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BUILDING CONNECTION
SUMMER 2016
NEW STANDARD SET TO CONTAIN
THE FLAMES
T
he Lacrosse fire in Melbourne’s Docklands in November
2014 has sparked many discussions and calls to
action regarding shoddy non-compliant cladding
materials and adhesives, a lack of adequate testing and the
use of such materials on external facades.
Post incident analysis conducted by the Melbourne Fire
and Emergency Services Board (MFB) revealed that the
southern wall was severely fire damaged with the majority of
the Alucobest wall cladding consumed. Further examination
of the wall components exposed damage to the combustible
components within the panels and, along with foam
lagging and the PVC pipework within the wall, the cladding
contributed to the fire spreading at a rapid rate.
If it weren’t for the building’s fire sprinkler system, it has
been largely agreed upon that the situation would have been
even more severe with loss of lives a real possibility.
Needless to say, change was needed, particularly in the
area of testing external high-rise cladding materials, as well
as a further call to arms to combat the importation of non-
compliant products.
While the National Construction Code currently requires
cladding materials to be fire tested, the acceptability of
external cladding systems has historically been determined
by internal fire tests and/or small scale reaction to fire
tests, involving relatively small fire sources and samples of
restricted size.
Kingspan Insulated Panels has been extremely vocal
in its support for mandatory full-scale fire testing for
high rise cladding and has taken it upon itself to further
educate industry stakeholders in the importance of such a
requirement being enforced.
“With a growing demand for composite cladding
materials and a predicted rise in commercial and multi-level
apartment developments, the need for stringent large-
scale fire testing of cladding materials is a critical safety
measure,” said technical director Kingspan Insulated Panels
Dr Mark Tatam.
“The main issue in Australia is the fact that it hasn’t
had facade tests in place before. There have been tests
developed overseas but nothing has been used here.
Typically we have used small scale tests which aren’t really
appropriate for external facades of buildings and they can
give mixed results.”
Standards Australia in conjunction with the Australian
Building Codes Board (ABCB) has developed a new
Australian Standard AS 5113
Fire propagation testing and
classification of external walls of buildings
that will provide
a more accurate indication of the fire combustibility of wall
claddings and wall assemblies, as it is based on large-scale
facades fire testing.
The standard sets out procedures for testing and
classification of external walls according to their tendency
to limit the spread of fire across their surface and between
neighbouring buildings. It can be applied to external vertical
STANDARDS AUSTRALIA AND THE AUSTRALIAN BUILDING CODES BOARD HAVE DEVELOPED A NEW STANDARD
THAT IS SET TO IMPROVE FIRE SAFETY THROUGH APPROPRIATE CLASSIFICATION OF THE PERFORMANCE OF
EXTERNAL WALLS, YET MORE WORK IS NEEDED.
JUSTIN FELIX
CAUGHT UP WITH TECHNICAL DIRECTOR KINGSPAN
INSULATED PANELS DR MARK TATAM, AND STANDARDS COMMITTEE MEMBERS, TO DISCUSS THE ISSUE.
CLADDING SYSTEMS
AS 5113 also integrates international standard test
methods, such as this one, where practicable.