The performance of curtain wall products should be awakened

9.16 Fire in Changsha Telecom Building

According to reports, on the afternoon of September 16, a fire broke out in the China Telecom building in the urban area of Changsha, Hunan Province. Thick smoke billowed on the scene, and dozens of floors burned violently. The fire in the building was brought under control in a short period of time that day. After a preliminary on-site investigation by the relevant departments, the fire was a fire on the outer wall of the building. Changsha China Telecom Building (real name: Lotus Garden Telecom Building) is located at No. 1032, Section 1, East Second Ring Road, Furong District, Changsha City, Hunan Province. The building is 218 meters high and has 42 floors on the ground. The telecommunications building was completed in 2000 and is still one of the landmark buildings in Changsha. According to the descriptions of passers-by at the scene and the shooting video, it only took 10 minutes from the visible burning of the outer wall to the burning of the entire outer wall. The speed of the entire fire from breaking out to burning out was so fast that it was difficult for the firefighters, who were extremely fast, to receive instructions and assemble preparations to arrive at the scene for rescue in such a short period of time. Here I have to mention, why the fire of high-rise buildings spreads so fast? 

"The Chimney Effect"

The rapid spread of fire in high-rise buildings is inseparable from the "chimney effect" formed by the vertical plane. It refers to the phenomenon that the indoor air rises or falls along a space with a vertical slope, causing the air to strengthen convection. Experiments have proved that a 30-story building with a height of about 100 meters only takes 30 seconds for the smoke to travel from the first floor to the top floor without obstruction!

With such a rapid fire, the super high-rise building as high as 218 meters also makes it more difficult for fire trucks to put out the fire. But more importantly, since the building was completed in 2000, the performance parameter standards and fire protection index standards of building materials at that time had not been improved to achieve a safer index. Since the reform and opening up, my country's economy and infrastructure have developed rapidly, and the level of cognition and index parameters in all walks of life has also been greatly improved. As a result, there are many strict requirements for construction and building materials. Traditional thermal insulation materials, Non-FR (not reach the fire resistant standard ) Aluminum Composite Panel and polyethylene and other curtain walls have many huge safety hazards in high-rise buildings, such as combustion-supporting properties, which also makes it not recommended to use traditional thermal insulation materials, Non-FR (not reach the fire resistant standard ) Aluminum Composite Panel , polyethylene and other materials in the design of high-rise buildings in my country , as an outer curtain wall.

From the picture, we can see that the Telecom Building after the open fire burned out, only the front side of the outer wall with the fireproof performance that did not meet the non-combustible standard was burned, but such a violent fire did not spread to other unused gypsum cement On the walls, the fire in the high-rise telecommunications building also sounded an alarm for our building materials companies and design institutes, and sounded more contemplation on fire protection indicators and material use selection.

Combustible curtain wall building fires occur frequently

Since 1998, in order to achieve the purpose of energy saving, according to the national conditions, domestic buildings have begun to implement external wall thermal insulation projects. Unfortunately, the fire protection requirements for external wall thermal insulation materials have been relatively lagging behind until the 2014 revised edition of "Architectural Design" The Fire Protection Code specifically took out a section on building thermal insulation and exterior wall decoration, with 12 requirements and a total of 5 pages. For some high-rise buildings built before 2014, there are no regulations on how to deal with fire protection of external wall insulation materials.

Fires are common at home and abroad due to the use of combustible insulation panels, aluminum-plastic panels or polyethylene and other combustible curtain wall panels in high-rise buildings:

On June 14, 2017, a fire broke out in the Grenfell apartment complex in London, England. The fire eventually killed 71 people, including an unborn child.

 

In this fire, the commander of the London Fire Department did not properly handle and respond. After the fire broke out, he used the "stay behind" strategy for a long time, did not realize the threat of fire spread, and did not evacuate the residents in the building in time, so that he missed the optimal evacuation time.

In addition, the renovation work carried out on the building from 2014 to 2016 violated relevant regulations, and the polyethylene material of the building's façade cladding caused the fire to spread rapidly.

In the CCTV building fire in 2009, the outer protective structure of the building was: the outermost decorative layer of titanium-zinc plate, inside which were waterproof layer, thermal insulation layer, vapor barrier layer, etc. The main thermal insulation material was B3 grade extruded plastic board. Spread from the top down. The cause of the fire was that the high-temperature debris after the explosion of the shells fell into the inspection hole of the window cleaning machine at the top of the main building of the CCTV, igniting the exposed thermal insulation layer, waterproof layer and vapor barrier layer and other flammable materials on the inner wall of the inspection channel. the occurrence of fire. 

The firefighting of super high-rise buildings has always been a worldwide problem, and rescue will face the following difficulties: rapid spread, difficult evacuation, difficult water supply, and difficulty in climbing.From the root , to prevent flammable

In 2014, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development issued the national standard "Code for Fire Protection in Architectural Design", which once again clearly stipulated the relevant requirements for the use of A None-Combustion or B1 Hard - Combustion materials for the interior and exterior thermal insulation systems of Chinese buildings. For buildings with a height greater than or equal to 100 meters, the combustion performance of the thermal insulation materials shall be Class A .  

