"fire protection"

The recently renovated 'schloss Colditz' in Saxony, Germany is a great example of how to reconcile the often conflicting demands of historic preservation and fire-protection. The renovation has not just fulfilled fire-protection requirements but the planners have used extremely discreet solutions that fit with historic preservation requirements. Many of the passageways have been fitted with Teckentrup T30 all-glass doors, which combine functionality with aesthetics and maximum transparency.

When you design a building that will be used by lots of people, like a tower block, you need to make sure that the building has the correct level of fire prevention and fire protection equipment. In instances where this isn’t the case, tragedies like the Grenfell Fire can happen. The importance of passive and active fire protection methods are vital for the safety of the intended occupants, but how can you ensure they’re going to be safe?

The Isotec is a heavy duty commercial loft ladder offering up to 120 minutes fire protection. It also offers very high thermal insulation (U value 0.33 W/m2K) and an airtight seal (class 4). Available made-to-measure

When you design a building that will be used by lots of people, like a tower block, you need to make sure that the building has the correct level of fire prevention and fire protection equipment. In instances where this isn’t the case, tragedies like the Grenfell Fire can happen. The importance of passive and active fire protection methods are vital for the safety of the intended occupants, but how can you ensure they’re going to be safe?

A three year £24 million programme of works to repair and repaint the roof structure to Bristol Temple Meads railway station is featuring the use of the ZEUS Horizontal fire barrier system from FIREFLY™: employed to enclose a series of shallow arch scaffold beams or ‘cassettes’ that span the tracks, thereby protecting the workforce from any potential train fire as they use the access deck above.

IKO Ultra Prevent T-O Brown cap sheet was specified for the 300m2 flat roof areas, and Armourglass Dual Brown Roofing Shingles were specified for the 200m2 pitched roofs. The roofing shingles were chosen to maintain the original slate effect on the pitched roof areas. The work also involved re-lining of existing steel gutters and improving the thermal performance of the whole roof.

Assured passive fire protection for a spectacular central atrium in Dublin city centre’s largest and most prestigious new commercial development has been provided by over 300m2 of Promat SYSTEMGLAS® Ferro. The system was selected thanks to its 360 degree ‘wheel of assurance’, which ensures all the fire resistant glazing screens are checked for compliance at every stage from design and specification, through manufacture and installation. The proven butt-jointed, steel framed fire resistant glazing system has been used to create all the glass screens which encapsulate the atrium at the heart of No. 1 Dublin Landings.

The steel framing system that was introduced in the UK to provide EI fire protection in butt jointed glazing is now available as a complete, safety-assured glazing system with the launch of the SYSTEMGLAS® Ferro range from Promat UK. SYSTEMGLAS® Ferro is a complete glazing system suited to contemporary interiors with the fire glass, steel framing, beading and setting blocks supplied directly by Promat for maximum traceability. It is installed exclusively by a network of approved installers to ensure total peace of mind for specifiers, backed with the confidence of Promat UK’s 360 degree wheel of assurance.

Designing, specifying and installing fire rated timber framed butt-jointed glazing is now easier with the assurance of a fully traceable supply chain with the launch of SYSTEMGLAS® Ligna by Promat, one of the country’s leading manufacturers of fire, thermal and acoustic solutions. Ligna gives designers the ideal balance of assured fire protection and maximum light transmission in all kinds of timber framed glazed partitions and screens. Ideal for offices, healthcare, education, retail and public sector applications, it has been tested to provide integrity and insulation (EI) fire protection from 30 minutes up to 60 minutes (EI30 to EI60).

A four-storey underground car park needs to meet enormous fire protection requirements. Preventive fire and smoke protection and fully functional escape routes and emergency exits were top of the list when planning the doors and barriers. T90 fire and smoke protection doorsets were used for highly frequented areas with a higher risk of fire and the gallery and escape routes between the individual fire compartments were fitted with single and double-leaf T30 doorsets with round glazing. Access points to the individual levels were equipped with T30 sliding doors and T30 sectional doors.

Walker Primary School was opened in 1953 as a one-form entry primary school with seven classes. Over the years, due to its popularity, it has grown and new buildings have been added. Due to the structural design of the building, the roof trusses once exposed meant that the roof changed from one roof to several individual roofs with their own drainage and design issues which meant that each roof had to give its own tapered scheme for each area, which in some cases had to work in tandem with the abutting roof it was next to.

When the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort was planned, the project included a 7-bay fire / ambulance station which featured a garden style theme to enable the buildings to harmonise with the green surrounding and the nearby Theme Park. Bolton Gate were specified to provide fourteen electric folding doors which included a special green powder coating, Lexan vision panels and faux louvres to each door. In addition, the doors had to be designed to resist typhoon loadings of up to 3Kpa, were manufactured in Bolton and shipped to Hong Kong where they were installed by the local agent Deacon.

