BS 7846:2015

BS 7846:2015 specifies requirements for construction and performance ofthermosetting insulated, armoured, fire-resistant cables of ratedvoltage 600/1 000 V having low emission of smoke and corrosive gases whenaffected by fire.This British Standard is applicable to cables for use in fixed installations inindustrial areas, buildings or similar applications, where maintenance of powersupply during a fire is required for a defined period of time.This British Standard specifies requirements for the following types of cables:

• wire armoured and oversheathed cables with two-, three-, four- orfive-cores, and with stranded copper conductor;
• multicore auxiliary cables, wire armoured and oversheathed, with strandedcopper conductor.

This British Standard specifies four categories of cables based on theirperformance in tests which assess separately resistance to fire, resistance to firewith water spray and resistance to fire with mechanical shock (Category F2) andwhich assess resistance to fire with direct mechanical impact and water jet incombination (Categories F30, F60 and F120).This British Standard is applicable to cables that are designed for a maximumsustained conductor temperature of 90 °C and for a maximum short-circuitconductor temperature of 250 °C (for a maximum of 5 s).NOTE 1 Limitation on the temperature of the cables might be imposed in situationswhere they may be touched or where they could touch other materials.NOTE 2 Annex A gives the guide to use, Annex B gives armour wire tests, Annex Cgives compatibility test, Annex D gives abrasion test, Annex E gives insulationresistance constant test on oversheath, Annex F gives resistance of conductor andarmour, Annex G gives gross cross-sectional area of armour, Annex H gives a test forshrinkage of oversheath, Annex I gives the fire resistance test for category F2 -additional provisions for cables with a diameter over 20 mm, and Annex J givesnotes on type tests.Cross References:BS 6387BS 7655-1.2BS 7655-1.3BS 7655-6.1BS 7671 BS 8491BS EN 10244-2:2009BS EN 50363-5BS EN 50395BS EN 50396BS EN 60228BS EN 60229BS EN 60332-1-2:2004BS EN 60332-3-24:2009BS EN 60754-1BS EN 60811-501BS EN 60811-502BS EN 61034-2BS EN 62230IEC 60050-461BS 5099BS 7846:2009 BS 8512BS 8519:2010BS 8573:2012BS EN 50265-2-1BS EN 50266-2-4BS EN 50356BS EN 50393BS EN 60079-14BS EN 61914 BS EN 62275BS EN 62444IEC 60183Replaces BS 7846:2009 which remains current.