The risk of fire in any type of building is an ever present concern and so all measures must be taken at the design stages to ensure the risks are minimised, writes Martyn Cashmore sales director of Caice.
Where a fire strategy is to be adopted, it is usual for certain parts of the ventilation ductwork to be fire rated, in order to offer the necessary protective measures for the finished development.

For each individual development, the degree of fire rating required will depend on a number of variables. The employment of a specialist to advise on the required fire rating treatment is therefore essential to ensure that all relevant current standards and legislation are complied with.

Fire rated ventilation systems continue to generate innovation in the industry of ductwork manufacturers to provide a quality product at the right price yet still meet the stringent requirements as laid down within British Standards BS476 Part 24 and BS5588 Part9.

Part of this ducted ventilation system can be an attenuator that also has to meet these stringent requirements. This can often be overlooked within the specification and scheduling of the attenuators which, at initial tendering stage, leads to insufficient costs being allowed.

One of the reasons for this is that the specification will call for an expensive coated ducted system and when this specification is applied to the standard attenuator the construction covering material gauge and flanges can be significantly increased. This product then has to go to a specialist manufacturer for spraying.

One of the UK's leading providers of fire-rated ductwork, Flameshield has developed the first non-coated system that has received LPCB certification. Caice has worked closely with Flameshield and is now able to offer a full range of rectangular galvanised steel fire rated attenuators that feature this system.

The benefits of a non-coated ducted system and attenuators are:

• There are no compatibility issues
• Compatible manufacturing produces integral strength and reduced air leakage
• No mismatch when aesthetics are a consideration
• No spray means no application or curing times
• No risk of damaging expensive coatings once the product is onsite
• Finally this innovative approach to a very important issue reduces turnaround time and manufacturing costs.

Flameshield ductwork and Caice/Flamesheild attenuators meet the following current standards and Flamesheild ductwork has been tested by BRE and has also been certified by LCPB (Loss Prevention Certification Board): BS476 Part 24, BS 9999 (formally BS5588), DW/144, DW/172, Document B1 (means of escape) and Document B3 (internal fire spread structure).