Fire Protection
The most important metric for the performance of building materials to protect critical infrastructure, IT and manufacturing facilities, should be measured by BS/EN 1364-1:2015. Essentially, this measures the time in minutes for fire to breach a wall or enclosure. This applies to fire from the outside - to reach the items within, and from the inside - to contain the spread of fire to the surrounding area. The two figures quoted are for ‘insulation’ (the measure of temperature to ignite items immediately on the other side of the barrier) and ‘integrity’ (time for flames to breach the barrier).
The Remtech ModuSec Phenolic Foam modular steel faced construction system offers the highest levels of performance for 100mm steel faced panel systems alongside mineral wool. Both provide 60/60 or 90/90 - depending on orientation and panel length. The Remtech ModuSec high security options offer 60 minutes insulation (74 minutes achieved) and 120 minutes integrity (the test was stopped at 124 minutes – but not failed). Note that our system has also been independently assessed by Warrington Fire as a complete building for fire from inside and outside, for a very sensitive area of a nuclear facility to meet their 60/60-minute criteria. Typically, 100mm PIR Panels offer only up to 30 minutes.
The other metric that is quoted is ‘Reaction to Fire’ under EN 13501-1. This includes combustibility classed as A1, A2, B, C etc (contribution to a fire), smoke production s1, s2, etc and production of burning droplets d0, d1, etc However, since our unique Phenolic system offers top levels of performance under EN 1364-1 in terms of time to protect from fire, the manufacturers of mineral wool and PIR mainly push the Reaction to Fire metric, to appear to be better, in the case of mineral wool, or equal in the case of PIR, as a binary choice. Neither reflects the reality of performance, Phenolic panels being historically classed as equal to mineral wool and superior to PIR under this metric as well.
Originally, Class A contained only ‘non- combustible’ materials such as concrete, glass and rock. According to BRE testing, Phenolics and mineral wool composite panels were alone in the next highest protection level - Class B1 (see Appendix 1 of Fire Performance Document). PIR and other panel types being in lower B2, B3 and C Classes. This reflects the huge variation they found in the performance of thermoset panels.
Whilst mineral wool fibres are ‘non-combustible’, the panels use phenolics to bind the fibres and ‘combustible’ PU adhesives to attach the steel skins to the core. Hence the panel are not ‘non-combustible’. Despite this, under the influence of major mineral wool manufacturers, a Class A2 was created just for mineral wool. Phenolics were left alone in Class B1, with PIR, etc in lower B Classes. Then under the influence of major PIR manufacturers, all the B Classes were combined. Hence now, under this metric, Phenolics are conflated with PIR – both with a rating of B-s1, d0 – even though Phenolics produced much better results under initial testing to this metric by BRE (see Appendix 1 of Fire Performance Document)
Also note that for the fire rating of a door, window or any other element to be valid - it should be fire tested mounted in the wall materials to be specified - to demonstrate the action of the element and its interaction with its setting in a fire situation.
The ModuSec Door System, specifically designed to fit to ModuSec wall panels, was fire tested to EN 1634 mounted in the ModuSec wall panels. It not only met the traditional 90 minute integrity and insulation criteria - but was also well within the EN1047-2 limit temperatures at 60 minutes for IT protection. The test wall panels also showed an average surface temperature of just 37°C at 60 minutes from a start of 15°C (a 22°C rise) at the cold face with a furnace temperature of 946°C.
In addition, a vision panel, window, service entry and vent units were all tested and met required fire protection for a minimum 60 minutes (60 minute glass fitted but 90 minute can be specified). Note that walls are rated to EN 1364 - but it is the same test profile as the EN 1634 test standard.
A successful independent 60 minute assessment was also carried out on behalf of Sellafield Sites Ltd by Exova Warrington Fire on a complete ModuSec enclosure - to assess required levels of protection for construction in the most sensitive areas of the nuclear site. This covered interior and exterior fires.
So when it comes to fire protection there could not be a better choice than ModuSec. This range of tests cannot be bettered or compared with 60, 90 or 120 minute rated traditional building materials or other panel systems - particularly where IT environments are concerned.