Promat UK has published an authoritative white paper which gives valuable information on structural steel fire protection.
With over 50 years experience as a leading supplier of passive fire protection solutions, Promat intends the white paper to stimulate greater awareness of this important topic.
Architects and specifiers are continually pushing the boundaries of functionality, aesthetics, innovation and value. As a result constructions are becoming more complex with greater challenges around building and occupier safety, therefore structural fire protection remains vitally important.
With steel structures now accounting for 70% of the multi-storey framed market making the right choice of fire protection is an essential decision.
“A recent poll undertaken by PROMAT revealed that 56% of architects believe they have the largest single influence on decisions around steel frame fire protection,” says Promat’s Business Development Director, Ian Cowley. “So our aim was to produce a document that gives the information needed to support construction professionals in delivering fact based, informed assessments and specifications”
The white paper - entitled ‘Introduction to Making the Right Choice’ provides an introduction to the subject, the challenges facing the specification community, the various fire protection options, key specification considerations, requirements for castellated/cellular beams, conducting the correct thickness checks, and a fire protection design guidance overview.
Focus is further given to factors such as product performance, costs, build programs, weather, curing times, repair and maintenance.
While intumescent paint and board systems are commonly specified for the fire protection of structural steel, feedback suggests that the specification of cementitious or gypsum spray remains a viable and cost-effective option.
What is clear is that fire protection for steel structures for every project has to be viewed on its own merits and selected product choice needs to be determined appropriately.
The critical influence of weather conditions on the application performance of intumescent paint is not fully understood by the architectural community.
Manufacturers of this product stress the importance of application in specific conditions during certain times of the year to ensure a compliant application, yet PROMAT UK’s research indicates a lack of awareness of this vital fact across the professionals questioned. This lack of understanding needs to be rectified so that an intumescent paint solution is only used in appropriate instances and the effect of weather factors truly understood.
Whilst the use of intumescent paint has grown, it is also clear that the architectural community continues to prefer the use of board systems for the most common UK fire-rated period of 30 and 60 minutes.
It could be argued that whilst architects specify this choice, material switches are happening at the construction stage when, for various reasons intumescent paint is being utilised instead. This should be a potential concern for architects who could see their structural steel fire protection objectives compromised during construction as a result. Architects are urged to ensure that their original specification directives are fulfilled in this regard.