FIREFLY™ Phoenix has been employed at the iconic RAF Manston History Museum, located near Ramsgate in Kent, during the refurbishment of a single storey structure

Scotland’s biggest building services contractor has just completed upgrading the fire compartmentation within an existing West Lothian warehouse building which is being converted to serve as high bay storage facility to support the organisation’s existing distribution facility elsewhere in West Lothian and is, for the first time, making use of products from the range of TBA FIREFLY™, including APOLLO Lite™ 30:30 to create new fire barriers together with TBA’s expert advice and installer training.

Klimahaus® Bremerhaven 8° is a spectacular exhibition complex, north of Bremen, Germany. The idea behind the large project is a simulated journey around the world measured at eight degrees 34 minutes east. This is the longitude of Bremerhaven and all the other locations on the journey: Switzerland, Sardinia, the Sahel, the African rain forest, the Antarctic, Samoa, Alaska and the north Frisian island of Langeness. Teckentrup provided smoke and fire doorsets to ensure unobtrusive and safe everyday passage and emergency egress for visitors to the exhibition. Almost every doorset was individually planned.

Coopers installed and commissioned two FireMaster® Plus fire curtains, the first to protect the property from fire and smoke migrating from the kitchen whilst the second to protect the internal balcony from smoke and fire travelling between floors. Both fire curtains provide 2 hours fire and insulation zone protection and were installed into the ceiling to remain hidden from view until deployed by a fire alarm.

Compartmentation, Protected Means of Escape and Boundary Protection were all required as part of the fire safety solutions and therefore Coopers FireMaster fire curtains and Coopers FireMaster Plus2 fire curtains were installed to ensure the fire safety requirements were met. In total, 113 fire curtains were installed, 96 with round headboxes and 17 with square headboxes. Round headboxes were engineered for The British Museum as a request from the architects. The headboxes of the fire curtains were going to be seen by the occupants so Coopers engineered a round headbox that looked in keeping with the design of the building.

Coopers FireMaster Concertina is a great way to offer compartmentation between areas like a kitchen and restaurant and able to divide up these two critical areas in a public building and act as a fire break. By installing the FireMaster Concertina meant it would provide the building with an approved, non-invasive means of fire protection that would satisfy the fire regulations as well as ensuring that the open plan design remained as intended. Compartmentation and Protected Means of Escape were required as part of the fire safety solutions.

There are a total of 30 active SmokeStop smoke curtain barriers, 5 vertical FireMaster fire curtains and 2 FireMaster Concertina multi-faceted fire curtains installed within the university building offering protection from fire and smoke. With a large central atrium in the centre of the building, smoke control was a huge necessity on this project and therefore various bespoke engineered solutions were required to help solve the smoke and fire requirements.

Coopers innovative FireMaster Plus2 fire curtains was also used to create tenable zones as the product offers both integrity and radiance performance. The use of all the fire curtains allowed the open plan design of the museum to be realised by offering fire compartmentation and boundary protection. A total of 20 Simplex and Duplex FireMaster Horizontal fire curtains and 110 FireMaster and FireMaster Plus fire curtains have been installed in the museum by Coopers Fire UAE partners, Dosteen Doors.

As the leading manufacturer of fire and smoke curtains, Coopers were appointed to develop a smoke curtain system to provide an unintrusive method capable of controlling smoke migrating from the lower floors. It was also necessary to protect the un-insulated glazing installed above the atrium’s reception area with an approved fire curtain barrier system approved to provide a one hour insulating zone. Coopers manufactured, installed and commissioned two SmokeStop smoke curtains developed to control smoke generated in the event of fire and effectively channel it away from occupants during evacuation.

With fire safety being critical in modern construction projects, WeWorks developed and implemented a new fire safety strategy before renovating the existing building. As part of this strategy, the decision was taken to replace a fully-glazed non-fire-rated internal atrium with a new, high-performance fire-rated solution to ensure the highest levels of fire protection. Spanning five storeys, the atrium would create a functional yet architecturally stunning light-filled centrepiece within the modern office space.

