What is the difference between BS 8524-1 and BS 8524-2 in terms of the certification schemes that underpin the two standards?
The third-party certification of BS 8524-1 and 8524-2 appears to be causing some confusion with some contractors and design teams. BS 8524-1 consists, (in our case) of 18 distinct physical product tests, including specific fire and spread of flame tests, impact testing, elevated motor testing, ancillary tests, and smoke leakage tests that we carried out with Warrington Fire. We then took the entire testing programme with its distinct test reports and applied for a third-party accreditation through IFC (International Fire Consultants) to cover BS 8524-1 in its entirety. BS 8524-1 falls under IFC’s SDP11-02 scheme. Our certificate looks like the below and is referenced number IFCC 1542. It is certainly worthwhile mentioning that the IFC 3rd party scheme to BS 8524-1 appears to be the only scheme acceptable to the majority of UK building controls for the manufacture of fire curtains.
BS 8524-2 is the practice of application, installation, commissioning, and maintenance. There is no physical fire or other testing involved. (To reiterate, that takes place in part BS 8524-1.) There is no specific scheme that relates to BS 8524-2 only. Instead, the IFC SDI 05 scheme is an umbrella scheme under which all of the following 5 types of products fall, including BS 8524. As a note, Warrington Fire through their FIRAS installer scheme do not currently offer 3rd party certification to BS 8524-2, so unsurprisingly the IFC third party certification scheme for installation, commissioning and servicing to BS 8524-2 is the only scheme that UK building control appear to accept. IFC document the following,
“The IFCC (IFC Certification), ‘Installation, commissioning and servicing of Fire and Smoke Barrier Assemblies (SDI 05) allows registered installation, commissioning and servicing companies to certificate specific projects in respect of the efficacy of the installed product to restrict and contain the spread of smoke in compliance with objectives of a SHEV (smoke and heat exhaust ventilation system) as defined in accordance with BS EN 12101- 1:2005+A1:2006 and to ensure that it remains effective throughout its life expectancy, or to restrict the spread of fire in compliance with the objectives of fire compartmentation.”
There are a number of fabric fire and smoke barriers and these can be identified by their type/function as follows:
Type 1: Active fire curtain barriers in compliance with BS 8524-1,-2:2013
Type 2: Fixed fire barriers satisfying the test criteria of BS476-22:1987 or
BS EN 1364-1:2014+A1:2018. Fire barriers are covered in separate IFCC Scheme Documents ‘Installing Fire Stopping Systems’ (SDI 09) and’ Installing cavity barriers’ (SDI 10). In circumstances where a fixed smoke barrier is required for smoke control in a building, these would be covered by the scope of this document.
Type 3: Active fire barriers satisfying the test criteria of BS 476-22:1987 or BS EN 1634-1:2014+A1:2018
Type 4: Active smoke control curtain barriers in compliance with the requirements of BS476-31.1:1983, or BS EN 1634-3:2004
Type 5: Active smoke control barriers in compliance with BS EN 12101- 1:2005+A1:2006
The certification looks like the below and our reference is IFCC 3425. It covers all five types of fire and smoke barriers including BS 8524 and is awarded following comprehensive office, systems, installation and maintenance auditing by IFC.
Details of third-party certified companies are hosted on IFC’s website.
For any questions about the A1S Group Flameshield 8524 fire curtain range, please contact:
info@a1sgroup.com
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