Fire Resistance Laboratory

Fire resistance tests are designed to assess the performance of construction components for their fire separating properties or load bearing abilities. There is a broad range of fire resistance tests, these are designed to simulate how each tested component will react under fire threat.

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Notification of short-term test slot availability

The furnace at East Leake is sophisticated and flexible, it can be orientated either vertically or horizontally, achieving more types of system testing. The furnace can also be built up, to test partitions of up to 5m.

The construction areas and test viewing facilities at the Building Test Centre are exceptional. The construction area is spacious and designed with the client’s needs in mind. It allows three 3m x 3m frames to be built in simultaneously, as well as a 5m frame and two horizontal frames. An expansion is underway to expand the laboratory to allow two test furnaces, increasing workload. The present fire resistance laboratory at the Building Test Centre was commissioned in 1980 and is a UKAS accredited laboratory.

With the expansion, comes opportunities of even more frames, increasing both building and testing capacity. The control room within the fire test laboratory supplies an ideal viewing point for all clients, protecting them away from any fumes and smoke the system will emit.
It also includes a monitor for the client to keep an eye on the live reading of the data during the test. The fire resistance furnace at East Leake has now been in operation for more than 25 years, producing high quality test reports giving the laboratory a wealth of knowledge and experience.

Safety is the number one concern at the Building Test Centre and we insist all visitors on site abide to our safety policy, this can be found online and refreshed on the induction visit.

The main test area is protected by a carbon monoxide detection system, this activates the trigger for the BA alarms, indicating when breathing apparatus should be worn and unessential personnel within the laboratory evacuated. No materials are used in the laboratory without a Control of Substance Hazardous to Health report being present.


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