Pacific Rim Wood (UK) Ltd has successfully tested its Flamebreak fire check door blank to the European standard BS EN 1634-1:2008 Fire resistance tests for door and shutter assemblies. Fire doors and shutters, with Chiltern International Fire. CIF’s Head of Fire Resistance Testing Mark Cummings commended the company for aiming to ‘get ahead of the game’ by successfully testing to the European standard.
Pacific Rim Wood has tested a wide variety of glazing and hardware options for the Flamebreak range to BS 476 Part 22 and, through Chiltern Dynamics, has added thermal, acoustic and mechanical test evidence to the portfolio. Pacific Rim Wood Sales Director Shaun Hannan said, ‘We have sold our product on the strength of this test evidence to Wembley Stadium, Heathrow’s Terminal 5 and London Underground. We now aim to do the same with the BS EN 1634 to develop markets in mainland Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere, who want European test evidence.’
For the UK market, door manufacturers and suppliers still test to BS 476: Part 22. Mr Cummings said, ‘That is, of course, absolutely fine. The British Standard will remain in force for the foreseeable future, but if and when CE marking becomes mandatory, as is likely by 2011, it will require BS EN 1634 test evidence.’ The European Commission has announced its intention to make the Construction Products Directive a Regulation and a draft Construction Products Regulation document is under review, with a potential enforcement date of 2011. This would make CE marking mandatory in all EU states.
Mr Cummings is concerned that the UK fire door industry is leaving it rather late. ‘Since the start of this year, most of the testing we have carried out to BS EN 1634 has been for glazing manufacturers, for whom CE marking is already a big issue.’
PDF: Pacific Rim Wood adds BS EN 1634 to Flamebreak portfolio
rss feeds
