20 Fire resistance As pipes and ducts pass through fire rated walls or floors they provide an opening, which can then allow the passage of fire from one compartment to another. Therefore, any pipes and ducts that penetrate the wall / floor require insulation products that meet the same level of fire resistance. Fire resistance means that structural elements such as wall or flooring elements can withstand a fully developed fire and fulfil requirements of insulation, integrity and/or load bearing capacity. The fire resistance rating is given as a time in minutes, i.e. a rating of R90 would provide 90 minutes fire resistance. In circumstances where pipes or ducts penetrate through a fire rated wall or floor ArmaFlex Protect should be installed at the section where it passes through. ArmaFlex Protect provides a fire resistance of R120 for up to 120 minutes. Reaction to fire Reaction to fire relates to the combustibility and ignitability of a material, i.e. its contribution to fire growth in the event of a fire. Reaction to fire tests are commonly called up in codes and regulations in both building and transport sectors. Requirements for buildings: Most countries have their own national regulations that prescribe the required reaction to fire performance of materials: National Building Regulation Building Regulation Document England The Building Regulations 2010 Approved Document Part B - Fire Safety Wales The Building Regulations 2010 Approved Document Part B - Fire Safety Scotland Building (Scotland) Regulations 2004 Technical Handbook Section 2 - Fire Northern Ireland Building Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2004 Technical Booklet E - Fire Safety Ireland Building Regulations 1997-2014 Technical Guidance Document B - Fire Safety The UK & Ireland fire ratings are determined by the BS 476 fire testing standards. BS 476 Part 7: Surface Spread of Flame test BS 476 Part 6 test classifies a material as being Class 1, 2, 3 or 4 depending on the results of a test sample mounted vertically and placed at a 90° angle from a radiation panel. The radiation panel gives off heat in a similar way a fire would. The sample is exposed to the radiation panel for 10 mins, for the first minute a pilot flame is applied to the corner of the sample. During the test, the time taken for the flame spread to reach various distances is recorded 1.5 minutes into the test and at the end of the test. BS 476 Part 6: Fire Propagation test BS 476 Part 6 determines whether a rating of Class 0 is achieved for a material. The material must first have been tested to BS 476 Part 7 and achieved a rating of Class 1 before it can be tested. The test measures the material‘s contribution to the growth of a fire. The sample is held in a small container and exposed to gas burners 3mm away from the surface of the material. The material is tested over a period of 20 minutes. The rate of heat release during combustion is measured. To be Class 0 certified the fire propagation index (I) must be ≤ 12 and the subindex (i1) must be ≤ 6. Euroclass fire ratings The European classification system is defined in EN 13501-1 “Fire classification of construction products and building elements, Part 1 – Classification using data from reaction to fire tests”. The European system is similar to the BS 476 tests but also measures smoke production and flaming droplets. The products are classified as A1, A2, B, C, D, E or F (with A1 being the highest). A1 and A2 are considered to be non-combustible or limited combustibility, generally for inorganic materials. Since ArmaFlex is produced from organic material the highest rating possible is B. Smoke production is also classified as s1, s2 or s3 and flaming droplets are classified as d0, d1 or d2 (with s1 being minimal smoke production and d0 being zero flaming droplets). So a full fire classification will look like the following for example: B-s1,d0. FIRE PERFORMANCE