Compartmentation is a defined area in a building, which limits the spread of fire and smoke. The size and number of compartments are defined in all national building codes – dependent on the floor area or volume and the amount of fuel in each level. Building codes differ from one country to another. Compartments are always vertical (fire rated floors/ceilings) and horizontal (fire rated walls). As all kind of services are required in those boxes, openings are created, which have to be protected again. An obvious and always visible protection is a fire door. But also where all kind of services such as cables, pipes, ducts, etc. are running through, the tightness of the compartment has to be ensured again by installing adequate penetration seals.
Those penetration seals are mostly a combination of several products such as coatings, mortars, collars, wraps, sealants, backing material and here the key questions is how materials interact. At Promat, we test full wall and ceiling systems with all of the potential service penetrations in situ.