Douglas Masterson, technical manager at the GAI and chair of the shadow Fenestration Relevant Authority, explains the importance of product data templates for fabricators and others who need to adapt to the demands of the new regulatory environment on safety and product quality.

In the absence of any definitive rules from the Building Safety Regulator on what the ‘Golden Thread’ really looks like when it comes to making the safety case for certain buildings, many product manufacturers have been exploring different solutions that they hope might meet the demands of the new building safety regime.

One of those solutions certainly seems to lie with increased use of product data templates – a way for manufacturers and distributors to build confidence in their products through the supply of consistent performance data to specifiers, contractors and building owners.

A product data template is a common way of describing essential product characteristics which can be traced to a credible source such as a product standard. Once a manufacturer completes a PDT, the output is a product data sheet which summarises the performance and other technical characteristics of a construction product.

Structuring product information in this way makes the information more consistent, audience-specific, and identifies all the performance information needed to make appropriate choices about construction products.

The development of a new industry-approved product data template (PDT) for doorsets was announced at this year’s FIT Show. It comes at a critical time, following the publication earlier this year of the landmark Morrell Review into the regulation, testing and verification of the performance of construction products.

The doorset PDT has been published by the shadow Fenestration Relevant Authority, a group of 14 organisations and trade associations that have come together to provide PDTs for the sector. The doorset PDT is the latest to be published in a list which already includes door hardware and powered pedestrian doors.

This new PDT is the first of its kind which has gone through a full consultation process. It incorporates many of the key functions of doors including fire, smoke, security and acoustics and presents this data in a consistent structured format. Industry will now have the ability to create a coordinated set of product data sheets for any doorsets involved in their projects.

In the production of the doorset PDT we tried to capture all characteristics that would be of interest to those responsible for, and using, construction product data in the built environment. The characteristics were taken from relevant national and European standards, regulatory requirements, such as building regulations, and industry recommendations, such as third-party product certification. This information is now ready to be presented in a machine-readable form.

By involving interested parties during the initial development, through the shadow Fenestration Relevant Authority, and then subjecting the draft PDT to peer review, we have captured the information that a manufacturer or distributor would wish to communicate to their customers and would be required by end-users, such as designers and accountable persons.

As my colleagues in the shadow Fenestration Relevant Authority always point out, such structured product information is absolutely vital to a joined-up construction and built environment sector.

But the key to arriving at this information is consensus, and it has been a joy to work so collaboratively to create this PDT. This is just one part of an ongoing programme of work in this field undertaken by the Fenestration Relevant Authority, with window hardware as the next project – keep an eye out for further announcements.

In the meantime, the doorset PDT is available to download from www.gai.org.uk/pdt