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CHAIRMAN’S DECLARATION
For more than thirty years, AFCAB has been committed to safer and higher quality construction that respects environmental issues. Faced with the housing crisis, evolving infrastructures, climate challenges and the need to decarbonise the sector, ensuring more durable and reliable reinforced concrete structures is a collective necessity.
Our mission goes beyond the technical sphere: we are raising awareness among all those involved in the construction and public works sector - project owners, contractors, public authorities - of the importance of reinforcement certification, which is essential to guarantee the user that the reinforcement will not be a weak spot in the quality of the structure from design to completion. This requirement must be systematically respected for civil engineering, in particular for engineering structures, in accordance with the requirements of Fascicule 65. It must also be applied to the design of complex buildings such as public facilities - airports, railway stations, stadiums, shopping centers - as well as high-rise buildings and collective housing.
Together with all its members and partners, AFCAB is working to promote responsible construction, by defending rigorous controls and best practices. Together, let's build infrastructures that meet the social and environmental challenges of today and tomorrow.
Bruno MARIN
AFCAB Chairman
Our History
Before 1990 .
The producers of fabricated reinforcement should be inspected by each projectowner, successful tenderer of an important construction (e.g. nuclear power plant).
These project owners should go to the workshop to verifytheproduction conditions and make sure that the producer of fabricated reinforcementproperly applies its QualityPlan.
After 1990 .
Birth of AFCAB, the French certification body for concrete reinforcement.
When EDF decidedto build the CIVAUX nuclear power plant, the Equipment-Construction Direction suggested to the Chairman of APA, the Professional Association of Producers of Fabricated Reinforcement, to set upa certification, granted by an independent body, addressing the specifications common to all producers of fabricated reinforcement.
After gathering the essentialstakeholders of the sector: associations representing the manufacturers ofreinforcing steels; SNCF, ministryin charge of the public works; Central Laboratory for Bridges and Roads (existing IFSTTAR), it was decidedtoAFCAB, the French certification body for concrete reinforcement.
Today .
AFCAB gathers the main stakeholders that produce and process concretefabricated reinforcement and their accessories.
It representsthe project owners (MTSE, SNCF, EDF), the distributorsand the large construction companies, the manufacturers of reinforcing steels (bars and coils, welded fabric, lattice girders), theproducers of fabricated reinforcementas well as the companies that place and process fabricated reinforcementon site, the laboratories / audit bodies (IFSTTAR, CEREMA, CSTB) and technical inspection bodies (COPREC) and CIMBETON.
Body accreditedby COFRAC, the French accreditation Committee, AFCAB hasstrongly contributedto the preparation and implementation of certificationschemes that allow the constructors and the project owners to be confident in the fact that thelink “fabricated reinforcement” will perfectly be integrated in the quality chain of theproject.
AN ACCRÉDITÉD BODY
AFCAB has implementedan organisation conforming to the requirements of the standard NF EN ISO/IEC 17065,concerning product and service certification bodies, and has obtained its accreditation from COFRAC – Product and Service Certification, for this activityunder the n.5-0007. This accreditation ensures the independence, the competence and the impartialityof AFCAB.
The Team
The association is backed up with:
- A Board of directors, composedof 12 voluntary members,
- A permanent Secretary, composed of 4 employees,
- 25 qualified auditors,
- 8 testing laboratories,
- 5 specific Committees, each composedof around fifteen voluntary experts.