How sharing data can benefit the passive fire industry

During our previous article, we looked at some of the issues faced by the construction industry during the design stage of a project. If you haven’t seen that article, you can read it here.

During the Fire Safety Event, Stuart Southall (Technical Officer, ASFP) gave a talk about how sharing can benefit the industry. Below is a run down of what was covered during his talk:

Common Industry Challenges

Those of us involved in the installation of passive fire systems will have seen many cases of issues with items, such as penetrations through shaft wall systems, fire-rated dampers missing or out of line with the compartment wall or floor, incorrect spacing of services passing through compartment walls and structural steelwork interfacing with boarding systems. The list is long and many examples of these exist in buildings which are not supported by test or assessment data.
For the issues mentioned above we see there is a lack of test methods available, so either new test methods need to be developed or there needs to be an increase in the fields of application of existing standards, as we discussed in our previous article with steel structures and CLT slabs. 

However, for new standards to be developed there needs to be supporting evidence. At ASFP, we firmly believe and advocate for the industry to share existing test data (including ad-hoc testing) to allow greater assessments and test methods to be made on full systems, instead of individual materials making up the systems.

Passive Fire Knowledge Group (PFKG)

The PFKG is a not-for-profit collaboration comprising contractors, consultants, and relevant trade associations. It is a place where the industry can send its issues to be looked at by the group. Every year, the ASFP hosts 2 Industry leaders’ events where the PFKG present the issues they are experiencing. Around 50 delegates from the ASFP and invited members attend the events with the last event taking place on 16/05/24. During these events, topics are discussed at length with a plan implemented to get to the solution. See below how this process works:

Our vision at the ASFP is simple. We want to offer the building design and construction industry:

· Knowledge and guidance in all aspects of ‘built-in’ passive fire protection products and systems

· Technical support and impartial advice about passive fire protection

· Information relating to regulatory and behavioural change as an independent authority

· Competence in passive fire products, systems and installation through training and learning in products and methods designed to suit the respective audience(s) via a structured and auditable pathway.

To support this and the PFKG we regularly take issues seen throughout the industry and run them through our dedicated technical groups. These groups, comprising of industry leaders in their respective disciplines, create technical support such as our Colour Books, Advisory Notes, and guidance documents.

We are also challenging the industry to keep raising the bar. We ask the industry and our members to do the following:

· Make the changes required to support designers and architects
· Manufacturer’s & contractor’s websites – to show information concisely
· Remove false/misleading information – ASFP encourages Manufacturer members to join Code for Construction Products Information (CCPI) as part of the ASFP Pass Mark
· Members are tasked with training staff to be competent for their role – ASFP Competency Framework


And finally, our mission: The ASFP serves and represents the needs of its members and the wider passive fire protection industry, by raising standards and competence through training, testing, certification and quality of installation and maintenance.

“To raise the Quality of the Design, Commissioning, Manufacture & installation of Passive Fire Protection to make the world a safer place”

Co-written by Adam Shipstone and Stuart Southall