The Level and Combustion Property

Degree	Item	Degree	Item
A	None-combustion	B1	Hard-combustion
B2	Combustion	B3	Combustible
Degree	Material	The Combustion Performance Indicators
None-combustion	Class A Material	According to GB/T8625 test, the average length of the remaining≤35cm (including any residual specimen length≥20cm) for each test and average flue gas temperature peak≤150℃, no specimen back burner the scene; According to GB/T8627 test, their smoke density levels (SDR)≤15; According to GB/T14002 and GB/T14403 test, its calorific value≤4.2MJ/kg, and the specimen thermal emission per unit area≤16.8MJ/m2; Toxicity materials combustion flu gas of the entire non-lethal concentration of≥25 mg/L.
Hard-combustion	Class B1 Material	According to GB/T8626 test, its combustion properties should be met GB/T8626, and does not allow any dropping of combustion burn the filter paper; According to GB/T8625 test, the average of each specimen remaining length≥15cm (including any residual specimen length≥0cm), and average peak temperature of gas≤200℃in each test. According to GB/T8627 test, their smoke density levels (SDR)≤75.

Fire-resistance Performance with different country Standard 

No.	China	Germany	U.S.A.	France	U.K.
	GB/T8627	DIN 4102	ASTM E84	NFF16-101	BS-476
1	A1, A2	A1, A2	NC	MO	O
2	B1	B1	A	M1, M2	1
3	B2	B2	B, C	M3	2, 3

In order to fully meet the performance parameters and indicators, from research and development, design and production, ALUSIGNPANEL adheres to the consistent concept of hard work. It puts forward the requirements to match the national and industry performance indicators.

ALUSIGNPANEL provide B1 Level Hard-combustion Fire Resistant ( Fireproof ) , B1 FR Aluminum Composite Panels

ALUSIGNPANEL Fire-resistant Aluminum composite panel is made of fireproof plastic core with two layers of aluminum sheet. It is one kind of new green material. Because of the additional fireproof element, its fire-resistant feature can reach B1 FR Grade with the FR property test of GB/T8627 , EN13501 -1 and son on standard . Recommend type : 4mm 0.50mm , PVDF Coating , B1 FR Core and 6mm 0.50mm , PVDF Coating , B1 FR Core Aluminum Composite Panels and following Specification :

Width	1220mm, 1250mm, 1500mm
Length	2440mm, 3050mm , 5000mm ,Upon request
Panel Thickness	4mm , 5mm , 6mm
Alu.Skin Thickness	0.30mm, 0.40mm, 0.50mm
Standard Size	1220mm x 2440mm (4' x 8'); 1500mm x 3050mm (5' x 10')
Colors	Alusignpanel color chart standard 45 colors for reference
Others	Accept custom size and colors too

ALUSIGNPANEL provide A2 Level None - combustion Fire Resistance ( Firep Rated ) , A2 FR Corrugated Aluminum Composite Panel , also called it Aluminum Core Composite Panels , it use the Aluminum core instead the polyethylene core , all made of Aluminum , the structure as the following pictures show :

The Product Dimension :

Width	1220mm, 1250mm, 1500mm
Length	2440mm, 3050mm , 5000mm ,Upon request
Panel Thickness	4mm , 5mm , 6mm
Alu.Skin Thickness	0.40mm, 0.50mm , 0.60mm
Alu. Core Thickness	0.35mm , 0.40mm
Standard Size	1220mm x 2440mm (4' x 8'); 1500mm x 3050mm (5' x 10')
Colors	Alusignpanel color chart standard 45 colors for reference
Others	Accept custom size and colors too

Comparative table of metal exterior

Item	Alu. Composite Panel	Alu. Solid Panel	Alu. Corrugated Composite Panel
Material Skin	0.50mm	3.00mm	0.50mm / 0.60mm
Thickness	4mm	3mm	4mm, 6mm
Weight	5.5Kg/㎡	8.1Kg/㎡	3.7Kg/㎡, 4.3Kg/㎡
Light Weight	Good	Normal	Excellent
FR Function	Normal	Good	Good

More fireproof FR Aluminum Composite Materials information , welcome to check our following website : https://www.alusignpanel.com/FR-Fireproof-Aluminum-Composite-Panel-866-1.html 

Wenzhou Jixiang Composite Panel Co.,Ltd., founded in 2000, is a national high-tech enterprise dedicated to the production, R&D, trading and servicing of aluminum composite panels in China. 

Our company have been certified with ISO9001 in Quality Management Systems , ISO14001 in Environmental Management Systems , OHSAS18001 for Occupational Healthy and Safety ; and has been rated as High-Tech Enterprise in Zhejiang for many years . The product also passed 3C (Certificate for China Compulsory Product Certification ) , CTC ( China Building Materials Certification ) and CE of the European Union ; And has passed the relevant test of SGS , SGS-FR and INTERTEK , complying to ASTM E84 , E119 , NFPA285 , European standard EN13501 and BS-476 standard .

What we always insist is “ Quality is factory’s life ! Stable and high quality is key for long-time business cooperation ! ” Our vast sales and service network spans 23 provinces in China and have already exported to over 55 countries from North America, South America, European , Oceania , Mid-East , Africa and Southeast Asia etc .