Getting The Right Support
Supporting Structure for Fire and Smoke Curtains
As manufacturers and installers of fire curtains and fire shutter we are often asked “What supporting structure is your Flameshield range of fire curtains tested/certified to?”
The reality is a fire test of a product is exactly that, it is a test of the product. It is not a test or certification of the substrate material itself.
So how do you confirm whether your structure is suitable for purpose? Hopefully the following information helps clarify.
The 2 main principles of forming an aperture designed to support a fire rated products are widely understood as follows:
Integrity - The supporting structure for a fire curtain must meet the required fire resistance period designed within a fire strategy or confirmed by a fire engineer. It would then be an architect’s job to specify a fire curtain which meets the performance required. A1S’s Fire curtains will likely outperform the structure as we test 120 minutes as a minimum. It’s important that the structure and a fire curtain works together to continue the fire line and provide the compartmentation required.
Weight - The weight of the curtain needs to be evaluated in designing the supporting structure. The fire rated structure must be capable of holding and maintaining the weight in a fire situation. A1S’s single vertical fire curtains weigh typically 22kgs per linear metre.
When installing fire and smoke curtains, it is important to understand that different fire tests are applicable for different structures. A fire test is required for rigid structures and a separate fire test would be required for fitting to flexible structures. Contained within any BS EN 1634-1 fire test document will be the following statement under the Supporting Construction Section. “The fire resistance of a door assembly tested in one form of standard supporting construction may or not apply when it is mounted in other types of construction. Generally, the rigid and flexible types are not interchangeable.” This is taken from BS EN 1634‑1:2014+A1:2018 13.5.1 General.
Apertures are split into two categories, either rigid or flexible.
A1S have tested and successfully passed our Flameshield range of fire curtains to blockwork and timber stud apertures designed to represent rigid and flexible support structure.
Rigid standard supporting constructions are further sub divided to high or low density as defined within EN 1363-1 Fire resistance tests –Part 1: General Requirements.
The responsibility of confirming whether your structure is within the “rigid” or “flexible” category would be your structural engineer/competent professional.