Kingspan Insulated Panels is urging the regulatory authorities to introduce large-scale fire testing as a minimum requirement for external high-rise cladding materials, in a bid to address the use of dangerous non-compliant combustible cladding.
“With a growing demand for composite cladding materials and a predicted rise in commercial and multi-level apartment developments, the need for stringent large-scale fire testing of cladding materials is a critical safety measure,” said Dr Mark Tatam, Technical Director at Kingspan Insulated Panels.
While the National Construction Code currently requires cladding materials to be fire tested, the acceptability of external cladding systems has historically been determined by internal fire tests and/or small scale reaction to fire tests, involving relatively small fire sources and samples of restricted size.
Standards Australia in conjunction with the Australian Building Codes Board (ABCB) has developed a new Australian standard (AS 5113 Fire propagation testing and classification of external walls of buildings) that will provide a more accurate indication of the fire combustibility of wall claddings and wall assemblies, as it is based on large-scale facades fire testing
“We commend the work of the ABCB in addressing the current testing environment for cladding products. While internal or small-scale fire tests can help to screen out materials that exhibit poor fire performance, they do not adequately demonstrate how a cladding system may behave when subject to a large fire from within or outside a building.
“We urge the industry to follow the footsteps of the UK and US building codes, which mandate that combustible cladding systems used in high-rise buildings are assessed using large-scale fire tests that involve large fire sources and a significant area of cladding. This helps to better assess the performance of high-rise cladding materials, and their fixing and joint systems, in a real fire scenario,” said Dr Tatam.
Kingspan Insulated Panels also welcomes the introduction of AS5113 as a new Verification Method for compliance to the Building Code of Australia. “The introduction of compliance certification provides an important recognised path for fire engineers and specifiers to assess composite cladding materials and select only proven systems.
“These changes are positive steps towards performance-based fire engineering, an approach that is increasingly seen as the new benchmark in fire safety,” said Dr Tatam.
Kingspan Insulated Panels champions performance-based fire engineering, which applies fire science to address fire protection problems in the built environment. Kingspan provides comprehensive evidence to fire engineers so they can undertake risk analysis, design fire scenarios and trial designs to develop compliant solutions.
Its Insurer Certified PIR core sandwich panels have been proven to achieve high levels of reaction to fire performance in tests specified for regulatory purposes, as well as in large scale tests developed by the insurance industry, international standards agencies and fire brigades. The company has undertaken independent fire investigations by leading fire consultancies and fire experts from around the world. For a comprehensive overview of real life fire case studies, visit www.kingspanpanels.com.au/fire.
