CEN/TR 15951:2009

SLOVENSKI STANDARD
01-december-2009
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Pyrotechnic articles - Fireworks, category 4 - Overview of harmonized standards that will
be developed by CEN/TC 212/WG 2
Pyrotechnische Gegenstände - Feuerwerkskörper, Kategorie 4 - Überblick über
harmonisierte Normen, die von CEN/TC 212/WG 2 erarbeitet werden
Articles pyrotechniques - Artifices de divertissement de catégorie 4 - Vue d'ensemble
des normes harmonisées qui seront élaborées par le CEN/TC 212/WG 2
Ta slovenski standard je istoveten z: CEN/TR 15951:2009
ICS:
71.100.30 Eksplozivi. Pirotehnika Explosives. Pyrotechnics
2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.

TECHNICAL REPORT
CEN/TR 15951
RAPPORT TECHNIQUE
TECHNISCHER BERICHT
October 2009
ICS 71.100.30
English Version
Pyrotechnic articles - Fireworks, category 4 - Overview of
harmonized standards that will be developed by CEN/TC
212/WG 2
Articles pyrotechniques - Artifices de divertissement de Pyrotechnische Gegenstände - Feuerwerkskörper,
catégorie 4 - Vue d'ensemble des normes harmonisées qui Kategorie 4 - Überblick über harmonisierte Normen, die von
seront élaborées par le CEN/TC 212/WG 2 CEN/TC 212/WG 2 erarbeitet werden

This Technical Report was approved by CEN on 17 August 2009. It has been drawn up by the Technical Committee CEN/TC 212.

CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland,
France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal,
Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and United Kingdom.

EUROPEAN COMMITTEE FOR STANDARDIZATION
COMITÉ EUROPÉEN DE NORMALISATION

EUROPÄISCHES KOMITEE FÜR NORMUNG

Management Centre: Avenue Marnix 17, B-1000 Brussels
© 2009 CEN All rights of exploitation in any form and by any means reserved Ref. No. CEN/TR 15951:2009: E
worldwide for CEN national Members.

Contents Page
Foreword .3
Introduction .4
1 Scope .5
2 Terminology .5
3 Interfaces between CEN/TC 212 Working Groups .8
4 List of C4 Fireworks and definitions .8
5 Parameters to be taken in consideration to meet the essential safety requirements . 11
6 Identification of test methods . 13
7 Labelling . 14
8 Harmonized Standard . 18
9 Projects to be initiated within WG 2 (List and Mandates) . 21
10 Future Work Program (Objectives, Tasks, Time targets) . 22
Annex A (informative) List of Generic Types and definitions . 25
Annex B (informative) List of Subtypes and definitions . 27
Annex C (informative) List of Components and definitions . 32
Annex D (informative) Specific case of "stars" . 35
Annex E (informative) List of Technical Terms . 36
Annex F (informative) Parameters to comply with ESR . 45
Bibliography . 48

