The role of insulation material in fire is highly overestimated.
The type of insulation material is not decisive for the fire safety of a building.
Nothing is incombustible
The question is not whether something burns, but at what temperature? Everything burns, as long as the temperature is high enough. Mineral wool has a higher combustion temperature than EPS or PUR, but glass wool also combusts at around 700 °C and stone wool at 1100 °C. In a fully developed fire, temperatures can reach 1200 °C.
EPS and fire safety
Assessment of products in their application :
In most cases, buildings must be built in accordance with a Building Code. This does not set fire safety requirements for the insulation material, but performance requirements for building components, such as roof, facade or floor. Products must therefore be assessed in their application as part of the construction.
The performance of different insulation materials is the same when it comes to the assessment of building components. The type of insulation material is therefore not important with regard to fire safety.
Fire risk and fire damage:
The fire risk and the extent of fire damage are not determined by the insulation material but mainly by other factors, such as the fire load present or the steel structure, which may fail after only 20 minutes. In a building, the insulation material is only a very small part of the total materials present. It is the building's content that makes the greatest contribution to the fire load.
Use SE quality (airpop® is the new name for EPS products)
All building elements produced by EcoBriq are of SE-quality (derived from Schwer Entflammbar/ Self Extinguishing). This means that the contribution to the propagation of fire is very low. The SE components ensure a fire-safe application for the entire life of a building and/or construction. The components do not wash out or dissolve in water and the effect does not disappear over time.
Airpop® behaviour in case of fire.
Fire causes high temperatures. People find temperatures above 45 ºC unpleasant. From 65 ºC onwards, permanent damage can occur to the lungs and at even higher temperatures, people can no longer survive.
EPS-SE only begins to soften at 90 ºC. So EPS-SE only starts to melt when the chances of survival for humans are nil. The combustion temperature of EPS-SE is reached at approx. 450 ºC. A fire has already reached its full extent at this temperature.
Other materials, such as wood, burn for a long time at this stage (from 340°C onwards) or have already burned up. airpop® therefore only plays a minor role in a fire and does not affect the safety of a building.
Smouldering
A smouldering fire can occur as a result of localised strong heating, e.g. as a result of welding or grinding work. Often many hours after execution of the work, the slow spread leads to ignition of other materials. Smouldering behaviour can also lead to a fire that appears to be extinguished hours later flaring up again.
Smouldering behaviour is a side effect that does not occur with synthetic insulation materials, but does occur with mineral wool.
Toxicity
A lesser known phenomenon when burning insulation materials is toxicity, or the release of toxic gases. According to the renowned Fire Institute SP in Sweden, isocyanate is a very dangerous gas produced by building materials in case of fire.
Mineral wool releases the most isocyanate. This is significantly less with PUR. EPS does not produce any isocyanate at all during combustion.
Emission of isocyanates
(in the Cone calorimeter test)
Si certaines images, textes ou références vous dérangent, veuillez envoyer un e-mail à marc@ecobriq.eu
Zouden sommige afbeeldingen, teksten of verwijzigingen u storen mail dan naar marc@ecobriq.eu
Should some images, texts or references disturb you, please email marc@ecobriq.eu
Sollten Sie einige Bilder, Texte oder Verweise stören, senden Sie bitte eine E-Mail an marc@ecobriq.eu
Tags :
Neopor® - Airpop -