Fire Rated Doors for Resisting Fire Spread

Fire rated door is an important component of the passive fire resistance system of a building. They are designed to prevent fire from spreading for few hours, offering sufficient time for safe egress. Moreover, by confining the fire to a certain area for sometime they help the fire fighters to extinguish the fire easily.

Fire rating of doors

Fire rated doors are classified in accordance with the number of hours they can resist a fire. A good quality fire rated door can withstand fire up to 3 hours. They are usually installed in the opening in the wall that lies between two buildings or divides a large building into smaller fire areas. Doors with 1 ½ to 2 hours fire rating are installed in the vertical egress areas such as the elevator shaft, stairwell and corridors. These doors are also recommended for boiler rooms or other areas of a building that are exposed to heat. Fire rated doors with the lowest fire rating of 1 hour can be installed in the normal openings of a house that have moderate risk of fire exposure. For ensuring maximum fire protection to a building, the fire rating of the door frame should be taken into account along with the fire rating of the door leaf. The door frame comprises of the door hardware and the structures that support the door. Frames compatible with a fire door should have similar fire rating as the door leaf.

Components of fire rated doors

Steel doors are frequently incorporated in the contemporary building designs. Timbers with high thermal resistant properties are occasionally used for making doors of low fire rating. Timber is a popular material for constructing the frames of the fire door. A fire rated door may have a window made out of ceramic glass, borosilicate glass or wire mesh glass. These internal windows also have separate fire ratings. The fire resistant property of the built-in window should be taken into account while assessing the overall fire resistance capability of a door. In most cases, doors with moderate to low risk of fire exposure have built-in windows. They are absent in doors with 3 hour fire rating.

Temperature rise rating

In addition to withstanding fire, good quality fire rated doors prevent transmission of heat to the surface of the door that is not exposed to the fire. While the Fire Rating Door specifies the number of hours the door can endure the fire, the temperature rise rating indicates the maximum temperature that the unexposed surface can reach in 30 minutes.

Eadwardearle - About Author:
Welcome to Security Doors Direct - supplies high quality British Manufactured Stainless Steel Doors at Trade Prices. we have a great deal of experience of supplying and installing Physical Security equipment, not only Fire Rated Doors but also Security Grilles and Steel Security Door.

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