Fire, Blast, Sound and Super Insulated Doors
Flammable Combustible Liquid Codes require the doors of a hazmat building to be a step above a regular commercial grade door. A hazmat building
common fire rated door has either a 1-1/2 or 3 hour rated construction. In truth, most door vendors make and have tested only one door
which they label either 1-1/2 or 3 hour. The "1-1/2" rated door is for 2 hour fire rated buildings and the "3"
rated door is for a 4 hour building. In theory, the rated structure should last longer than the door in a 2000° F fire. Below
are three different fire rated doors, or combinations, with ever-increasing capability for different applications. First, there's the common
fire rated door and then two levels of fire and blast rated doors (also have super sound qualities). Haz-Safe Buildings installs
all doors within the wall's 1/4" thick tubular steel openings.
Common Fire Rated Doors Show/Hide
The common fire rated door is not blast rated. Door has a frame of 16 gauge steel with an 18 gauge skin front and back. It comes with a U.L.
approved "B" and "C" labeled 1-1/2 hour or "A" labeled 3 hour fire rating. Each door is equiped
with doorknobs and keyed cylindrical locksets and (3) steel ball bearing hinges.
Available Features:
- Low profile
panic hardware
- Closure
with fusible link release hold-open device
- Manual
or automatic operated coordination door-closing device
- Automatic
gravity operated coordinating door-closing device
Pictures above and below show common fire rated doors from the outside closed position in first row and interior doors in the next row:
Blast and Fire and Sound Rated Doors Show/Hide
 |
The
codes require the floor, walls, and roof to be fire and blast rated,
but the doors only have to be fire rated. The blast rated building
construction has to be 100lbs ft 2.
Common fire doors are not constructed for (nor tested for) blast
resistance. In the photo on the left, this is supposedly a picture
of blast relief panels being tested in an explosion. The photo also
shows the door on the right (leads to an adjacent room with the
explosion) responding to the blast by being forced open. This door
should have been blast rated. There are places when it is recommended
the doors be both fire and blast rated, such as doors that
lead from one hazmat room to another or a door from an attached
hazmat building to the main facility. The blast requirement for
the doors should exceed the wall requirement. For example, a 100lbs
ft.2 wall requires 150lbs ft.2
doors because a person could be outside the door when there is an
explosion and the door cannot suddenly fail to stay closed. |
Upgrading
the specifications from a common fire-only rated door to include
a blast rating also adds strength and weight (mass), resulting
in the door having accoustical capabilities for sound rating.
The pictures below are doors that have
1-3/4" thick stressed steel structures without point loading
with 18 gauge steel skins on 16 gauge steel horizontal stiffness
on 12" centers. Doors have continuous locking channel and
hinge. Any standard cam mortise cylinder works with their door
levers. The fire rating is 1-1/2 and 3 hour for these doors that
also are 130lbs ft.2. blast rated
with a sound rating of 35 STC - operational 160lbs ft.2,
and an STC of 40.
Other options are:
- Low profile
panic hardware
- Sound and
weather seals
- Standard
continuous locking channel and hinge eliminate need for vertical
rods, top and bottom bolts, automatic flash bolts, door coordinators,
astragals, etc.
Custom Blast Rated Doors Show/Hide
When there is a need for high security, the explosion proof doors pictured below are custom designed to provide the amount of blast rating
required. The doors are inherently fire rated with high acoustical capabilities. The doors have as a minimum 14 gauge frames and skins
and are equipped with stainless steel cam operating self-closing hinges very capable of compressing rubber seals. Many optional features
are available.
