With the support of the aluminium industry, more than 120 European standards (ENs) for aluminium and its alloys in various forms have already been published by the European Committee for Standardization (CEN).

These standards cover designation systems, chemical compositions, technical conditions for inspection and delivery, mechanical properties, and other specifications for rolled, extruded, cast, forged, and drawn products as well as their feedstock. Other standards also deal with specific applications, surface treatment, scrap and environmental aspects.

European Aluminium contributed to the standards for international alloy designations and chemical composition limits for wrought aluminium, aluminium hardeners, and unalloyed aluminium, respectively known as the teal, grey, and gold sheets. These standards are available for free on the US Aluminum Association website.

The aluminium industry is involved in more than 20 standardisation processes supporting the implementation of the Construction Products Regulation, the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, and EU sustainability assessment frameworks to ensure that aluminium’s many environmental benefits are fully reflected in product and buildings performance declarations.

These standards also help define the CE marking of certain products, which indicates that a product has been assessed by the manufacturer and deemed to meet EU safety, health and environmental protection requirements.

For example, the European standards EN 14351-1 for external doors and windows, EN 16034 for products with fire and/or smoke resisting properties, and EN 13830 for curtain walls define the CE marking and performance declaration for these products under the Construction Products Regulation (CPR).

The European aluminium industry also participates in developing and revising standards within the CEN technical committee’ Sustainability of construction works’ that develops methods for assessing buildings, including rules for Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) of construction products. European Aluminium is an official EPD Programme Operator and is allowed to produce EPDs according to the European standard EN 15804.

On a global level, the aluminium industry contributes to the development of standards dealing with ‘Sustainability in buildings and civil engineering works’ at the level of the International Standards Organisation.

The aluminium industry is involved in developing standards EN 14025 and EN 13094 dealing with the design and construction of metallic tanks used for transporting dangerous goods. A complimentary standard, EN 14286, lists suitable aluminium alloys for this application. European Aluminium continuously monitors the revisions of these standards.

In the context of implementing the EU Emissions Trading Scheme Directive, the aluminium industry participated in a European Commission-funded project dealing with the monitoring and reporting of greenhouse gases in energy-intensive industries. This resulted in the EN 19694 standards series, whose part 4 concerns the aluminium industry. The standard has been adopted at international (ISO) level in 2023.

CEN TC 261 is the Technical Committee responsible for the elaboration of standards dealing with terminology, dimensions, capacities, marking, test methods, performance requirements and environmental aspects in the field of packaging. Among the various Sub-Committees (SC) of this Technical Committee, SC 4 deals with standards on “Packaging and the Environment”. The aluminium industry is actively engaging in activities of this Sub-Committee. European standards like EN 13427 (i.e. the ‘’umbrella standard” on requirements for the use of European standards in the field of packaging and packaging waste and EN 13430 on ‘’material recycling’’ are particularly relevant as they formalize procedures by which design, production and use of packaging can be checked against the requirements of various material recycling standards. Meanwhile, equivalent ISO standards have been published based on the European ones. European Aluminium, in collaboration with its Members, continuously monitors the revisions of these standards and has, for example, recently contributed to an upcoming revision of the CEN Technical Specification (formerly Technical Report 13688) on requirements for substances and materials to prevent a sustained impediment to mechanical recycling.

Expired EPDs are available on request; please contact: EPD@european-aluminium.eu