EN 1090
CE marking of structural steel and aluminium components
The European standard for steel and aluminium structures: the CE mark rests on it.
In short
Anyone making beams, columns and structural parts to sell in the European Union.
It keeps procedures, welders, tests and the dossier linked, so production control holds at audit.
Technical details
The route to the European market for structural components. EN 1090-1 covers conformity and factory production control; EN 1090-2 the execution of steel structures, in four classes.
What it is
EN 1090-1 is the harmonised standard under the Construction Products Regulation (305/2011). It sets out conformity assessment and the factory production control a manufacturer must operate in order to CE mark load-bearing steel and aluminium components.
EN 1090-2 is the execution standard for steel structures: what has to be done, and to what tolerance.
The pairing matters. The first tells you what you must be able to prove; the second tells you what you must actually do.
Execution classes
Work is assigned an execution class, EXC1 through EXC4, according to consequence of failure, service category and production category. The class drives almost everything downstream: tolerances, inspection extent, documentation, and how much welding quality management is required.
The link to welding quality is direct — the higher the class, the more comprehensive the ISO 3834 level expected of the shop. In practice EXC2 work pulls in standard quality requirements and EXC3 upward pulls in comprehensive ones.
Factory production control
FPC is the part that surprises fabricators the first time. It is a documented, audited system covering personnel competence, equipment, incoming material control, the welding coordination function, examination, handling of nonconformity and the records that show all of it happened. A notified body assesses and surveils it.
What has to be recordable
- The execution class of each component, and where that class came from
- Welding procedures qualified for the joints actually made, in the right revision
- Welders qualified in ranges that cover those joints, with valid certificates on the day
- Material traceability back to a heat, with the inspection document the specification required
- The examination performed, at the extent the class requires, with acceptance criteria
- Nonconformities and their disposition
- The declaration of performance, and the evidence that stands behind it
Where this usually goes wrong
Not in the welding. It goes wrong in being able to show, two years later, which revision of a procedure was in force on the day a particular joint was made, and that the welder who made it was in date.
That is a records problem, and it is the one this platform is built around.