Certified fire-safe aluminum facades for mid-rise buildings

Anyone thinking about fire safety of facades knows that the facade fires in a number of tall buildings-and particularly after the tragic fire at London's Grenfell Tower in June 2017-have prompted stricter European requirements. In particular, the speed with which fire could spread vertically through the facade has caused a turning point in the thinking of facade builders.

Such is the case with Ursus, a Belgian supplier of aluminum cladding. The company was the first Belgian company to obtain the certificate for fire-safe aluminum facades for medium-rise buildings. Jan de Paepe, director of Ursus talks about the important step taken in the context of improved fire safety within the facade industry.

"With ventilated facades, it is crucial that building elements with good fire response performance have been used in order to slow down the development of an incipient fire as much as possible."

De Paepe explains, "Fire reaction performance, or fire resistance, is expressed as an REI performance. Basically, this is the ability of a building element to continue to meet fire stability (R), flame density (E) and thermal insulation (I) requirements for a given period of time. Also, compartmentalization of a building plays a big role in limiting the fire to the compartment in which it started for a certain period of time."

Great responsibility

De Paepe notes that a great responsibility rests on the shoulders of architects, although the ultimate responsibility for the fire safety of a building does not rest with them. 

"However, it is important that architects already know at the design stage what the options are for ventilated or non-ventilated fire-safe facades," he believes. Ursus Projects, a specific division within Ursus, has specialized in some unique areas of expertise for many years, where it is not concerned with passing the buck, but rather working on solutions in an accelerated and constructive manner.

Aluminum cladding

"In the field of aluminum cladding, we are therefore the partner who works out all the details with the customer in terms of fire reaction of the facade product, the fire resistance of a building element and the compartmentalization of a building."

From research after the Grenfell Tower disaster, polyethylene composite cladding was found to be the fire accelerant. "Actually, that's not surprising," says De Paepe. "Especially when you know that one kilogram of composite aluminum panel can give off as much energy as one liter of gasoline in the event of a fire. And that becomes
actually only even more so because composite panels are more compact because of their shape and construction. Then a building clad in polyethylene composite panels is equivalent to a building wrapped in gasoline ... the nightmare of every fire department."

But alternatives are possible, continues De Paepe. "Aluminum cladding from full flat sheets is the solution. They contain no combustible materials or cores, and their surface treatment (powder coating, for example) will only burn up in the event of exposure to extreme heat." 

Ursus Projects has been in the business of supplying and installing full sheets of flat aluminum cladding for many years. Today, the sheet quality and alloys guarantee a tremendously sleek sheet, there are numerous options in powder coating colors, and the customization aspect with welding options make even more possible. But Ursus goes one step further to offer customers a complete fire-safe facade construction. 

"Meanwhile, we were the first Belgian company on the market to obtain the certificate for fire-safe aluminum facades for medium-rise buildings (fire class BS1D, which stands for 'very difficult to burn, low smoke production and no drop formation'). And we are very proud of that!" De Paepe concludes, "What is unique is that the certification is independent of the type or thickness of insulation used. Even insulations of fire class E are thus covered by this certification. This obviously offers possibilities in implementation."