Paris, France: Eurovent Certita Certification has announced launching a new certification programme for ventilation ducts, called the DUCT programme.

The DUCT programme, the announcement said, has been developed in 2015-2016 with the support of a dedicated launching committee. The first release of the Operational Manual (OM) and Rating Standards (RS), the announcement added, apply to rigid and semi-rigid ventilation ductwork systems divided into the following sub-programmes:

• Rigid metallic ductwork systems with circular cross-section (DUCT-MC)
• Rigid metallic ductwork systems with rectangular cross-section (DUCT-MR)
• Semi-rigid non-metallic ductwork systems predominantly made of plastics (DUCT-P)

The body informed that all ranges of products that fall into the relevant sub-programme scope and are promoted by the applicant or participant, shall be certified. The “certify-all” principle applies not only to Europe but to all markets, it added.

The certification programme, Eurovent revealed, is based on product performance testing by independent laboratories as well as manufacturing facility auditing.

The certification body said that the product performance testing will enable the verification of:

• Air tightness class (all sub-programmes)
• Positive and negative pressure limits (all sub-programmes)
• Dimensions (DUCT-MC and DUCT-MR)
• Minimum and maximum service temperatures (DUCT-P)
• Resistance to external pressure (DUCT-P)

Eurovent Certita Certification said that air leakage and strength testing shall be conducted in accordance with EN 12237:2003 (DUCT-MC and DUCT-P) or EN 1507:2006 (DUCT-MR). For tests related to service temperatures and resistance to external pressure (DUCT-P), the method is described in the Rating Standard RS 2/C/004P-2016, it revealed.