Christian Lohrer
Abstract: Display fireworks and theatrical pyrotechnic articles are widely used in the EU by persons with specialist knowledge for local festivities, events, concerts and various music shows. According to the European Directive 2013/29/EU relating to the making available on the Union market of pyrotechnic articles, these articles are categorized as fireworks of category F4 and theatrical pyrotechnic articles of category T2, respectively. Before these pyrotechnic articles may be made available on the market, manufacturers must ensure that they satisfy the essential safety requirements (ESR) of this Directive. By application of the standard series EN 16261 for F4 articles and EN 16256 for T2 articles an assumption of conformity to the ESR is triggered. Both standards do not specify minimum safety distances to the spectators or to the audience, but give guidance to the Member States for setting up their own regulations for defining the safety distances by means of measured article-dependent performance parameters or construction properties. These safety distances differ between the Member States due to the cultural differences and various methods of calculation. This paper explains the procedures for defining safety distances for F4 and T2 in Germany. Respective advantages and disadvantages are pointed out, and results for identical items, categorized as F4 and T2, illustrate the current measures . In addition, a brief overview of the corresponding regulations regarding display fireworks in some other European Member states is presented. The different approaches are compared with each other by calculating the respective safety distances for identical articles.
Ref: JPyro, Issue 33, 2014, pp39-51 (J33-39)
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