BS EN 1047-1:2019

What is BS EN 1047-1 - Data cabinets and data inserts about? 

BS EN 1047 is a European Standard that discusses secure storage units and measures to ensure their performance, quality and durability.  

BS EN 1047-1 is the first part in the BS EN 1047 series that covers data cabinets and data inserts. 

BS EN 1047-1 specifies requirements for fire resisting data cabinets and diskette inserts. Two methods of test are specified to determine the ability of fire resisting data cabinets to protect temperature and humidity sensitive contents from the effects of fire:  

• Fire endurance test  
• Fire shock and impact test 

Who is BS EN 1047-1- Data cabinets and data inserts for? 

BS EN 1047-1 on data cabinets and data inserts is relevant to: 

• Manufacturers of data cabinets and diskette inserts 
• Entities involved in fire safety engineering 
• Product designers and specifiers 
• Software-Defined Data Centres (SDDC) 
• Fire testing laboratories 
• Quality and safety testing agencies 

Why should you use BS EN 1047-1- Data cabinets and data inserts? 

Data cabinets are designed to protect media and valuables against the effects of fire. 

The testing conditions given in BS EN 1047-1 provide a basis for simulating fires to determine, in a reproducible way, the fire resistance of data cabinets and diskette inserts in various protection classes. The protection classes enable a comparison to be made of the resistance against fire provided by different constructions. 

BS EN 1047-1 is beneficial as it helps to assess the ability of data cabinets to protect temperature and humidity-sensitive data media and hardware systems. By adopting best industry cooling guidelines provided by BS EN 1047-1, you can minimize the risk of fire arising from overcrowded server racks, thereby protecting valuable data and equipment.  

What’s changed since the last update? 

BS EN 1047-1:2019 supersedes EN 1047-1:2005. As compared to EN 1047-1:2005, the following changes were made: 

• Type tests in the past have shown that testing intermediate heights in the fire endurance test does not give a quality benefit. Therefore, this standard requires the test of the smallest and highest model 
• For the fire shock and impact test the number of test specimens now is dependent on if a plinth is used  
• Due to testing knowledge gained since the publication of the standard EN 1047-1, it could be seen that the depth is not as critical as the width of a specimen. Therefore, the tolerance on the depth was changed from ±15 % to ±20 % 
• New clauses have been added to explain for which technical design ranges the results of the type tests are usable