Fire Rated Door Standards
FIRE TESTING
Testing to the appropriate Fire Standard e.g. BS EN 1154 is a pre-requisite for products intended for use on Fire Doors and an essential element in attaining CE marked status. Manufacturers are required to label or identify the product with the certificate number and to supply fixing instructions to ensure that it is used in the correct way.
CERTIFIRE:
This is a scheme for the independent third-party certification of passive fire protection products.
Having established the performance requirements under the appropriate EN, a full appraisal of the product is undertaken to determine the field of application, this analysis is often more stringent than the tests applied in gaining CE marking although one may contribute to the other. The Certifire test results information is contained in the certificate and specifies on which types of door the product is approved for, together with any limitations.
Approved Document B to the Building Regulations (England and Wales) recognises the importance of independent product conformity certification. It states:
‘Third party conformity certification schemes not only provide a means of identifying materials and designs of systems, products or structures which have demonstrated that they have the requisite performance in fire, but additionally provide confidence that the systems, materials, products or structures actually supplied are provided to the same specification or design as that tested/assessed.’ Full details of Certifire certificates are contained in a register, which is regularly updated and freely available to architects, specifiers and regulatory enforcement authorities.
