Over the past year, Securo's Firebreather technology has received a number of awards and recognition from different organizations.
Eye-catching Technology
Firebreather® by Securo offers unsurpassed performance. Patented method conquers the "impossible" challenge of passive fire safe venting – with no compromises.
The Norwegian company Securo AS has developed a new method, a revolutionary passive vent design, that solves a long lasting dilemma of providing ventilation and superior fire spread protection at the same time. The patented Firebreather® (FB) technology offers a simple, inexpensive, passive and reliable solution that acts instantly and consistently for the full fire resistance period of vented construction.
A prime concern with fire safety is fire spread via gaps or air transfer openings in construction that cannot be effectively fire stopped. Normally one cannot cover vent openings to increase fire resistance without sacrificing ventilation or introduce complex fire safe mechanical ventilation. Conventional methods for fire protecting of vents include heat activated mechanical dampers, sprinklers, insulated ducts and intumescent grilles. These methods all have drawbacks such delayed action, closing time, insulation, cost, active system reliability or maintenance and aesthetical implications. Inside construction, no practical fire safe solution has been known to vent voids or cavities. Statistics and real fire evidence point at increased safety benefits by protecting leakage gaps and vents in construction. Now there is a cure. To top of page
The New Technology
Intumescent dampers have come of age and proven performance. Until now conventional intumescent dampers could not withstand initial flame impingement for 50 s and up to 5 min , so are still rejected by markets in most countries for fire damper applications. Uncompromised performance for protecting from fire spread is expected in these cases.
The new Firebreather® technology allows fully passive fire dampers to perform in fires just as you expect from fire rated wall construction: Instant action, integrity (F/E), insulation (T/I) etc. It offers the passive substitute for mechanical fire damper air terminals or in ductwork applications as well.
The technology dampers using intumescent reactive material and flame quenching elements instantly blocks direct flaming and can be designed to provide vented fire rated construction for perimeter fire barriers, load-bearing (R) and even explosion blocking performance. Pairing with a cold smoke blocking (S) unit makes the Firebreather®fire and smoke damper outperform the rest. To top of page
Fire Safe Venting to prevent Fire Spread in Buildings
Whenever a fire resistance rated partition need to be vented, be it wall, floor, shafts, roofs, fire stop or draft stop, the conventional approach is to provide fire dampers and appropriate ductwork or redirect air transfer to avoid penetrating partition. The latter sometimes done by providing separate balanced ventilation system for each compartment. Mechanical or sustainable natural ventilation applying air transfer dampers are often ruled out by cost or complexity. As for cavities and voids, there really never has been a viable fire safe solution for venting, so despite the need to avoid rot and fungus these are so far sealed by solid draft stops and fire stops.
The Firebreather® products now offer the simple and fully passive solution to these challenges by flush mounted air transfer vents performing in fire as if solid construction in terms of fire resistance. They also come in linear models to easily fit gaps of variable sizes in cavities and voids performing as vented fire stops.
Prevent Leap Frog Fire Spread and Building-to-Building Fire Spread
Leap frog fires on the façade of a building rapidly enter the building through openings (façade windows, attic eaves, etc. ).
Fires in attics are difficult to handle by the fire brigade. Thus, fires in buildings with cold ventilated attics very often result in large property losses. Surveys show that the most prominent weak point of fire spread at severe fire damage of residential buildings is the venting gaps in eaves. This is a major issue as according to one survey such fire spread from one flat to another accounted for 80 % of the cases of big loss in row houses.
Closely spaced buildings, even when complying with code requirements, are at risk should one start a fire, especially at high wind velocities. Wildfire fronts pass a house in no more than 10 min, whereas residual fires and house fires threathen neighbouring structures for hours.
Gaps and openings for ventilation of voids, particularly of roofs and attics, are to reduce heat build up, keep dry, prevent rot or keep cool to prevent ice buildup. Vented and fire rated perimeter fire barriers, fire stops, draft stops, façade/gable vents and eave vents are called for. The patented Firebreather® Technology protects against spread by direct flaming, leap frog fire, sustained fire, deflagration or ignition of unburnt gas at protected side. To top of page
Wildland-Urban-Interface (WUI) Scenarios
In the US, WUI fires are particularly nasty and residences ignite by either of these modes:
embers entering direct though vents or gaps, igniting interior
neighbouring house fire ignite façade by flaming, radiated or convective heat and fire enter interiors via vent openings or weak points
facade fires caused by burning debris or items within proximity, then fire enter interiors via vent openings or weak points
The patented Firebreather® Technology employs multiple mechanisms of heat transfer blocking of fire to prevent fire spread instantaneous and throughout the fire resistance rating period. It protects against spread by direct flaming, leap frog fire, sustained fire, deflagration or ignition of unburnt gas to protected side. Fire rated venting designs for most type of buildings exist and development is underway for special applications in a number of industries, including offshore, maritime and refineries.
Standard vent, installed wherever air transfer is required in fire rated construction
Fully passive, no moving parts, no detector activating system, long lifespan
Firebreather® vents combine principles of intumescent sealing (expanding endotermic material, blocking vent at specific temperature), heat sink, quenching gap and thermal breaks
Firebreather® (FB) vents ensure no flame penetration. No ignition will be possible at the unexposed side from the first millisecond throughout the fire rating period.
The vent design maximizes convective heat transfer by hot gases to solid surfaces. As hot gases are cooled, intumescent material is heated accordingly. Solid components act as secondary heat sinks efficiently cooling the smoke temperature below ignition temperatures of typical fuels until intumescent sealing is completed. Insulating parts and air gaps are carefully designed for thermal break performance.
Conventional intumescent air transfer grilles become fully activated to block fire spread following a certain period where flame or hot gases are allowed to pass through during the initial stage of fire exposure. This period may extend to several minutes during which ignition may occur on the unexposed side of the grille or vent. Mechanical fire dampers are initially open as well, although they generally activate slightly faster than intumescent grilles. However, to cope with the initial non-performing period, both grilles and dampers must either be enclosed by non-combustible ducts or prescribed a safe distance to combustibles - otherwise they are deemed inadequate to cope with initial fire impact.
After 40 years, intumescent vents remain unacceptable in most parts of the world and are being used under specific conditions in a few regions only. Most authorities do not trust a vent to peform when - depending on initial fire development &ndash it allows fire to penetrate during first minutes. Because no provison has been feasible until now, both intumescent and mechanical dampers have been certified without having to block fire for 1 or 2 min (ISO, CEN fire damper requirements) in standard furnace test. NFPA, however, points out that 5 min delays are observed for heat activation of dampers in vegetable oil kitchen hood extracts and recently BRE demonstrated 14 min delay until heat activation of dampers in ventilation ductwork. Therefore the codes require detector activated dampers to protect against fast fire spread &ndash which is very expensive and still allow closing times of 1 min.
Firebreather® vents responds instantly to the most sudden flame impact and will not allow any ignition at the unexposed side from time of zero throughout the fire rating period. As the Firebreather® vent response time is zero it exceeds performance of any active mechanical or intumescent fire damper. To top of page
