Gulf Construction Online - Third-party tests on doors 'vital'

Fire Protection

Third-party tests on doors 'vital'

Chiltern International Fire and BM Trada Certification have been carrying out certification of a range of door products in the Gulf. CIF managing director KEVIN TOWLER discusses the importance of third-party certification.

01 March 2005

The single most important consideration for the specifier when choosing a fire door is that, if the worst should happen and a fire breaks out the door will perform as it has been designed to do.

Thankfully, most fire doors are never put to the ultimate test but sadly of those that are, not all will come even close to doing the job they were intended to do.
Chiltern International Fire (CIF) has been running ‘Fire Doors Explained’ – one-day training workshops – for several years, which include a full-scale fire door test. Delegates are often shocked to witness how poor installation or frame design, for example, can mean that a 60-minute fire door will fail to reach even half of that.
Fire doorsets are complex products requiring specialist knowledge and CIF has argued for many years that they should be manufactured and ideally installed by companies who can demonstrate through testing or third party certification that they are expert in this field.

The need for test evidence
Throughout the Gulf, there is an insistence on quality and performance. Contractors and consultants are producing demanding specifications, which often insist that products are tested to British standards. For fire resistance of doors, CIF will test to the British Standard BS 476: Parts 20 to 24.
CIF also draws the attention of the client to Approved Document B of the British Building Regulations which includes the important recommendation that ‘Any test evidence used to substantiate the fire resistance rating of a construction should be carefully checked to ensure that it demonstrates compliance adequate and applicable to the intended use. Small differences in detail (such as fixing method, joints, dimensions, etc) may significantly affect the rating.’ CIF cannot stress too firmly that it is on these small differences that fire safety might depend.
The results of the test are expressed in the fire test report, in terms of minutes to failure of the relevant criterion (or until the end of the test, if the specimen does not fail). The ‘rating’ demanded of a door assembly is usually denoted by an ‘FDXX’ designation, where the ‘XX’ is the integrity – resistance to fire penetration – rating (in minutes of the doorset. Therefore, a ‘FD30’ door will have demonstrated its ability to satisfy the integrity performance criteria of the test for 30 minutes or more.

Test issues
The size of the door is an important consideration. During a fire-resistance test, a doorset will have a tendency to distort and bow because of dehydration and charring: the larger the door, the greater the level of distortion.
The inclusion of metal in a timber doorset will potentially reduce the performance of the door leaf because of the increased heat transfer. Any items of essential ironmongery (hinges, door closers, latches and door selectors) or non-essential ironmongery (kick plates, push plates, signs and pull handles), which have to be morticed into the doorset, are highly likely to require testing. Hardware mounted on the door edge will interrupt the door edge seals and, consequently, additional intumescent will be needed to protect these vulnerable areas.

Benefits of certification
Third-party certification gives specifiers greater reassurance that the products they have chosen will perform. Certification means that not only has the product been properly tested and appraised, but also that it is manufactured to a consistent high standard and that the ongoing production is independently monitored.
CIF’s sister company BM Trada Certification operates the Q-Mark scheme for fire doors, comprising four categories of membership, although members may fulfill the criteria for more than one category:
• Door blank supplier;
• Door/set manufacturer;
• Fabricator; and
• Installer.
To join, manufacturers must submit a product for initial type testing and will undergo regular audit testing. This means that a product will be selected at random from the production line then tested to the same requirements as the initial test specimen. This aspect of Q-Mark has been a key factor in its growing acceptance in the Gulf.
Q-Mark also requires manufacturers to have a quality management system in place for factory production control (FPC), usually ISO 9001:2000 and demands specific procedures that relate to the product to be included within FPC – something which other schemes cannot always offer. This emphasis on consistency of production is a great strength of the scheme.
A key element of the installer scheme is training and the registered installer’s work will be audited on site twice a year. From CIF’s point of view, it can tell from the audits that the key points from the training day have been taken on board.
Evidence has shown time and time again that many of the faults related to fire doors occur on site. In an ideal world, the manufacturer would always install the finished door sets, but where this is not possible, the door supplier should provide clear, concise and unambiguous instructions to be followed to the letter by the installer.
In the end, it is about responsibility and it is important to set out the quality and performance standards required at the outset of any project and to define who is responsible at every stage. Taking as much as possible of the guesswork out of fire door specification and installation can only be good for all concerned.
In the Gulf area, the BM Trada Q-Mark is becoming increasingly familiar as a tried and tested route to ensuring that building products will perform as required.