Use,
the new method for searching ACERMI-certified products

The Association pour la Certification des Matériaux Isolant, "ACERMI", has announced the introduction of its latest service which enables users to search for an insulating material based on its intended use. After a year of work, representatives of insulation manufacturers and dedicated teams from ACERMI, CSTB and LNE have come together to develop a simple and efficient tool available directly on its website www.ACERMI.com. Presentation.

Presentation

As part of its goal to renew its 837 certificates in 2018, ACERMI has created a tool for manufacturers wishing to include information about their products' usage. This has enabled manufacturers to enrich the database with information concerning the intended use for each of their products. The website's back office has also been completely revised to include application-based search criteria.

Example: when a user searches for an insulating product for attics, walls or floors, the search results display the insulation type for each of these uses.

The application offers greater simplicity, speed and transparency

A matrix has been created cross referencing 29 families of insulating products with 32 different uses (intended field of use). For each product with a ‘type/use’ pair, a description of the minimal expected characteristics is provided based on the Unified Technical Documents, the professional rules and recommendations, the Technical Assessment, the Technical Application Document, or a favourable type ‘A’ Technical Experimental Assessment (ATEx).

With this notion built into the certification process, ACERMI goes beyond European standards which focus solely on the intrinsic characteristics of each insulating material when it leaves the factory. Based on installation guidelines, ACERMI certification stipulates the insulation's suitability for use as defined by the manufacturer.

Example: in order for insulation to be suitable for flooring, it must have a certain mechanical resistance to compression and creep; its performance characteristics are thus also associated with its installation and use.

A simplified search method

Until now, searches were based either on the type of material, the manufacturer or on thermal performance. ACERMI then certified the product's intrinsic characteristics such as its thermal performance, and its resistance to fire / water, etc. At the same time, the application documents detailed the characteristics that make it useful for a specific application. The use-based search thus makes it possible to simplify the search and instantly view the insulating materials suited to a specific use.

Example: for an insulating material liable to be subjected to a high-pressure load, ACERMI certifies the insulation's inherent mechanical performance characteristics, as well as the installation document, indicating the minimum performance requirements for a given use. The user must therefore be aware of these two documents in order to use the product as intended. With this type of use-based search, the entire process is simplified, because the information can be obtained in a single step.

The “Use” search engine: How does it work?

1 The multi-criteria search engine features five entries:

keyword(s), types of use within the building, insulation families, manufacturers, and thermal resistance.

For each selection, just a few clicks are required to determine the number of certified insulation options available and download the certificates in PDF format.

ACERMI search engine

2 The 32 uses listed are distributed among 7 categories*

Uses family
(*) For manufacturers who have not declared their product's intended use, it is still possible to search by keywords, insulation families, manufacturers and/or thermal resistance.

3 Example: ventilated cladding

The type of use in the building is selected: 76 certificates are available; Options:

  • either directly display the 76 certificates,
  • or narrow the search based on other criteria, by insulation families and/or by manufacturers.

4 Search results

ACERMI Search results

5 Search results diplayed

ACERMI Certificat

The results displayed recall the search criteria (use, insulation, manufacturer), and also provide additional information: name of the product marketed, thermal resistance, thickness, and certificate number.

  • An Excel file of the search results can be downloaded listing all the certified products.
  • By clicking on the certificate number, useful technical details of the certificate are displayed, including measured and certified performance characteristics and the intended uses for each certified product.
  • The official certificate can also be downloaded.

The “Use” working group will continue its mission to create new usage families based on market needs.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions you may have: secretariat.acermi@cstb.fr

 Download Issue 9 of the newsletter - June 2018