A fire shutter or fire curtain is designed simply to prevent the spread of flames and smoke when there is a fire in a building. Manufactured from fireproof materials such as steel they are all manufactured to the exact size for maximum efficiency and also to comply.
New legislation introduced in November 2019 makes it mandatory for all fire shutters to be properly certified and many previous shutters certified before a 2008 certification are now prohibited.
All our fire shutters and curtains are compliant and independently tested to the new fire standards for the UK. You can have either a 30 minutes, 60, 120 or 240 minute certification depending on the building fire strategy in force.
The simple concept is for the shutter or curtain to lower when it has been triggered by either a fire alarm or some other suitable form of impulse, all relevant to the overall fire strategy. All fire shutters are electrically operated with a suitable rated motor for the size and weight. The shutter must automatically close in the event of a fire and is connected to the fire alarm or other triggers like heat detectors or fusible links.
The value of fire protection should be obvious in any commercial building and there are some obvious specific areas where the risks are higher such as kitchen areas. Obviously aesthetics are more often than not very important so we offer a wide range of colours for the guides and hood cover with options for the curtain, which of course hopefully is never seen anyway.
CE Compliant Fire Shutters
Under the new standards set in 2019 fire shutters are manufactured in conjunction with EN 13241-1 and EN 13501-2 and are now classified as a ‘machine’, which was not the case before 2019. Under the new standard BS EN 16034:2014 a new compliance is set.
Generally our fire shutters cna go up to a maximum width of 7000mm and a height of 4600mm which covers most apertures within a building perfectly well.
Proper installation is critical and the aperture must also be fire rated for compliance, a point often missed.