PPG interior and exterior coatings are enhancing protection, safety and sustainability for the new Beijing Daxing International Airport terminal building. The terminal, which is the largest in the world at 7.5 million square feet, was designed and constructed using green concepts. It features four PPG products on its main structural steel and other metal components: PPG STEELGUARD™ FM 550 thin-film intumescent coating for fire protection; PPG PSXTM 700 two-component, engineered siloxane coating for exterior protection; PPG SIGMADUR™ 2800 fluorocarbon finish for all-around weather resistance; and PPG DURANAR™ fluoropolymer coating for exceptional durability. PPG STEELGUARD FM 550 coating was applied to the terminal’s main steel structure, including the main hall, concourses and boarding gates. The coating provides up to 150 minutes of protection from cellulosic fires. The high-performance topcoat system also extends a painted surface’s lifespan to 15 to 20 years compared to five to eight years for traditional polyurethane topcoats. “The PPG team successfully solved a number of challenges regarding the application of the cellulosic passive fire protection coating to the steel superstructure,” said Xin Cheng, PPG passive fire protection support manager, protective and marine coatings (PMC). “These included applying the coating in an exposed outdoor environment during winter and maintaining a complex and tight balance between stringent on-site safety management and control, construction quality management and project schedule control.” Coating the structural steel before the roof was put on the terminal building was a major reason on-site coater RIC Red-Hendsel (Beijing) International Construction Co., Ltd., recommended PPG STEELGUARD FM 550 coating The coating provides protection from outdoor exposure for up to 12 months without a topcoat. “Our country is paying increasing attention to safety, and the standards are becoming stricter,” said Weiqin Wang, managing director, RIC Red-Hendsel (Beijing). “Under this overarching premise, we worked with PPG's technical team to solve engineering problems and win the owner's approval with top-notch quality in both application and the coating product.” PPG SIGMADUR 2800 air-drying fluorocarbon topcoat, which was used for the main steel structure of the airport terminal building, can maintain color stability and self-cleaning properties under prolonged ultraviolet radiation. It is resistant to cracking, corrosion and mechanical impact. The steel grid structure of the airport roof is coated extensively with PPG PSX 700 topcoat. This patented polysiloxane technology offers extended color and gloss retention that outperforms typical polyurethane and has corrosion resistance equaling that of epoxy. The coating has high solid content with low volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions and meets strict environmental protection regulations. The roof’s golden exterior is protected by PPG Duranar fluoropolymer coating, which offers durable color retention and exceptional performance against weathering in all environments. The product meets AAMA 2605 performance specifications. “In coating steel structures like those at the new Beijing Daxing International Airport, sustainability mainly is achieved in three ways,” said Wen Zhou, PPG general manager, PMC, Asia Pacific. “The first is reducing material waste and emissions and increasing safety through effective fire protection. The second is conserving resources by extending product life and reducing the frequency of repairs. The third is protecting people's health and the environment through reduced VOC emissions.”

Opened in 2007, Wembley Stadium was built on the site of the previous 1923 incarnation. The earlier stadium, originally called the Empire Stadium, was often referred to as ‘The Twin Towers’ and was one of the world’s most famous football stadiums until its demolition in 2003. The 90,000-capacity venue (105,000 combined seating and standing) is the second largest stadium in Europe, behind only the Camp Nou in Barcelona, and serves as England’s national stadium. It is the sole home venue of the England national football team, and hosts the latter stages of top-level domestic club cup competitions. Designed by Foster and Partners and HOK Sport (now Populous), it includes a partially retractable roof. A signature feature of the stadium, following on from the old Wembley’s distinctive Twin Towers, is the 134-meter-high (440 ft) Wembley Arch. With a span of 317 meters (1,040 ft), this steel arch is the longest single-span roof structure in the world and, uniquely for a stadium, requires beacons for low-flying aircraft. To answer the complex brief, PPG proposed and supplied the complete anticorrosive and fire protective coating system for all externally and internally exposed steelwork of the stadium. A combination of SIGMAFAST™ 302, SIGMACOVER 435, SIGMACOVER 456 HS and SIGMADUR™ 520 coatings were applied to the steel structures in order to provide a high level of anticorrosive protection. For the required fire protection, a full three-coat fire system was used to meet the various environmental conditions around the stadium. The STEELGUARD 3146 primer and STEELGUARD FM560 solvent-based intumescent coating were chosen because they provide the required 60-minute fire rating. The topcoats used were STEELGUARD 2458 & AMERCOAT® 450SG to guarantee optimal aesthetics. The three-coat system was applied at a dedicated offsite contractor’s premises and delivered to site ready to erect. The new Wembley National Stadium was handed over in 2007, in time to host the 2007 FA Cup Final. PPG was successful in providing a solution that still protects the exposed steelwork for the arch, roof structure and internal steelwork for the bowl structure, and will do so for many years to come.

Coopers were commissioned to design and manufacture a bespoke curtain barrier system that, in the event of fire, would guard against smoke penetrating the upper floors of the store. Through regional partner Souchie, Coopers installed a series of Smoke Stop™ vertical smoke curtains above each escalator specifically designed to protect the means of escape for customers, whilst at the same time dramatically reduce the transmission throughout the building of life threatening gases generated by fire.

