NBR 11785 vs EN 1125: What Changes for a Panic Bar in Brazil

NBR 11785 and EN 1125 deal with the same product, the panic bar, but they are not interchangeable. NBR 11785, in its 2018 edition, is the Brazilian standard for panic bars; EN 1125, in the 2008 edition most specifications still cite, is the European standard tied to CE marking. A test report to EN 1125 is not a report to NBR 11785, and the reverse is also true.

They differ on four points: what each covers, what each tests, how the product is identified, and who issues the evidence of compliance. EN 1125 publishes figures that can be quoted with confidence, such as a maximum force of 80 N to open the door with no load on it. For NBR 11785 this article quotes no performance figures: whoever writes the specification has to consult the edition in force, which ABNT makes available.

This piece is the comparison only. What a Brazilian inspection checks on the hardware of a fire door, the choice between a push bar and a touch bar, and reading the European code digit by digit each have their own article on our site, mentioned here by topic.

Scope: what each standard covers

NBR 11785 covers the panic bar for emergency exit doors and classifies it three ways. By actuation: push bar or touch bar. By locking: horizontal, vertical, or horizontal and vertical. And by use: class C for an emergency exit door with no fire rating, class F for a fire door, and class H for doors in very frequent use. The fire door itself is the subject of another standard, NBR 11742.

EN 1125 covers panic exit devices operated by a horizontal bar, on escape-route doors that open in the direction of escape, where the people using them may not know the door and may be panicking. It covers two types: Type A, a push bar, and Type B, a touch bar. Exits used by people who know the door, with a lever handle or a push pad, fall under a different standard, EN 179.

What each standard tests

EN 1125 tests the device as an assembly: bar, latch, strike and fixings, mounted on a test door. The force to release the door must not exceed 80 N with the door unloaded, nor 220 N with a load of 1000 N pushing the door against its latch, which is the condition of an exit with people leaning on it. Durability is graded 6, for 100,000 cycles, or 7, for 200,000 cycles. Corrosion resistance is graded to EN 1670, and the effective length of the bar has to be at least 60% of the door width.

NBR 11785 also sets requirements for the bar, and since the 2018 edition a minimum length in proportion to the width of the leaf. Whether it fixes a value for operating force, for the number of cycles or for mounting height, and what that value is, is in the text of the edition in force. We do not reproduce those numbers from memory: a wrong figure in a specification costs more than a blank field.

The two standards side by side

The classes do not translate from one standard to the other

The temptation is to read the Brazilian class F as the equivalent of the European grade B, because both concern fire doors. They are not equivalent. Class F applies to the bar on a door tested to NBR 11742 with its hardware fitted; grade B under EN 1125 is given only subject to a fire test of the door to EN 1634-1. Each depends on a door test carried out in its own system, and neither proves the other.

Locking shows the same difference from another angle. NBR 11785 classifies the bar by its locking: horizontal, vertical, or both. The EN 1125 code has no digit for locking points; the tenth digit says which door the device may be used on: A on a single door or either leaf of a pair, B on a single door only, C on the inactive leaf of a pair only. A two-leaf bar with vertical rods has to be described differently in each system.

Identification, and who issues the evidence

In Europe, EN 1125 is a harmonized standard under the Construction Products Regulation, and the bar is placed on the market with CE marking. A notified body tests the model and certifies the constancy of its performance; the manufacturer issues the declaration of performance and affixes the CE marking, which carries the standard's number and the classification code. What the buyer reads is that set: the certificate, the declaration, and the model named in them.

Brazil has no CE marking. ABNT publishes the standard, a laboratory tests the bar against it and issues the report, normally in the name of the brand that sells the product, and acceptance happens at the fire department inspection that clears the building. The identification requirements for the bar itself are in the edition in force; when buying, get the brand, model and class in writing, and check that the report names exactly that model.

A European report does not replace a Brazilian one, nor the other way round. A report to EN 1125 shows the result of a test against another text; whether an inspection accepts that document is a decision for the authority, not something a supplier can promise. And a report to NBR 11785 gives no right to CE marking.

What this changes when you buy

For an importer of bars for Brazil, the order that works is: define the door (one or two leaves, with or without a fire rating), define the class under NBR 11785, choose the model, and only then test samples identical to production in the brand's own name. A buyer serving both markets with the same model needs both kinds of evidence, each naming the model, and should check that the order repeats the model, material and finish of the tested samples.

Our models, and what our records publish

Our catalog records describe how the bars are built, not a compliance. The table below shows what is published for four models that usually come into this conversation. Where a value is not published, the table says so.

None of our records publishes a certification to NBR 11785 or EN 1125, and this article makes no such claim. The catalog name of the 305 mentions a fire door; that describes the door the model is meant for, not a class F or a grade B. The split between the 306-S, with a lateral latch, and the 306-D, with vertical rods, answers the locking question NBR 11785 asks, and that is where the choice starts.

For a project in Brazil, we supply samples identical to production, drawings and a data sheet for testing in your brand's name. The test result, not the catalog, is what goes to the inspection.