Passive Fire Protection
One of the most successful materials in fireproofing in Europe is calcium silicate. Where North Americans use spray fireproofing plasters, Europeans are more likely to use cladding made of calcium silicate. High performance calcium silicate boards retain their excellent dimensional stability even in damp and humid conditions and can be installed at an early stage in the construction programme, before wet trades are completed and the building is weather-tight. For sub-standard products, silicone treated sheets are available to fabricators to mitigate potential harm from high humidity or general presence of water. Fabricators and installers of calcium silicate in passive fire protection often also install firestops.
While the best possible Reaction to Fire Classifications are A1 (construction applications) and A1Fl (flooring applications) respectively, both of which mean "non-combustible" according to EN 13501-1: 2007, as classified by a notified laboratory in Europe, some calcium silicate boards only come with Fire Classification of A2 (limited combustibility) or even lower classifications (or no classification), if they are tested at all.
Read more about this topic: Calcium Silicate
Famous quotes containing the words passive, fire and/or protection:
“She has taken her passive pigeon poor,
She has buried him down and down.
He never shall sally to Sally
Nor soil any roofs of the town.”
—Gwendolyn Brooks (b. 1917)
“Methinks King Richard and myself should meet
With no less terror than the elements
Of fire and water, when their thundering shock
At meeting tears the cloudy cheeks of heaven.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“After so many historical illustrations of the evil effects of abandoning the policy of protection for that of a revenue tariff, we are again confronted by the suggestion that the principle of protection shall be eliminated from our tariff legislation. Have we not had enough of such experiments?”
—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)