Insulation

There is a fire curtain on the market which, until recently, advertised itself as providing “66 minutes of insulation” in addition to integrity.This is a flawed and erroneous use of the term insulation.

What was actually provided by this product was a reduced irradiance of heat and this is not the same.

One of the primary objectives of an insulation requirement is to prevent the spread of heat from igniting objects in separate compartments; compartments are “insulated” from one another i.e. via items stored next to the compartment walls. As fire curtains are an active system there is no visible compartment line to store things against and therefore no real way to demonstrate this as a feature.

In a similar fashion the testing data is flawed. The required test for measuring insulation is via thermo-couples attached to the surface of the insulating material. This is not possible with an active barrier that intumesces as the thermo-couples become detached as soon as the furnace is activated, rendering all measurements void. Therefore all test data is actually measuring irradiance as the measuring devices have to be held artificially at a distance from the surface of the fabric.

It is now practice for this “insulated curtain” to be advertised as providing an “insulating zone”. This is of course semantics. An “insulated zone” is simply a measurable area of reduced irradiance. A metal shutter or a fabric barrier provides this facility as does any item placed between a flame and the subject.

With regards specifically to BLE fabric fire curtains they are proven to reduce irradiance from heat considerably more efficiently than, for example a metal shutter.
A recognised, although untested method of providing increased protection from irradiance is to place two curtains back to back with a 250mm air gap between them. This causes its own mechanical problems in terms of deflection but does provide a marked reduction in irradiance.

In summary there are no fabric fire barriers on the market that provide insulation as defined in the European and British Standards, indeed new standards currently being examined make reference only to this insulating zone, which our curtains provide. BLE Smoke & Fire Curtains provide a considerable degree of reduction to the irradiance of heat.

PRODUCT PORTFOLIO

Insulation