20/02/2025
Tim Barker, National Sales Manager for Passive Fire Protection, discusses the importance of a properly implemented fire stopping solutions, and how Sika can support in all aspects of fire protection, from specification to project completion.
In-house expertise and a dedicated team
Passive fire protection is specifically developed to restore the fire resistance of walls and floors disrupted by linear seals, cavity barriers, or penetration services. By working to contain fire and smoke in defined compartments, passive fire protection can also help control and delay its spread to allow more time for occupants to be safely evacuated.
Offering a dedicated point of contact for passive fire protection, Sika provides support in initial product research, specification, installation, and aftercare, drawing on our wealth of in-house technical expertise to support our customers’ passive fire protection strategies.
Extensive range of Passive Fire Protection and Fire Stopping products
Our comprehensive product portfolio offers all the specialist sealing products you need. The range includes joint and penetration sealants, fire boards, expanding foams and intumescent materials. These products, with their wide range of applications, are not limited to specific building types. They can be used across a wide variety of applications from residential buildings to offices, hospitals, and schools. This versatility, a testament to our product’s adaptability, ensures that our products can meet your passive fire protection needs, no matter the building type.
Our solutions are divided into two broad categories - linear joint seals and service penetration seals. Linear joint seals which are found in walls, floors and in joints between the wall and ceiling or wall and floor, are designed to accommodate a defined degree of movement. On the other hand, service penetration seals are used to seal services such as cables, cable trays, pipes or ventilation ducts that pass through them.
Our products, meticulously designed, developed, and rigorously tested have a crucial role in maintaining the required building fire resistance across a separating element. Ultimately passive fire protection is about giving building users valuable time to evacuate safely in the event of a fire. As every minute counts, the Fire Resistance Level (FRL) classifications are expressed in terms of the number of minutes a product can withstand fire. The test has two measurements - how a material maintains its integrity from exposure to flame and how well it insulates against the heat.
Digital specification tools at your fingertips
Our comprehensive range of passive fire protection products is just the beginning of what we offer. With so many different building materials, services and types of penetrations, there’s a diverse range of solutions to choose from and our technical team are on hand to support you during this process. We’ve also developed a suite of online resources to make it even quicker and easier to specify the correct product for specific applications in a matter of minutes, enhancing your efficiency and productivity.
Our Fire Stopping Solution Finder Tool is a handy guide allowing specifiers to narrow down the options available to the most suitable solution for penetration and linear seals. By inputting key data such as the type of penetration, substrates being joined and gap thickness, the tool uses a sophisticated algorithm to navigate through the vast array of products. It then identifies those required to meet the project’s parameters providing system and product information, including technical drawings, to correctly specify and complete your project.
Our new Fire Stopping Consumption Calculator, which is freely accessible via our website, complements this. It’s an elegant solution designed to simplify the process for our customers. By inputting critical data such as the size of the area to be protected, the type and thickness of the fire protection product, and the number of penetrations, the calculator provides an accurate estimate of the product consumption, helping you plan your project more effectively.
A trusted partner
It’s crucial to trust the providence of construction products being installed, especially with passive fire protection products that have such a bearing on safety. Specifiers need to be able to rely on provider claims. They also need access to full and accurate product data to understand any exceptions or specialist installation procedures required to achieve the same fire resistance level as under test conditions.
Sika is a global company with over a century of building excellence, making us your reliable and trusted supply chain partner. We’re committed to investing in our research and development programmes, fostering a culture of innovation to continue to develop market-leading products that exceed regulations. We regularly test our products via independent third parties to certified international standards ensuring the results and detailed product data are readily available to allow you, as specifiers, to make informed decisions with confidence and security.
Our passive fire protection range centres around protecting people, buildings, and our environment, which perfectly encapsulates our company ethos – building trust. We are deeply committed to safety, ensuring that our products meet the highest standards to provide you with peace of mind.
For further information on how Sika's Passive Fire Protection range could benefit your next project, get in touch via the link below.