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article<br />
CSM (UK) Ltd Develops<br />
the Solution for Fire<br />
Compliant Concrete<br />
Sandwich Panels<br />
Apartments, Birmingham<br />
In response to new UK Government building regulations, CSM (UK) Ltd has developed the solution for fire compliant concrete sandwich<br />
panels using Thermomass® and mineral wool insulation.<br />
Non-Combustible Core<br />
For 20 years, CSM (UK) Ltd has helped<br />
customers in the UK and Ireland design<br />
and build concrete sandwich walls using<br />
the Thermomass® system. Over this period,<br />
there has been a sizeable growth in the use of<br />
Thermomass® concrete sandwich panels by the<br />
pre-cast concrete industry, caused notably by<br />
the increase in architecturally designed<br />
structures in concrete across multiple sectors,<br />
assisted by the speed of construction, certainty<br />
of cost and programme and a drive to achieve<br />
the greater energy efficiency that Thermomass®<br />
provides.<br />
Following the fire at Grenfell Tower on 14 June<br />
2017, the UK Government decided to act and<br />
ensure future high-rise projects built in England<br />
were fire safe. As of 21 December 2018, The<br />
Building (Amendment) Regulations 2018 came<br />
into action, whereby the UK Government has<br />
banned combustible materials within external<br />
walls on new high-rise buildings in England.<br />
According to the regulation, relevant buildings<br />
must be above 18 metres tall and contain<br />
dwellings, an institution or a room for residential<br />
purposes, excluding rooms in “a hostel, hotel or<br />
boarding house”, stating that all construction<br />
elements within should be classified with an A2-<br />
s1, d0 or A1 European Fire Classification, the<br />
highest rating possible.<br />
Such an amendment could have immediately<br />
posed a threat to the concrete sandwich panel<br />
industry who, at present, rely on thermal<br />
insulations such as Polyisocyanurate (PIR),<br />
Graphite Expanded Polystyrene or Phenolic<br />
insulations, all of which all fall short of the<br />
European Fire Classifications required.<br />
However, considering these new regulations and<br />
risks, CSM (UK) Ltd, supplier of the Thermomass®<br />
System in the UK and Ireland, has collaborated<br />
with mineral wool insulation manufacturers, to<br />
supply to the pre-cast industry with the solution<br />
to achieve an A1 European Fire Classification in<br />
concrete sandwich panels, for exclusive use as<br />
the thermal insulation in Thermomass® concrete<br />
sandwich panels.<br />
Thermomass® is the market leading fixing for<br />
concrete sandwich panels, having supplied more<br />
than 80 million m2 worldwide without a single<br />
failure. Customers choose Thermomass® for<br />
many reasons, notably because all panels are<br />
thermally broken, delivering 100% thermally<br />
efficient insulation which eliminates interstitial<br />
and surface condensation, no projects require<br />
scaffolding and all panels have superior acoustic<br />
and fire properties, including a four-hour fire<br />
resistance when tested in accordance with BS<br />
EN 1364-1: 1999.<br />
The solution CSM (UK) Ltd has developed with<br />
mineral wool manufacturers is a non-<br />
Hotel, Manchester<br />
6<br />
Feb 2019 <strong>M11</strong>
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