Samuel Heath’s commitment to ensuring that its Powermatic
controlled, concealed door closers provide the ultimate assurance in quality
and performance has been further underlined with the successful completion of
additional full-sized fire testing on both timber and steel fire doors at
renowned testing laboratory, Exova Warrington Fire.
Thirty-minute testing in accordance with BS EN 1634-1 was undertaken
on a timber fire door constructed with a Halspan core to replace Powermatic’s
current small-scale indicative testing for the BS476 assessment.
The door set easily achieved the 30-minute test requirements,
continuing until final failure occurred at 42 minutes.
Significantly, where most timber door fire tests fail due to
failure of the hinge/timber joint, which causes the door to drop and
intumescent seal to break at the top of the door, Powermatic was actually shown
to hold the door in place after the hinge/timber joint failure. This is
attributed to the design, strength and location of Powermatic, which fits in a
similar position to hinges, between the door and door frame.
Most notably though, and in common with other fire tests including
Powermatic, there was no evidence of any significant heat transfer in the
vicinity where the closer was installed.
The steel fire door test incorporated an uninsulated Teckentrup
fire door with Powermatic fitted using receiver plates. Again, testing was
undertaken in accordance with BS EN 1634-1, but for the four-hour, FD240 fire
rating.
The uninsulated steel door passed the four-hour test comfortably.
As a result, the test evidence will allow certification to cover both insulated
and non-insulated doors at any fire rating up to and including four hours.
Adam Daniels, Head of Design at Samuel Heath, states, “Recent
tragic events have highlighted the need for the stringent adherence to fire
safety regulations and the selection of products which meet essential
performance criteria.
"These latest tests provide additional proof of
Powermatic’s suitability for both timber and steel fire doors. They have also
yielded some pleasing information on the additional benefits that the door
closers deliver. We know that specifiers working on private and public building
projects will welcome these findings.”
