Why Fireproofing Is Crucial For Steel Structures

Short Overview of Steel Structures Fireproofing

As we all know steel is a kind of non-burning building material, it has seismic, bending, and other characteristics. However the yield strength, tensile strength, and elastic modulus will decrease sharply with the temperature increase. Therefore, fire resistance is very important for steel structures. On the one hand, the safety of personnel is ensured, and on the other hand, the steel structure has stability.

Effect of High Temperature on Steel Structure

Although steel is a fireproof material, steel structure usually loses its load-bearing capacity and undergoes great deformation at a temperature of 450 to 650℃, leading to the bending of steel columns and beams, as a result, it cannot be further used due to excessive deformation, and the fire-resistant limit of the unprotected steel structure is generally about 15 minutes.

3 main types of steel structure fireproof sandwich panels

Fireproof sandwich panel has excellent thermal insulation, heat insulation, fire performance, can effectively prevent the spread of fire, isolate high temperature. The three main sandwich panels will be introduced to you below.

Glass Wool Sandwich Panel

Glass fiber sandwich board is made of glass fiber and color steel plate. It can be used for wall panels and roof panels of industrial plants. It is an ideal thermal insulation material for steel structure plant.

Features of Glass Wool Sandwich Panel

Glass fiber wool sandwich board has high closed hole rate and excellent energy saving effect.

Good fire performance makes this kind of sandwich board widely used in large public buildings, industrial plants and so on.

Fireproof Rock Wool Panel

The core layer of the rock wool sandwich board is made of rock wool. Rock wool is made of basalt as the main raw material, after melting at high temperature, inorganic fiber is made, and then mixed with adhesive and solidified. Rock wool sandwich panel has a fire resistance of more than 1000℃.

Features of Fireproof Rock Wool Panel

The rock wool sandwich panel has excellent fire resistance and is approved by GLOROANO S.P.A. To meet the requirements of fire protection Standard M.I.14/09/61 Letter 91 and D.M.30/11/83.

The low thermal conductivity (0.043W/m²k) makes the rockwool sandwich board have good thermal insulation performance, so that the indoor temperature is stable.

The rock wool sandwich panel can effectively reduce the influence of noise. The sound insulation effect of rock wool sandwich panels with a density of 120kg/m³ can reach RW=29-30dB.

PU Panel

PU sandwich board is a composite board with polyurethane rigid foam as a thermal insulation layer, which is often used in the wall and roof maintenance systems of factories and logistics warehousing.

PU sandwich board has small thermal conductivity, good thermal insulation performance, and is a good thermal insulation material.

PU sandwich board fire performance is good, fire rating reached the national standard B1 level.

PU sandwich board is non-toxic, odorless and has a wide temperature range.

Comparison of Fire Resistance of Three Core Materials

	Glass Silk Wool	Rock Wool	PU
Fireproof Grade	A	A	B1
Fire-resistant Time	2h	2h	0.5h
Thermal Conductivity	0.033-0.043W/mk	0.036-0.047W/mk	0.019-0.024W/mk
Duration of fire resistance	>0.75h	1.5-3h	/
Fire resistant temperature	>1000℃	>1000℃	<1000℃

It can be seen that different materials have different fire resistance. At present, for the steel structure building maintenance fire insulation board, polyurethane edge sealing glass wool sandwich board and polyurethane rock wool sandwich board are more ideal choices. They combine the excellent water resistance of polyurethane materials with the fire resistance of glass silk or rock wool.

Benefits of fire-resistant sandwich panel

As we mentioned earlier, whether it is glass wool, rock wool or PU material, it has excellent fire insulation performance. It can effectively isolate high temperature and protect the overall structure of steel structure buildings.

The structure stability of fireproof sandwich board is strong. Under high temperature conditions, traditional building materials such as wood are prone to collapse and deformation, while fireproof sandwich panels can maintain stability and are not easily deformed.

On the other hand, this type of plate can effectively isolate noise, which is very important for public buildings such as schools and office buildings.

Fireproof sandwich panel is light in weight, high in strength and easy to install.

In short, for modern steel structure buildings, whether industrial plants or commercial buildings, safety is always the first consideration. In terms of safety, fire prevention is the top priority. Therefore, fireproof sandwich board has become an important material to ensure the safety of steel structure buildings. Of course, according to different regional needs, wall panels and roof panels are not limited to sandwich panels, more information is welcome to consult SYNERGIA.