News: ISO TR 10295: Part 3 – Going Forward for Publication

Approximately 10 years ago, IFSA realised that whilst the EN Fire Resistance test for penetration sealing materials was a good harmonised tool for comparing product A with product B under identical pan-European conditions, the test only generated a pass/fail result. The standard configurations given in the test procedure were very complex (and, hence, expensive to perform) but failed to generate data which characterised the product and its mechanism of performance in a manner that could be used to establish the interpolation and extrapolation of the result. The performance of a sealing system is interdependent on many factors; the width of the gap around the service, the depth of the sealant, the conductivity of the penetrating service, the thermal inertia and perimeter length of the service (similar to the Hp/A used for steelwork protection) and the thermal characteristics of the supporting construction and these all influence the duration for which the penetration could be sealed.

The test standard EN 1363-1 test failed to generate data that could be used to calculate how one result can be applied to a different arrangement of service and/or penetration opening and this prompted the IFSA/ISO representatives to hold a brainstorming system (Paul Baxter & Peter Jackman) to come up with a more quantifiable method of test. By utilising well selected, simulated services and penetration with well-defined dimensions, it was possible to generate a known relationship between the conductor characteristics and the wall/floor construction. IFSA Technical Committee then developed a new test method that allowed a performance to be generated linking these together. This draft was submitted to ISO TC92/SC2/WG6 and has evolved, during the intervening years and via numerous drafts, to eventual submission for comment and voting to the national standards’ bodies of the ISO member states, e.g. Japan, Korea, USA, Canada, Hungary, UK etc., to reach publication stage as an ISO TR (Technical Report). This Autumn’s meeting in San Antonio saw the standard (ISO TR 10295: Part 3) finally go forward for publication.

Whilst the Technical Report has no direct application to the CEN member states in the context of CE marking, the method will allow International Certification bodies to derive field of application reports in a co-ordinated and harmonised manner and, hopefully, with a greater relationship to ‘real-fire’ behaviour than the CEN tests would allow.

It was ironic that after nurturing the new test procedure from the very first conceptual draft, Paul Baxter, IFSA’s nominated expert on the ISO penetration sealing committee, was not present in the USA to see the final act due to inadequacies in the UK’s funding position. However, IFSA was well represented at the meeting by Ian Bradley of AkzoNobel, one of the Association’s recent recruits, who ensured that the draft went through to the final sage without a hitch!

Another IFSA First!!!