NEN-EN-14470-1 for fire-resistant safety cabinets

What does the NEN-EN-14470-1 standard for fire-resistant safety cabinets mean? Together with the PGS 15 guideline, this standard explains how companies and institutions should deal with the storage of hazardous substances. It is fairly complex regulations, so in this article we look extensively at how this influences the choice of a fire-resistant safety cabinet or chemical cabinet. Nice bonus, at the end of this article you can see how one of our safety cabinets performs impressively in a simulated fire.

In the Netherlands, almost all European EN standards have been adopted by the Dutch state, which turns them into NEN standards. Belgium does not work with Dutch NEN standards: The fire-resistant cabinets that we supply in Belgium meet the Belgian NBN standards.

In this section we choose to work with the Dutch standard description. Of course we are happy to provide an explanation if there are questions from the Belgian market regarding standardization.

The most important, leading standard for fire-resistant safety cabinets is NEN-EN-14470-1. This standard is the successor of NEN 2678 and was created to better standardize certification, calculate the product collection capacity in a different way and add levels for fire resistance. We also call the latter safety classes and they make it easier to distinguish safety cabinets from each other.

Chemical cabinet safety classes

Fortunately, the safety classes for chemical cabinets have made it easier to distinguish the different safety cabinets from each other. The NEN-EN-14470-1 standard now distinguishes four levels that correspond to the fire resistance. The lowest level is 15, the highest is 90, which means that these chemical cabinets can withstand fire from 15 to 90 minutes. Each European country can determine for itself what level it requires, the Netherlands opts for a lower limit of 30 minutes of fire resistance.

According to the NEN 2678 standard, a chemical cabinet must have a fire resistance of 40 minutes, the so-called safety period, with a maximum quantity of 150 litres of hazardous substances. This has been tightened up in the new standard for certain categories of hazardous substances, for example for the storage of aerosol cans and for quantities above 150 litres, a fire resistance of 60 minutes is now the minimum. In addition, for many of our customers at research institutions and companies, the 60 minutes is an important requirement.

But there is only a small difference between the production costs of a 60 and a 90 minute fireproof safety cabinet. That is why Laser2000 offers a 90-minute fire-resistant chemical cabinet in various sizes as standard. This means you always meet the requirements set in the standards.

NEN-EN-14470-1: Drip tray safety cabinet

Both the new NEN-EN-14470-1 and the old NEN 2678 standard speak about the necessity of the separation of incompatible combinations of chemicals. They both prescribe that a fire safety storage cabinet must be provided with a separate drip tray for each category of hazardous substance. This is to prevent certain hazardous substances from coming into contact with each other in any way whatsoever. A drip tray and a reservoir can therefore be placed in all our safety cabinets so that several categories of substances can be stored in the fire-resistant cabinet in accordance with the standard.

PGS 15 Fire Safety Cabinet

The PGS 15 guideline has been drawn up to help companies and institutions to make working with hazardous substances safer. Safer for the people who work with it and the environment. That is why this directive provides for everything to do with fire safety, occupational safety and environmental friendliness. The PGS 15 guideline and the NEN-EN-14470-1 standard go hand in hand for companies that work with hazardous substances.

Fire safety in particular receives a lot of attention. Everyone understands that the chemicals that are not stored in a fire safety cabinet exacerbate the consequences of a possible fire. An explosion may occur, the fire may accelerate or toxic smoke may be generated if the chemicals are involved in the fire. But a fire safety cabinet also provides for the reverse scenario; What if a reaction creates a dangerous reaction in the cupboard? In that case too, the fire safety cabinet is able to protect the environment.

Fire resistance made visible

The video below shows that Lab Companion fire protection cabinets are fire resistant up to the required 90 minutes. The interior temperature does not exceed 100 degrees Celsius for a long time!

Fire-resistant safety cabinets

Do you want to know which options make your fire-resistant safety cabinet complete? Tell us more about your work situation and we'll show you which configuration suits it best. For example, are you mainly concerned with biological samples? Then a different configuration is probably required than for the storage of chemicals. Contact our specialist Svante van der Rijst via +31-297-266191 or svante@laser2000.nl and he will be happy to help you.