| When you think of fire protection in a building, what comes to mind? Fire extinguishers? Smoke alarms? Sprinkler systems? Chances are that window glass wasn't at the top of the list. While fire-rated glass has been an important component in building safety for decades, most professionals in the industry know relatively little about it. As a result, it isn't difficult for the incorrect product to be specified, installed and approved - potentially putting lives and property at unnecessary risk. |
 We'll begin with some basic definitions. Just what is fire-rated glass? As the name implies, it is glass that has proven to offer a certain degree of protection in the face of fire. That may sound like a strange task for glass to perform. Obviously, glass can't extinguish a fire or warn a building's occupants that there's any danger. But fire-rated glass can help keep flames and smoke from spreading from one room to another. The official term for this is compartmentation, and it means that glass can play a vital role in restricting fire damage to a limited area. To the casual observer, it would seem that any glass could do that. After all, fire-rated glass looks deceptively similar to its non-rated counterparts. However, in reality, most glass offers little, if any, fire protection. For instance, standard window glass will break when the temperature reaches approximately 250° F. Tempered glass can last until about 500°F. In contrast, fire-rated glass can typically survive heat in excess of 1600° F. That's a marked difference in performance. With structural fires capable of reaching extremely high temperatures very quickly, the need for this specialty glass is easy to recognize. To earn its stripes, fire-rated glass must pass a battery of tests established by national test standards. Independent laboratories (such as U.L.) run the tests, then assign an appropriate rating based on the results. The ratings are time increments, reflecting the duration of testing the product endured. That duration is intended to correspond to the length of time the glass should be expected to perform reliably in a fire. So if a product has a 45 minute rating, theoretically you could count on it containing flames and smoke for the first 45 minutes of a fire. |
Arctic Construction - Blog
How Structural Insulated Panels Work
If you've ever seen a typical house being built, at one stage in the process you probably saw a wooden latticework of spindly 2x4s outlining a shape somewhat reminiscent of a whale's ribcage. But although this method is currently the standard, there are other ways to build a home -- and some of them can save you quite a bit of money in the long run.
One of these alternate techniques is to construct a house using SIPs, which stands for structural insulated panels. SIPs are prefabricated solid sheets of building material that are generally constructed of a foam core surrounded on each side by a layer of oriented strand board (OSB). They're most commonly used for walls and roofs, but can also serve as floors and foundations.
The idea behind structural insulated panels was first conceived of in the 1930s, but the invention really took shape in 1952 with the creation of the first foam-filled SIP [source: SIPA]. The advent of CAD/CAM technology and CNC machining further energised the process. Using CAD (computer aided design) and CAM (computer aided manufacturing) software means the blueprints for an SIP house can be converted into detailed instructions for a CNC (computerised numerical control) machine. Then it can quickly and accurately whip out the exact components needed. This made the process more efficient and streamlined, minimising waste and reducing cost.
You might be wondering at this point: If SIPs were such a hot new idea, how come stick frame houses are still popping up like weeds? The answer, in a nutshell, is that building trends often shift at a glacial pace. SIPs met with success in the 1970s during the energy crisis, but as that faded away, so did much of the popularity of building energy-efficient homes. Since energy issues are just one of the many concerns touching today's markets, SIPs and similar building prospects are waiting in the wings, ready to make a big comeback.
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