Fire doors or fire resistant doors are passive fire protection elements that thanks to their materials prevent the fire from spreading rapidly through a compartment.
What are they for?
Fire rated doors offers an evacuation time for people who are inside the place where the fire occurs, by resisting high temperatures for a long time. There are different models of fire doors on the market, but the best known are metal pivot doors. These must be of a sufficient quality to –
- Withstand high temperatures without overheating,
- Stall to fumes and gases,
- Maintain your integrity,
- Meet both requirements for a long time.
According to the regulation
As in most cases, the Technical Building Code in its article is the one that regulates and establishes the maintenance conditions to which a fire door must be subjected. In this sense, the Manual highlights the importance of checking the watertight joints from time to time, as well as the closing points of the installed doors. In addition, the CTE encourages monitoring of the glass, so that any cracks can be detected in advance. Likewise, the Technical Building Code establishes the useful life cycle of fire doors at 20 years, as a consequence of the deterioration of the insulating materials that contain these elements, although maintenance must be continuous, to guarantee maximum protection. These constant checks allow to verify through tests the operability of the fire doors, and to replace those elements that show signs of damage or corrosion.
Key features of fire doors
As we said before, the most common fire doors are the pivoting metal ones and in general, this type of passive protection elements has been designed for the large openings. Thus, its operation can be manual, automatic or semi-automatic, but the most important thing is that when installing it, this process is developed by professionals who guarantee that gases will be prevented from passing from one room to another. The secret is a high-quality counterweight seal.
Types of fire doors
We can find two fundamental types of fire doors –
The sheet one: it is the most common and is made with two steel sheets, filled with rock wool, which prevents high temperatures from passing from one sheet to another. This is what truly achieves high fire resistance.
The guide door: this type of door is made of galvanized material and its installation will depend on the hole to be covered. Its resistance to fire is also very high.
Fire door maintenance
As important or more than selecting a quality fire door, and adjusted to the type of space in which it will be installed, is the constant review of its condition. For this reason, expert technical personnel must supervise that this passive protection element maintains its properties, without dents, with an adequate anchorage to the hinges and checking that the wall of the clamping environment does not present any cracks. One point to consider when examining the fire door is its ability to close itself. There must be no complications and with the appropriate speed.