EU – CEN Publishes Specification for Slide Fasteners EN 16732: 2015

Vol. 896 | 10 Feb 2016

The European Committee for Standardization (CEN) has published a standard on requirements for zip fasteners. The new standard is EN 16732: 2015 Specification for Slide Fasteners and it is the first EU-wide standard for this component.

There has previously been a British Standard, BS 3084:2006, but this new European standard replaces this and it is expected that the British Standard will be withdrawn in due course.

EN 16732 is predominantly based on the British Standard; however, there are some significant additions to BS 3084:2006.

The European Standard specifies performance levels and test methods for a range of characteristics of the various components of slide fasteners.

The notable addition to the British Standard is two new requirements for children’s zippers. An extra table has been introduced in EN 16732 that contain these two new requirements for children’s zippers. These are summarized in the table below:

Table – Additional performance requirements of slide fasteners for children's items

Test Description	Minimum Requirement
Open-end slide fastener single stringer slider retention	70N
Torque strength	0.34 N.m

The torque requirement value of 0.34N/m mirrors that of the European Toy Standard EN 71 Part 1, which has been in use for a number of years in Europe regarding torque strength of items attached to toys. 

The standard also recommends that this torque test be taken to failure for quality control purposes.  

The European Standard is applicable to slide fasteners for general use and provides a range performance codes for a variety of end uses. 

There are further additions in EN 16732 when compared to BS 3084:2006, with the inclusion of four new end uses with related performance codes

END USE	PERFORMANCE CODE
Mattresses	C or D
Pillows	B or C
Children’s Sleep Bags	C
Children’s Clothes	C

 

For additional information please contact:

Mike Redshaw
mike.redshaw@intertek.com
+44 (0)1942 265700