The Northern General Hospital in Sheffield chose Yeoman Shield fire rated door protection systems to refurbish doors in the Radiology Department. The configuration and refurbishment of the department was undertaken to improve patient flow, the overall environment and to rationalise inpatient and outpatient areas to satisfy privacy, dignity and capacity issues. Yeoman Shield’s (Harrison Thompson) directly employed fixing operatives, who have been assessed as being competent to install such passive fire-resistant products by FIRAS, installed fire rated door protection panels, PVCu clad Glazing Bead Units and Door Edge Protectors to various doors throughout the unit.

Striking the optimum balance between aesthetics and fire safety in glazed partitions is a reality with new additions to the SYSTEMGLAS® range from passive fire protection market leader Promat UK. Utilising the proven fire resistant material PROMATECT® H, two new Promat SYSTEMGLAS® options give designers and contractors the scope to create frameless, butt-jointed glazed screens that maximise light transmission, whilst offering fire integrity and insulation (EI) fire protection for 30 or 60 minutes.

From the Tower of London to The Royal Palaces, Coopers is trusted to install fire and smoke curtains barriers for some of the world’s most iconic heritage buildings. With this knowledge, appointed architects Arrol & Snell assigned Coopers to develop a system that would help protect the cathedral’s Undercroft and Treasury from smoke migration in the event of a fire. The smoke barrier system had to allow visitors to exit the Undercroft and Treasury safely, whilst preventing smoke from entering the main body of the cathedral, but any system had to be sympathetic to its unique and ancient architecture.

The fire protection of critical movement joints within the main floor slabs of the new Midland Metropolitan University Hospital in Birmingham has consumed some 1,000 linear metres of FIREFLY™ TITAN Lite™ 120/60, as a well proven and widely specified passive fire protection product.

The high strength Isotec 200 loft ladder offers superb thermal insulation with a U-value of 0.17 W/m2K and a class 4 certified airtight seal. In addition, it offers 60 minutes fire and heat protection (tested according to EN 1634-1, EN1363-1, ÖNORM 3860). The Isotec 200 loft ladder is ideally suited for energy efficient, low-carbon buildings where fire protection is needed.

The Hackitt Review has brought to the broader public attention the myriad of standards and testing or assessment methods that specifiers and the fire protection sector has had to carefully navigate for many years. And whilst the debate continues about the best way forward in respect of specific applications, one positive step that fire door manufacturers can take right now is to go back to basics and check whether their supply chain for fire resisting components is opening the door to risk.Fire resistant products like fire rated glass, intumescents and core materials are composed to precise specifications.

Coopers solution was to install over 100 SmokeStop smoke curtain barriers. Concealed within the ceiling voids of each of the 39 floors, the SmokeStop smoke curtain barriers were developed to deploy in the event of fire, channelling smoke away from occupant and out of the building. This effective strategy for containing and channelling smoke would ensure that Gherkin’s 41 floors were protected from filling with smoke and provide occupants with a safe means of escape.

Northamptonshire based DC Fire Protection Ltd., a long-term customer of TBA FIREFLY™, has employed the manufacturer’s ZEUS Lite™ system to create a 90:30 minutes’ fire barrier within the first floor ceiling void of a commercial property in London’s Hyde Park area.

Dame Judith Hackitt’s assertion that the building industry routinely puts cost before quality will come as no surprise to architects and contractors who often see their specifications being challenged, and changed, just to save a few pounds. ‘Value engineering’ has become synonymous with an industry obsessed seeking to do everything at the lowest possible cost. Fire rated glass, framing materials and other components must be evaluated and scrutinised at the product specification stage. Once specified, passive fire protection products must stay specified, as the slightest change to the specification can compromise the expected level of fire resistance.

DRU gas fires and a Spartherm wood fire were specified by Ethos Construction and DRU dealer Grate Expectations for Harford Manor, a country house in Holyport, Windsor. They selected the fires for their ‘A’ energy ratings. This included the DRU PowerVent extended flue system for flexibility of location. In addition, the gas fires can be operated using the DRU Eco Wave app for tablets and smartphones. Ethos project manager Niten Mistry said: ‘The fires were selected for their impressive performance and ease of installation. They also contribute to the high quality of the property.’ www.harfordmanor.com, www.grateexpectations.com,

Premier Loft Ladders have made choosing and specifying your next fire rated loft ladder even easier. Product data for the high-spec Isotec loft ladder is now available within NBS Plus. The Isotec offers superb strength and very high thermal insulation. It also provides fire protection for up to 120 minutes. As such, it is a great solution for a wide range of projects. To help designers and architects, Premier Loft Ladders has made technical data for the Isotec fire rated loft ladder available within NBS Plus. It can be found within section L30 (clause 421).