Why Fire Rated Glass is an Important Aspect of Health & Safety

It’s crucial to make sure that your fire protection ways are keeping in line with any stringent building safety laws that are put in place. It’s vital to carry out risk assessments to identify any potential problems and work towards getting them resolved.

While it’s vital that the proper precautions are put in place, it’s also very important that the correct fire safety and evacuation plans are enforced within the event of a fire. Amongst several other necessary options, all fire safety plans should include enough clearly marked escape routes, exits and emergency doors for easy evacuation.

The key to a successful fire protection strategy is to make sure that in the event of the fire, the right fittings are put in place to minimize the spread of smoke and flames. Not only does this help to stay building damages to a minimum, but it also ensures a secure and easy evacuation. Fire rated glass is the perfect solution for anybody looking to implement a new fire safety strategy, or simply meet building rules.

Advanced fire technology now means that transparent fire screens and doors may be implemented to segregate escape routes, common areas, and staircases. Fire rated glass makes an ideal various to standard steel or wooden fire doors, perfect for modern offices that don’t wish solid fire doors disrupting their bespoke designs.

It will usually be a misconstrued conception that glass would be a useless material in the event of a fire as surely, it'd just shatter? Wrong. Well, normal glazing would after being subjected to around 250°F heat, but toughened fire glass will withstand temperatures in more than 1600°F – that is kind of a remarkable difference.

Glass fire screens and doors will give performance up to 120 minutes integrity and insulation, depending on the fireplace rating of the glass and the framework surrounding it. For example, thermally insulated steel framed fire displays will offer up to the maximum (120 minutes), while silicone-jointed devices would usually have a maximum integrity and insulation of 60 minutes when selecting a minimal structure.

It’s vital to know the difference between integrity and insulation. Integrity suggests that how long the fire, smoke and hot flames are contained in a very certain space, so to minimize the spread. However, it is time for insulation to protect the persons inside the building against fire rays to help them safely and quickly evacuate the building.

Insulation and integrity are just present in certain classifications of glass that is summarized below…

• Class E: Integrity only performance. Doesn’t stop the transmission of radiant heat, but will contain the spread of flames and hot smoke.

• Class EW: Integrity performance, with a slight ability to supply some heat resistance.

• Class EI: this can be the best level of protection from fire, smoke, and heat, offering both integrity and insulation.

To be able to identify the classification and also the quantity of protection given, fire rated glass is place through rigorous health and safety tests and given a rating. For example, if the glass is given a rating of EI60, this would mean that it's the best level of protection and insulation and integrity time of an hour. Similarly, EI120 would provide it 120 minutes integrity and insulation.

Another advantage of using fire rated glass in doors and screens is that it's transparent. Not only does this gives specific aesthetically pleasing advantages, but also contributes to the protection aspect. Through clear doors and screens, it’s easier to identify the location of flames and smoke, to help plan out a lot of successful escape plan, avoiding areas that seem to be affected and identify any future hazards in the future. This is why it’s crucial to make sure that glass has an E classification, as this could remain transparent when subjected to heat and fire.

When looking to implement new fire protection ways in any building, fire-rated glass is an obvious choice. New fire glass technology makes solid fire screens and walls out-dated and unnecessary. Therefore, fire-rated glass doors and screens are definitely something worth considering.

Green Future is the leading manufacturer of Fire Rated Glass Suppliers in Bangalore. Their quality is superb and they are also specialized in High Albedo Coatings Suppliers in Bangalore.