UNBOUNCE - EXAMPLE PAGE-REPORT-ENTERPRISE DOCUMENT-KINGSPAN - Flipbook - Page 62
Product Integrity
Ensuring the safe use of our products in buildings
is central to our approach to product development,
testing and support. This encompasses both the safety
of those who are installing our products and crucially,
those who live and use the buildings that contain
our products.
Today, fire safety is often reduced to a simplistic
“combustible” versus “non-combustible” definition, based
on a small-scale test. Important factors such as building
design, installation methodology and the interaction
of the different materials in the actual system are not
tested in small-scale materials classification testing.
Hence, our approach to the safe use of our insulation
products in buildings is founded on the principle that
system testing is the best way to assess fire performance
of any roof or cladding system, regardless of the
insulation materials used.
As a manufacturer of products incorporating a very
wide spectrum of insulation solutions, including both
combustible and non-combustible insulation, we
have extensive experience with system testing for fire
performance across a range of insulation types and
system build-ups. It is this knowledge that informs our
belief that fire safety should be predicated on tested
performance of the actual system, rather than a
presumption that certain materials will be safe in
any build-up.
It is also very important to understand that there is a
wide spectrum of performance in combustible materials.
Thermoset combustible materials (such as QuadCore™
and Kooltherm®) are designed to char when subjected
to fire, the char forms a barrier which helps to limit heat
from reaching the insulation beneath. This char will
break down slowly and allow the flames to char another
layer of insulation, but it takes a significant amount of
time. In addition, when the flame is removed, Kingspan
thermoset insulation self-extinguishes. These are
important characteristics underpinning their ability
to help systems pass the most rigorous large-scale
system tests.
For example, a wide range of Kingspan insulated panels
carry an FM (FM Global) or LPCB (Loss Prevention
Certification Board) Approval, both of which are testing
regimes developed by the insurance industry. These
approvals provide objective third-party testing, which is
underpinned by quarterly, bi-annual and annual factory
surveillance audits (depending on the region) to verify
compliance. Independent certification bodies take
samples of insulated panels from our factories and send
them to their own laboratories for fire testing to verify
ongoing compliance. These independent audits also
include assessments of change control, formulations,
processing parameters, labelling and internal testing.
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During 2021, over 570 of these external product audits
were carried out across the Group.
The behaviour of the insulated panels in these tests
has been consistent with a significant number of
independently investigated real fire case studies, where
Kingspan LPCB and FM approved panel systems have
been exposed to real fires in a range of building types
including school, hospital, retail, distribution, storage,
food manufacture/ processing, industrial and a car. Whilst
all these case studies relate to insulated panels with a PIR
core, large scale system tests embedded within LPCB and
FM approvals indicate that QuadCore™ insulated panels
will perform in a similar or better manner. Key findings
from these real fire investigations include:
g No evidence to indicate that the PIR insulated panels
increased the risk of fire spread;
g PIR cores within the insulated panels charred in the
immediate vicinity of the fire;
g Fires were not propagated within the PIR core of the
insulated panel;
g PIR insulated panels did not char significantly outside
of the area of the main fire; and
g Building contents were the dominant influence on
fire severity, and the fire severity was not significantly
influenced by the PIR insulated panel.
The Kooltherm® range of insulation boards and KoolDuct®
pre-insulated ductwork are manufactured with a phenolic
insulation core, which has been proven to offer superior
fire and smoke performance to other commonly used rigid
thermoset insulants.
A comprehensive range of building facade systems
incorporating our insulation board and insulated panels
products have successfully passed Kingspan largescale facade tests around the globe including, but not
limited to, NFPA 285 (North America), LEPIR II (France),
SP 105 (Nordics), AS 5113 (Australia), ISO 13785-2
(Czech Republic) and MSZ 14800-6 (Hungary). As it
relates to large scale fire tests, there are a total of 14
systems incorporating Kooltherm® which have met the
requirements of BR135 when tested to BS 8414 (UK) and
there are 6 insulated panel based systems that have met
the requirements of BR 135 when tested to BS 8414. We
recognise that all testing, for fire and other aspects of
performance, must be supported by a robust approach
to ensuring that the integrity of this information can
be assured and disseminated to enable a golden thread
from testing through to the service life of our products
on buildings and beyond. Furthermore, safe use of our
products on buildings must be supported by accurate
and truthful marketing together with competent technical
and installation advice.
