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Benefits of Fire-Rated Glass for Your Business

Restaurant, warehouse, office – whatever type of business you run, protecting the safety of your staff and visitors should be top priority. Fire is one of the biggest safety threats to a business, and it’s vital to have measures in place to slow its spread, alert occupants and plan for a fire situation. 

Fire-rated glass should be a key part of your fire safety strategy, as its effects on slowing the spread of fire could potentially save lives. In this article, we’ll be looking at what fire-resistant glass is and how it can help your business stay safe. 

What is Fire-Rated Glass? 

Fire-rated glass, also called fire-resistant glass, is a specialist type of glass designed to be more resistant to heat than other glass types. It acts as a barrier to slow the spread of flames and smoke in a fire situation, ultimately resisting the effects of fire much longer than traditional glass. There are different types of fire-rated glass, and some may have an internal wire mesh frame which holds the glass together during fire, while other types are made with resins designed to be fire resistant. 

Where Should Fire-Rated Glass Be Used? 

Fire-resistant glass is beneficial to numerous commercial, industrial and domestic locations, but some key areas where fire-rated glass may be especially advantageous include: 

• Fire Escape Routes: Escape routes should ideally be granted some more protection, and fire-rated glass doors along these routes stop the flames for a time period, this gives evacuees valuable minutes to vacate the building. 
• Windows: Fire-rated glass windows can prevent flames, smoke and heat from leaving or entering a building.
  
• Where Building Regulations Recommend It: Consult with the Building Regulations for your workplace or property. You must adhere to them to ensure the safety of the building. This may mean that fire-rated glass screen and fire-rated doors are best placed in areas where large groups of people gather or work, fire escape routes, staircases, and other areas specific to your building use or layout. 

5 Benefits of Fire-Rated Glass for a Business 

There are many reasons why fire-rated glass is important for businesses – here are a few: 

• Can withstand heat: Thanks to its structure, fire-rated glass has superior strength compared to other glass types – this allows it to withstand high heat without shattering into dangerous shards. Its special design, whether through the resin-integrated glass or wire-mesh glass, means that it can withstand the temperatures commonly reached during a fire situation.
• Helps contain fire: As a form of ‘passive fire protection’, it’s designed to slow the spread of heat and flames by compartmentalising it using fire-rated glass doors, screens or windows. This gives evacuees the benefit of more time to escape the building. Insulative benefits: Some types of fire-rated glass have insulative abilities, helping defend against harsh heat as well as the flames and smoke. 
• Protect people & assets: The ultimate benefit of fire-rated glass is that it enhances the fire safety of your building, protecting human lives. Also, by slowing the spread of fire to give the fire brigade more time to arrive, you are also protecting your assets inside the building and the building itself. 
• Integrated into any home or business: Depending on the look and style of the glass, it can be easily integrated into any home or business without looking out of place, thanks to its versatility. 

In summary, fire-rated glass should go hand-in-hand with the rest of your fire safety enhancements, such as extinguishers, evacuation plans, sprinklers and other equipment. Get in touch with a specialist glass merchant to find out more. 

Searching for fire-rated glass that complies with British Standards? Here at Lee Glass, we stock and supply fire-resistant glass to offices, shops and other commercial sites across Nottingham. With over 50 years’ experience, trust in us to help with your glass needs – contact us to find out more.

Meeting building regulations and increasing safety

It’s important to carry out risk assessments to identify any potential issues and work towards getting them resolved.

While it’s important that the right precautions are put in place, it’s also vital that the correct fire safety and evacuation plans are implemented in the event of a fire. Amongst many other necessary features, all fire safety plans must include enough clearly marked escape routes, exits and emergency doors for ease of evacuation.

The company is the world’s best Fire Glass supplier. We are your one-stop shop for all needs. Our staff are highly-specialized and will help you find the product you need.

The key to a successful fire protection strategy is to ensure that in the event of a fire, the correct fittings have been put in place to minimise the spread of smoke and flames. Not only does this help to keep building damages to a minimum, but it also ensures a safe and easy evacuation. Fire rated glass is the perfect solution for anybody looking to implement a new fire safety strategy, or simply meet building regulations.

Safe and modern look in the workplace

Advanced fire technology now means that transparent fire screens and doors can be implemented to segregate escape routes, common areas and staircases. Fire rated glass makes an ideal alternative to standard steel or wooden fire doors, perfect for modern offices that don’t want solid fire doors disrupting their bespoke designs.

It can often be a misconstrued conception that glass would be a useless material in the event of a fire as surely, it would just shatter? Wrong. Well, standard glazing would after being subjected to around 250°F heat, but toughened fire glass can withstand temperatures in excess of °F – which is quite a remarkable difference.

Glass fire screens and doors can provide performance up to 120 minutes integrity and insulation, depending on the fire rating of the glass and the framework surrounding it. For example, thermally insulated steel framed fire screens can provide up to the maximum (120 minutes), whereas when opting for minimal framework, silicone-jointed systems would usually max at 60 minutes integrity and insulation.

Integrity vs insulation

It’s important to know the difference between integrity and insulation. Integrity means how long the fire, smoke and hot flames will be contained in a certain area, so to minimise the spread. However, insulation is the time that the people in the building will be protected from the heat radiating from the fire, to help them evacuate the building safely and quickly.

Insulation and integrity are only present in certain classifications of glass, which are summarised below…

• Class E: Integrity-only performance. Does not prevent the transmission of radiant heat, but does contain the spread of flames and hot smoke.
• Class EW: Integrity performance, with a slight ability to provide some heat resistance.
• Class EI: This is the highest level of protection from fire, smoke and heat, offering both integrity and insulation.

To be able to identify the classification and the amount of protection given, fire-rated glass is put through rigorous health and safety tests and given a rating. For example, if glass is given a rating of EI60, this would mean that it has the highest level of protection, and an insulation and integrity time of 60 minutes. Similarly, EI120, would give it 120 minutes of integrity and insulation.

Improving fire escape plans

Another benefit of using fire-rated glass in doors and screens is that it is transparent. Not only does this provide particular aesthetically pleasing benefits, but also contributes to the safety aspect. Through transparent doors and screens, it’s easier to identify the location of flames and smoke, to help plan out a more successful escape plan, avoiding areas which appear to be affected and identifying any potential dangers ahead. This is why it’s crucial to ensure that glass has an E classification, as this should remain transparent when subjected to heat and fire.

When looking to implement new fire protection strategies in any building, fire-rated glass is an obvious choice. New fire glass technology makes solid fire screens and walls outdated and unnecessary. So, fire-rated glass doors and screens are definitely something worth considering.

Office Blinds & Glazing are leading suppliers of glass fire screens & doors throughout the UK. See how we’ve transformed many office spaces by reading our case studies, or get in touch with us to make an enquiry.

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