Foreword
This document (CEN/TR 15951:2009) has been prepared by Technical Committee CEN/TC 212 “Pyrotechnic
articles”, the secretariat of which is held by NEN.
This document (CEN/TR 15951:2009) has been prepared by Working Group Nr 2 “C4 Fireworks” of Technical
Committee CEN/TC 212 “Pyrotechnic articles”, the convenor and secretary of which are respectively Italian
and French. Experts from ten countries have participated to its elaboration: Belgium, Czech Republic,
Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Romania, Spain, The Netherlands and United Kingdom.
It has been approved by votes of all the members of CEN/TC 212 “Pyrotechnic articles” on August 2009.
Introduction
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Directive 2007/23/EC of May 23 2007 on the placing on the market of pyrotechnic articles, has been
th
published on June 14 2007 in the Official Journal of the European Union. (Ref. Mandate M 416).
In its Annex 1, Directive 2007/23/EC gives the essential safety requirements (ESR) pyrotechnic articles shall
comply with. In order to facilitate the process of demonstrating compliance with these ESR, harmonized
standards for the design, manufacture and testing of pyrotechnic articles must be developed.
CEN has been mandated by the European Commission (EC) to develop these harmonized standards:
Mandate M 416 describes the work that CEN shall perform.
CEN has entrusted coordination of this work to CEN/TC 212 ‘Pyrotechnic articles’ with the following scope:
“Standardization of fireworks, theatrical pyrotechnic articles, pyrotechnic articles for vehicles and other
pyrotechnic articles, particularly from the point of view of their safe use”.
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During its meeting in Delft on October 16 and 17 2007, CEN/TC 212 has decided to share the
corresponding work to be done between several Working Groups. Resolutions have been voted to establish
five Working Groups, one of which is Working Group 2 (CEN/TC 212 / WG2) in charge of standardization of
Category 4 Fireworks.
Because no European standards exist at present for Category 4 Fireworks, preliminary work needs to be
performed before a list of standards to be developed by WG2 can be drawn up. It has been accepted by
CEN/TC 212 and proposed to the European Community a one-year period will be allocated to WG2 to prepare
a CEN Technical Report in which its future work program will be described and an overview of the harmonized
standards it will develop will be given including the reasons why WG 2 propose to develop these standards.
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Five work sessions have taken place, respectively in NEN – Delft – Netherlands on February 6 2008, in BAM
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– Berlin – Germany on May 21 2008, in NEN – Delft – Netherlands on September 10 2008, in AFNOR –
th rd
Paris – France on November 12 2008 and in UNI – Milano – Italy on February 3 2009.
The present document is the final draft of the Technical Report for Category 4 Fireworks. It has been written in
close coordination with the other working groups of CEN/TC 212 WG 1 “Fireworks, Categories 1, 2 and 3",
WG 3 “Theatrical Pyrotechnic Articles”, WG 4 “Pyrotechnic articles for vehicles” and WG 5 “Other pyrotechnic
articles”.
1 Scope
This Technical Report gives an overview of harmonized standards which will be proposed to be developed by
CEN/TC 212 WG 2, Category 4 Fireworks. It also gives the interpretation WG 2 experts have made of some
terms, definitions and requirements of Directive 2007/23/EC in order to assure future harmonized standards
will encompass all varieties of fireworks, which are presently placed on the European market, in a consistent
way and take the benefit of all the practical experience and usages of fireworks in the Member States.
2 Terminology
2.1 Definition of “C4 Fireworks”
Article 3 (a) of Directive 2007/23/EC gives the following definition of “C4 Fireworks”:
“Fireworks which present a high hazard, which are intended for use only by persons with specialist knowledge
(commonly known as fireworks for professional use) and whose noise level is not harmful to human health”
This definition raises the following comments:
 Exceptions can be found to this definition, because some “fireworks for professional use” – e.g. lances –
cannot be considered as “presenting a high hazard” or generate a low noise level by themselves (e.g.
less than C1 maximum noise level). But they have been designed for use in combination with other
fireworks articles, mainly Category 4 Fireworks. Then they are only used by persons with specialist
knowledge and never offered to the consumer market. Consequently WG 2 experts consider these
articles belong to category 4.
 C1-C2-C3 fireworks articles will no longer be considered as belonging to categories 1, 2 or 3, if they do
not comply with all the requirements of these categories. As soon as a potentially C1, C2 or C3 article
definitively does not meet one of the requirements for C1-C2-C3 Fireworks, it will be categorized as a C4
article.
 Nothing in the definition of “pyrotechnic articles” in Directive 2007/23/EC means an article must be a
complete product. Then the case of “incomplete” fireworks articles must also be considered. Such articles
are commonly placed on the market. An example is a “roman candle without fuse”. This article needs
adaptation of a fuse for its ignition and different types of fuse may be used. This operation can be made
by firers at the firing place, but limited to persons with specialized knowledge.
Another example is a “shell without lift charge”. This article can be used in two distinct ways. It can be
placed in the mortar above a separate “bag charge” which will act as a lift charge and will have been
placed first in the mortar – or – this “bag charge” can be fit to it first before placing the assembly in the
mortar.
Such products require “modification or preparation before use”, which appears to be a better wording than
“incomplete”.
 Likewise, “components” of fireworks can be considered as “pyrotechnic articles” from the point of view of
Directive 2007/23/EC, as far as they are placed on the market. Such pyrotechnic objects as rocket
motors, drivers, delay fuses, shells to be included in more elaborated shells, etc. are used for the
construction of fireworks. Some of them can have other applications than fireworks manufacturing and
are “other pyrotechnic articles” as defined by Directive 2007/23/EC (See Clause 3 hereafter). The others
– which are only used as components of fireworks – can be identified to “fireworks which are intended to
be part of a more elaborate firework”, then as “C4 Fireworks” to be used by persons with specialist
knowledge in pyrotechnical factories.
NOTE The specific case of “stars” is discussed in 4.1.
 In the English language, “professional use” mainly means “paid at work” and the sentence between
brackets must be considered as informative but not prevailing. The important term is “person with
specialist knowledge”, which implies these persons are not necessarily paid to prepare and fire the
fireworks.
To conclude and to assure their work will be fully exhaustive, WG 2 experts have adopted the following
interpretation of the definition of C4 Fireworks of Directive 2007/23/EC:
“With respect to Article 3 (a) of Directive 2007/23/EC, Category 4 includes (1) fireworks which present a high
hazard or (2) require modification / preparation before use or (3) are intended to be part of a more elaborate
firework or (4) which do not meet all the requirements for C1-C2-C3 Fireworks, and which are intended for use
only by persons with specialist knowledge (commonly known as fireworks for professional use) and whose
noise level is not harmful to human health.”
Resolution TC 212 28/2008 has been approved by CEN/TC 212.
2.2 Other terms
The future C4 fireworks harmonized standard(s) will identify the design parameters and performance
characteristics to be taken in consideration for the corresponding articles to meet the essential safety
requirements of Directive 2007/23/EC. For each design parameter or performance characteristic it (they) will
state requirements and criteria which shall be complied with.
According to the variety of articles usually observed during C4 fireworks shows, it is clearly noticeable these
articles will not have all in common the same design parameters and performance characteristics. However,
collections of articles sharing the same design parameters and performance characteristics exist. Then WG 2
experts have considered it was necessary to identify these collections of C4 fireworks articles and draw up
their list.
The future harmonized standard(s) will state requirements and criteria for each identified homogeneous
collection, which does not mean there may not exist requirements or criteria applicable to several collections
as well as to all the C4 fireworks articles whatever their design or behaviour in normal use.
Word “type” has been proposed to name these collections of articles. But, this word is already used by
Directive 2007/23/EC, in its Annex II, with another meaning. Then, because Directive 2007/23/EC cannot be
modified, its definition of word “type” must be considered as imperative.
This does not exclude the possibility of using the word “type” in another meaning but – in that c
...