In line with the company’s commitment to fire prevention and its focus on innovation, building envelope specialist, CA Group Limited, has launched its new and improved spacer bracket.
The new bracket maintains its 240 minutes of structural integrity and is now capable of achieving 120 minutes of insulation integrity - a four fold increase on the existing system, which is already market leading.
The MatriX Spacer System incorporating the fully re-designed and MatriX Bracket with FireWall option, both of which are patent pending, was designed, developed and fully tested by CA Group’s team of engineers and replaces the highly successful original Matrix bracket.
The new bracket will bring enhanced stability, strength and improved ease of installation to the company’s market leading Twin-Therm® and River-Therm® cladding systems.
Lee Davies, Technical Director at CA Group, explained: “Our aim when developing the prototype bracket was to really raise the bar with a unique enhancement that would deliver a spacer system unlike any other available on the market today.
“Over a two-year period we investigated and tested a number of design options in-house, until we were satisfied that the prototype met all the criteria, namely: seamless integration with the existing system, stronger, more robust bracket resulting in greater stability of the overall system and a high quality product.
“We then explored the ways in which this could be mass-produced, using a combination of new technology and our existing capability. By applying our roll forming expertise, which allows for continuous operation, we were able to produce the bracket in large volumes.”
As part of the development process the new MatriX bracket has been subject to rigorous testing by a number of external test houses including: Lucideon, Stoke, for structural and weatherability testing, Exova Warringtonfire, for FireWall testing and Sound Research Labs, Suffolk, for acoustics. Furthermore, the product has also received certification from BRE (LPS1181 & 1208 reaction to fire), FireWall constructions and has full system Agrément approval.
In addition to its compatibility with CA’s Twin-Therm and River-Therm cladding systems, the new FireWall is also appropriate for use in other applications, such as CA’s SolarWall and Prime Rainscreen solutions.