David Roulstone, national commercial and marketing manager at passive fire protection specialist FSi Promat, outlines how important the testing process is to introducing a product to market that can ultimately save lives
While all businesses will meet some degree of regulatory requirement, for manufacturers operating in life-critical sectors such as firestopping, any new product must also meet clear performance criteria.
Fire protection products need to demonstrate their suitability through a combination of testing, third-party supervision, factory controls and transparency in the supply chain to give specifiers and installers confidence when recommending a product.
Thorough testing ensures reliable firestopping
Any fire protection product or system must satisfy the building code applicable for that building type and for the specified period. This involves the physical testing of the product to measure both its reaction to fire – the degree to which a material used within the building may contribute to fire growth – and fire resistance, which measures the ability of a product or system to withstand the progress of a fire. For fire stopping materials there is a combination of reaction to fire tests and fire resistance testing.
Performance is assessed as a function of the system, and the end-use condition in which they are installed, meaning, for example, that in the case of fire stopping the product is tested in a combination of substrates, such as block wall or dry cladding to demonstrate the field of application.
In Great Britain there were 334 fire-related fatalities in the period 2021-2022, with the most common cause of death, where known, given as “overcome by gas or smoke”, as reported by the National Statistics Office. To allow occupants to escape and provide safe access for firefighters, buildings are divided into manageable areas of risk – the concept of compartmentation, which uses the fabric of the building to prevent the passage of smoke and fire gases.
During the construction of any modern building, breaches to walls and ceilings to pass cables, pipes, and other services through the structure is inevitable, creating holes through which smoke can travel.
Reliable fire prevention requires reliable materials
Fire stopping products such as FSi Promat’s Stopseal® batt – a mineral wool protection board coated with a fire resistant, ablative coating on both sides, Pipebloc® collars and Pyrocoustic® sealants are used to seal these holes and reinstate the fire resistance of the compartment’s separating elements.
It is important that in the development stage, these fire-stopping products are tested together to demonstrate the performance of the entire system.
Depending on the use of fire-stopping products there is a range of tests that will be undertaken during development. Prior to testing, a third party certification body accredited to UKAS, the National Accreditation Body for the United Kingdom, will sample the material to be tested and review the producing factory’s control systems to ensure the traceability of raw materials and internal quality control procedures. The sampled products are used in the test, to ensure that the performance of the final product matches the results obtained in the fire test.
Tests relevant to fire stopping include EN 1366-3: Fire resistance tests for service installations – Penetration seals; EN 1366-3: Linear joint seals and in the case of open state cavity barriers the sample is exposed to a specified regime of heating and pressure as specified in EN 1363-1.
FSi Promat’s products are tailormade to your building’s fire prevention needs
Once tested the performance of the system will be reviewed by the third-party certification body against the test standard and supporting certification detailing the applications and fire resistance period will be issued. This performance documentation, alongside safety and product data sheets, should be available to download via the manufacturer’s website.
As a leading manufacturer of fire stopping products in the UK, all FSi Promat products go through the development cycle described to give confidence to specifiers and installers that the chosen product is fit for purpose. This testing is backed by third party certification, technical support, and installation training to minimise risk and keep people and properties safe.
