Fire Resistance

Fire Resistance indicates how well a building system - for a stated period of time - can hold back a fire and prevent it from penetrating from one room to another. Does it work as a fire shield or not? Fire Resistance is an extremely important characteristic, for instance for a wall element separating two production facilities or office rooms or a ventilation duct penetrating a firewall. The standard EN 13501-2 specifies the criteria to characterise the Fire Resistance of a building system:

R	Load-bearing capacity (the ability of the building element to maintain strength and stability of the building system over a period of time). This concerns mainly roof elements.
E	Integrity (the ability of the building element to remain intact, even if the surface temperature is at a critical level)
I	Insulation (the ability to keep the temperature lower than 140°C on the unexposed side), expressed in minutes.

A product fulfilling all these basic criteria for 90 minutes will be classified REI 90.
Sandwich panels with a dedicated ROCKWOOL core can range from 60 minutes to more than 240 minutes Fire Resistance class EI.

In addition to these basic criteria, a number of other safety properties can be evaluated: radiation (W), mechanical actions (M), self-closing ability (C ), smoke leakage (S), continuity of power and/or signal supply (P or PH), heat resistance (V), soot fire resistance (G), classification for natural smoke and heat ventilators (B), classification for powered smoke and heat ventilators (fans) (F).

As a passive fire protection material, ROCKWOOL stone wool also decreases risk when active fire protection fails. For instance, when the water supply is unavailable for the sprinkler system. Moreover, fire fighters are supposed to be on site very quickly, but they may encounter traffic congestion or their efforts might be hampered by low pressure water supply near the site.