Kingspan Insulation gave fire test demonstrations of their Kooltherm K10 FM Soffit Boards at DesignBUILD in Sydney last week, one year after launching the ceiling insulation at the 2010 DesignBUILD expo in Melbourne.
Marketing Communications Manager for Kingspan, Grant Lazarus held the insulation flat in one hand while holding a small blowtorch to the opposite side to show the products resistance to fire.
The ceiling insulation has a low fire risk rating at Class 0 with negligible smoke obscuration.
“We achieve the highest possible R-value in the thinnest possible profile,” Mr. Lazarus said as the fire only penetrated the surface.
“To achieve this R-value, other bulk insulation products would need to be twice the thickness and lose internal space.”
Kooltherm K10 FM Soffit Boards are high performance, fibre free and non-allergenic, rigid phenolic cellular insulation panels, covered with an upper tissue-based facing and a lower facing of highly reflective aluminium foil.
Kingspan’s Kooltherm K10 FM Soffit insulation Boards are the only rigid insulation panels in Australia that are FM 4880 approved, Mr. Lazarus said. This means the product has been tested for apparent density, heat of combustion, ignition residue and ignition properties for UBC 26-3 Standard room fire testing.
FM approval means that Kingspan’s rigid insulation boards met the approval requirements for a Class 1 fire rating of ceiling insulation panels.
The insulation panels passed all testing for Standard AS1530.3 which includes testing for ignitability, flame spread, heat release and smoke release.
“We also have an in-house technical team who are able to achieve specific R ratings for our customers and make recommendations,” Mr. Lazarus said.
Mr. Lazarus said the DesignBUILD expo was a great networking platform for meeting architects and students who may not be familiar with Kingspan Insulation’s products.
