New intumescent kits guarantee fire door integrity

We’re pleased to announce the launch of our new intumescent kit range, making sure the integrity of a fire doorset is not compromised by morticed ironmongery. These new kits are available for some of our most popular CE marked locks, hinges and latches.

Morticing can cause hinges, locks, latches and concealed door closers to no longer meet the demands of fire door safety. Available through all our stockists and merchants, the new kits provide intumescent sheets made from an ultra-thin and flexible graphite material, which allows for high levels of expansion and insulation, preventing heat transfer on ironmongery rebated into timber fire doorsets.

Suitable for both 30 and 60 minute applications on timber doors, the intumescent sheets arrive pre-cut for a selected range of UNION ironmongery. This includes our:

• CodeGUARD 5 push button lock

• 4 x 3 ball bearing, 603 and 605 PowerLOAD^® hinges

• HD26 tubular latch

• StrongBOLT^® mortice lock range

The intumescent sheets have a self-adhesive backing, which means they can be quickly and easily applied to ironmongery.

Sabrina Bettles, Product Category Manager at UNION, said: “In response to growing concerns around the long-term integrity of fire doorsets and the impact that morticing can potentially have on rebated ironmongery, these new kits have been launched to deliver assured levels of protection for installers and end users.

“Our new intumescent kits are incredibly easy for installers to handle, and have been tested and comply with our hardware to BS EN 1634-1: 2008 for 30 and 60 minute timber door ratings, which offers complete safety for end users.

“Other intumescent materials on the market will typically be fibrous and thicker, and can be prone to snapping, while also generally being harder to wrap around products. In comparison, the intumescent sheets we offer as part of our new kits contain no fibres or irritants, and are only 0.8mm thick, which means minimal rebating is needed. They are very flexible and clean to work with, and are unaffected by moisture, humidity, atmospheric pollution and other common chemical substances.

“Furthermore, the fact that the intumescent sheets are supplied pre-cut means installers can be confident in the solution being perfectly designed for UNION’s range, providing peace of mind that the kits will help ensure integrity for fire doorsets.”