CE marking of construction products takes place and offers guidance on the selection of test methods for assessment of release of regulated dangerous substances from construction products to soil, surface water and groundwater. The handbook includes information on how test results can be used, e.g. by regulators when comparing regulatory limit values with test results.

A pilot project with an inter-laboratory comparison (round robin) has been performed, where a modified heavy duty washing machine has been circulated for tests among 7 laboratories. The main goal of this pilot project was to find out whether a simple substitution method could be applied to determine the structure-borne sound source strength of typical building service equipments.

A method to measure diffusion coefficients in plastic films and coatings is described. This method is based on weighing absorbed amounts of water when conditioned samples are exposed to water or water vapour. A similar procedure based on weight loss is also possible. The same method can be also be applied to measuring diffusion coefficients of organic solvents in plastic films and coatings.

Various characteristics of food packages are nowadays good, including their safety aspects. However, a novel problem has arisen: how to open the package easily. This is a challenge not only to consumers with reduced hand function, but it is common for all of us to face every now and then difficulties in opening packages. But what makes it easy to open a package, and what are the most critical factors for consumers in opening packages?

This Guideline informs about national legislation in Europe on the utilisation of ash from solid biofuels and peat in forestry and agriculture as well as this ash in relation to EU legislation on hazardous waste. Legislation in Denmark, Finland and Sweden is described in detail including limit values for nutrients and minor elements.

The scope of the project was to disseminate knowledge and awareness about concepts and methodologies of time-triggered technology for automation and machinery control communities. A large part of this knowledge was results from the European Community project DECOS.

A relatively high utilisation of district heating and limited resources of drinking water makes metering of water and heat of great importance in both the Nordic and the Baltic countries. This has further resulted in a heavy focus on testing and calibration of the meters as well as on the uncertainty of the meter installation.

The objective in this project is to present a method for quantifying the diffusing effect of furniture and other equipment in rooms with ceiling treatment. The presence of furniture and equipment in this type of rooms will influence room acoustical parameters such as reverberation time, speech transmission index and sound pressure levels among others. A measure denoted equivalent scattering absorption area is introduced.

Wireless technologies are spreading also to safety-related applications. Wireless communication is realised by sending messages bit by bit from transmitter to receiver (serial mode communication). This resembles quite much the method used in field buses. There are already several field buses, which are validated to be used in safetyrelated applications.

The handbook provides practical guidance on sampling uncertainty estimation in the Nordtest TR handbook format. The handbook is an extract of and based upon the principles, methods and text of the international Eurachem Guide Estimation of measurement uncertainty arising from sampling. The Eurachem guide is more extensive and provides details on theory and additional examples. The basic reference for the text in this handbook is the above-mentioned Eurachem guide.

The handbook provides practical guidance on sampling uncertainty estimation in the Nordtest TR handbook format. The handbook is an extract of and based upon the principles, methods and text of the international Eurachem Guide Estimation of measurement uncertainty arising from sampling. The Eurachem guide is more extensive and provides details on theory and additional examples. The basic reference for the text in this handbook is the above-mentioned Eurachem guide.

Uncertainties of measurement and prediction of the sound insulation in a building is an important issue to the building industry, because they put increased expenses on all actors of the building process who have to keep safety margins to prescribed requirements. This report deals with estimates of both types of uncertainty and some recommendations on suitable safety margins are given.

A new test method for testing of fire properties of mattresses is proposed. The method is intended to evaluate the full scale burning behaviour of a complete mattress or bed system when exposed to a flaming ignition source. Fire performance criteria, for mattresses used in public occupancies, are proposed.

The aim of the project is to present information on tools and models suitable for the prediction of the leaching of compounds from waste and the transport of leached compounds to the environment. The focus of the report is mainly on the leaching of inorganic compounds from inorganic non-hazardous waste material.

This report gives an overview of safety considerations relating to distributed embedded systems. Some principles of safety-related distributed systems are shown, and the design process is described. The design process is related to the safety lifecycle introduced in IEC 61508. The most important phases in the process are risk assessment, design and safety validation.

This project was developed in the context of the new standardisation work under CEN related to the third essential requirement (ER3) concerning Hygiene, Health and the Environment stipulated by the Construction Products Directive (CPD). The project aims particularly to evaluate the importance of harmonising test methods for regulated substances in the Nordic countries and also to address the Nordic interest for CE-labelling of construction products.

The Guideline in this report has been prepared as a framework for comparing existing accelerated corrosion tests and should be applicable in the choice of best method and procedure for qualification testing of a product with respect to corrosion resistance.

I projektet har självkompakterande betong med respektive utan fibrer samt en konventionell betong, K30 ingått. Av dessa göts provplattor som sedan exponerades för brand enligt ett standardförfarande. Ur plattorna och ur referensprover borrades kärnor för vidare provning. De metoder som tillämpats är tryck och spräckhållfasthet, ultraljud, BET, mikroskopi samt borrmotstånd och punktlastindex.

This study focuses on the development of a standardised procedure for assessing the staining sensitivity of natural stones with and without surface treatment. The following different stone types with different mineralogy, chemistry and surface finishing were used: marble, mica-schist, ultrabasitee, granite and limestone.

Existing methods for the analysis of masonry and rendering mortars were developed for the analysis of well defined simple mortars. Mortars used today are to a large extent hybrid mortars with different additives and filler. Analysing complex mortars with additives and fillers requires analytical routines that are more versatile.

To evaluate the effectiveness of new wood preservatives intended for treated wood in ground use there is an European standard, EN 252. The test shall run for five years before any interpretation of the results can be made.

Nowadays, the demand for better and reliable products is high, whereas the time between the idea of a product and the production decreases. This is especially the case for products containing electronics, which are part of our everyday life. Because electronic products are submitted to all kinds of environments, especially corrosive environments, the demand for adapted corrosion testing methods assuring their well functioning after years of use is needed.

In this project a measurement of the effective radiated power (ERP) is compared to a measurement of the total radiated power (TRP). ERP is measured according to ETSI inside an anechoic chamber and TRP is measured inside a reverberation chamber. The measured TRP value is related to the ERP value via an estimated maximum directivity of the test object.

The aim of the project was to gather information on existing versions of environmental benchmarking tools for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Nordic countries.

A wide variety of organisms is transported in ballast water in ocean trade vessels which may establish in new environments when discharged from the ship and alter or impact the receiving ecosystems.

Nordtest Methods provided in 2002; NT ACOU 114 “Acoustics: Measurement of occupational noise exposure of workers – Survey method” and NT ACOU 115 “Acoustics: Measurement of occupational noise exposure of workers – Engineering method” were tested by making round robin tests in Nordic countries. The methods contain survey and engineering measurements that are based on short-term measurements and splitting up of the working day in work operations with similar noise levels.

The main objective of this project was to develop a guidance document on selecting appropriate leaching methods for evaluating the leaching properties for non-volatile organic compounds from waste and contaminated soil and on interpreting leaching test results for impact assessment.

The aim of the BASREC standardisation project was to establish contacts between relevant national organisations in the Baltic Sea Region and Technical Committees within CEN to prepare possible contributions to ongoing activities on solid biofuel standards and further to investigate the needs and possibilities for common test methods and rules regarding biofuels and biofuel machinery and systems in the area.

Fire-LCA is an LCA method that incorporates fires as one possible end of life scenario. It was developed by SP and IVL in order to be able to assess lifecycle aspects of the fire performance of products. This report gives guidelines on how to perform a Fire-LCA study. They are written based on the experience made during the development and application of the Fire-LCA methodology to different case studies.