SAFETY FIRST: EXPLAINING FIRE REACTION OF SANDWICH PANELS

For safety reasons, fire reaction (sometimes also called fire behavior) is an important topic. Why so? Because of the word “fire.” Fire is a scary word associated with the loss of human lives and the destruction of goods. We all know what fire means, although we may not have seen one.

Why is fire so essential when connected with building materials?

Because fire burns them and makes buildings either fall or transform them into giant torches that burn and eventually collapse. It’s a disastrous outcome that we all have seen in fires around the world the recent years. So construction codes have evolved in the last decades to prevent fires and tackle the worst outcomes.

In particular, the European Union has decided to issue a general guideline to inform buyers of the degree of flammability of building materials.

FIRE REACTION DEFINITION

Here it kicks in the concept of “fire reaction”: the propensity of specific building material to contribute to the fire. For example, stones have excellent fire behavior, as they don’t burn. On the other hand, hay has terrible fire behavior, as it catches fire very quickly.

So behavior is the contribution to fire.

WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT TO KNOW THE FIRE REACTION OF THE SANDWICH PANELS?

It allows us to assess its suitability for a specific project to see if we can use it or now. For example, if we have to build a tower for residential use, we must choose only materials with outstanding fire behavior. On the other hand, if we make a shed to deposit gravel, we could use a building material with a less performant fire behavior.

Fire behavior is critical to know what will happen in case of fire: if we choose materials with high rated fire behavior, there will be more chances to prevent disastrous outcomes of the fire.

HOW DO WE KNOW THE FIRE BEHAVIOR OF INSULATED METAL PANELS?

The following post will tell more about the Euroclasses as per the EN-13501 norm.

Our cornerstone article about The Difference Between Reaction And Resistance to Fire: “Euroclass” And “REI / EI” may be of interest to you. Another popular theme is about Different Types of PIR Foam and Fire Behavior.

CONCLUSION

To clearly understand the difference between reaction and resistance to fire, watch the video below!

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