The Blame game - Part 5 - Suppliers!

Manufacturer and Suppliers of passive fire protection products

This category includes what one of my Business Units; Trafalgar Fire Containment Solutions or www.tfire.com.au does.

As I have said throughout the article; all “roles” in construction contribute to the construction outcomes and in terms of passive fire protection or fire stopping; the manufacturers and suppliers of passive fire protection should play a vital role.

What is a passive SYSTEM?

A quick diversion to some theory!

For passive fire protection SYSTEMS to be sold and be compliant with Building Control related Legislation and in turn the National Construction Code (NCC) in Australia, someone needs to do independent fire resistance testing to AS1530 Part 4 and be mindful of some design requirements in AS4072.1.

You will note that I used the term SYSTEMS; not materials or products. It kills me to think that many people just don’t understand the fundamental fact that products and materials can’t have fire ratings or FRL’s in their own right; it’s the as installed SYSTEM that provides the fire rating or FRL.  

This concept is shown in Figure 1 above whereby to have confidence that an installation in a building can achieve the required fire rating or FRL; we need all of the components in play to be done correctly.

Some simple explanation might help you get the SYSTEM concept better:

The fire barrier itself must have been fire tested to achieve the required FRL.

The opening size must be no bigger than fire test data allows in that particular fire barrier type; I will add here that the number of different opening and their proximity to each other is almost important as the “Swiss Cheese” look just might not be compliant.

The types of services, their quantity and their proximity to each other all must be supported by fire test data within the fire barrier type and with the fire stopping materials used.

The product Manufacturer’s (or Supplier’s) installation instruction are paramount to follow as they should articulate what fire barrier type, opening size, service types, quantities and mix of services are required, and how to protect the opening correctly with their products or materials.

The required fire stopping products need to be used and installed in a manner to comply with fire test data; mixing and matching different Manufacturer’s or Supplier’s products in one opening will probably not comply.

Good workmanship for installation is paramount. Why do all the expensive fire testing to get it wrong at installation time. More training and probably accredited installers under a licensing system does make sense to me.

Supporting fire test data for the installation is required. This is made up of one or typically many fire tests and some assessments from registered testing laboratories to augment what can and cannot be done based on all the fire testing. Remember it is impossible to fire test every conceivable barrier, wall, opening and service type, quantity and mix as we find installed in our building so we need a so called field of application document.

I am saddened that some prominent fire test laboratories are disallowing the inclusion of manufacturer’s technical manuals and installation instruction as part of technical assessments. The fire testing field of application assessment should be user friendly.

Labelling of opening as fire stopped is important for ongoing identification during inspection and testing for the life of the building; as is a record of where and what is installed in the building; this is a register of penetration or as some people say a “Penno Log”. The term “Log” comes from the use of Log Books required for ongoing recording on mandatory inspection and testing (previously called Maintenance). In today’s electronical world; the “Log” is often done on software and record keeping also stored in the software probably up in the “Cloud”!

Back to manufacturers and suppliers

Unfortunately from where I sit, and being somewhat of an expert in passive fire protection; considering my experience and education in this field, sadly the sale of passive fire protection products is not conducted in a controlled manner by many.

To achieve a compliant SYSTEM (as described above); we need multiple fire tests for many different configurations and we need detailed installation instruction and ongoing technical support in the field as questions arise and challenging variations inevitably confront the installer.

Some products like fire collars, fire sealant and fire pillows for example are a commodity; it’s gone so far I think you can buy them all at your local milk bar (hang on I am showing my age here); let’s correct that with Bunnings. There is little or no documentation available to help the installer get things right. The product just says on the packaging:

 TESTED FOR UP TO 4 HOURS; complies with AS1530 Part 4 and AS4072 Part 1

This is not going to result in compliance in most instances.

I think you will find with many of these product if you do go looking for fire test data you might get a rude surprise as to how little there or is; or that you are using it in an application, wall type and with services that are not fire tested…….

It just like PINK plasterboard; there are approved applications and the as required SYSTEM installation is required; just because it is PINK does not mean it is compliant; and just because it says 4 hours, doesn’t mean it will be complaint.

At Trafalgar we try hard to EDUCATE and provide the tools people need to do the installation correctly and within the constraints of our fire tested SYSTEMS. We have Trafalgar TV on You Tube where we use videos for example. We run internal training sessions for installers and do quite a bit of on-site support. It’s hard to fund that when we compete with product with poor fire testing and no overhead to provide ongoing technical support.

So I think manufacturers and in particular what I term commodity suppliers have a duty of care to provide the requisite information to the construction industry to help them do installation that can easily be certified as compliant.

Local manufacturing

Sadly like many industry sectors, local manufacturing of passive fire protection products and materials is diminishing. I see numerous supply companies spawn; some selling imported products with no local AS1530 Part 4 fire testing. These suppliers have never read AS1530 Part 4 and have not even heard of AS4072 Part 1.

At Trafalgar we are proud of how much of our range is locally manufactured; this includes for example our Trafalgar fire rated access panel systems, our FIREBOX? range of fire rated Fyrebox? systems; FYREFLEX? fire rated sealant systems, FYRESET? fire rated mortar systems and FYREPLUG? fire rated pillow systems. We are proud to support the local manufacturing industry and give more than 50 people a full time job in Australia.

In summary, I have said previously that we all have a role to play in CHANGE for the better in terms of passive fire protection; manufacturers and suppliers should provide requisite information to help the process; please ask and if they can’t or won’t perhaps reconsider purchasing; you might just find they are the cheapest for a reason?