EP1095672A1 - Fire stop air vent - Google Patents

Abstract

The duct opening surround, designed to be fitted in a wall, consists of a collar (42) with a substantially semi-toroid rim (44) fitted against one side of the wall and a truncated conical section (46), and a cylindrical housing (50) surrounding the latter, with a shutter (48) interacting with the collar. The surround incorporates a ring (64) of a mouldable thermal insulation material between the collar and housing, forming a mechanical coupling for the two, which are otherwise not in contact or are connected by flexible lugs or a bayonet joint. The collar and housing can be made from sheet metal or plastic.

Description

The subject of the present invention is a ventilation opening. firewall.

We know that such systems are installed at the outlet of ventilation ducts which are embedded in an opening in the wall of a room or room and which have the purpose of closing automatically when air flow temperatures rise which flows through the air vent one way or the other between the room or room and the service spaces containing the conduits ventilation. The shutter of the fire stop therefore serves to close automatically the ventilation ducts in the event of fire so to prevent the spread of fire and smoke and to prevent it from developing not on the fire side of the flammable gases which could heat up beyond preset temperatures until it ignites spontaneous.

In Figure 1 attached, there is shown such a mouth firebreak 10 mounted in an opening 13 of a wall 12. 12a represents the face of the wall 12 facing the room or the room and we have referenced 12b the face of the wall corresponding to the service spaces where the ventilation ducts are housed.

The fire hydrant 10 essentially consists of a flange 16 usually consisting of a metal sheet which has a substantially flanged rim portion half-torus 18 pressed against the face 12a of the wall and a portion of frustoconical shape 20. The fire barrier also has a substantially cylindrical tubular body 22 which is used in particular for its fixing in the ventilation duct not shown in the figure. A end 22a of the tubular body 22 is welded to the part frustoconical 20 of the flange 16 over a length sufficient to ensuring the mechanical strength of the assembly. The other end 22b of the body tubular 22 is made integral by a centering piece 24, of a socket 26. Finally, the fire stop has a shutter 28 integral from the end of a rod 30 mounted in the sleeve 26. The rod 30 is associated with a return spring 32 and a trigger system thermal 34 which releases the return spring 32 in the event of an increase in temperature thus closing the fire barrier by application of the shutter 28 on the frustoconical portion 20 of the flange which thus serves as a valve seat.

The production of the assembly constituted by the collar 16 and the tubular body 22 is relatively high in cost in particular because of the welding operation between the flange and the tubular body.

The realization of this set in one piece would even more expensive due to the cost of the deformation operations mechanics of the sheet it requires.

There is therefore a real problem concerning the realization of the assembly constituted by the collar and the tubular body.

The production of fire dampers of the type mentioned above raises yet another problem.

By current standards, the effectiveness of a fire damper and its compliance with these standards are determined in particular by measuring the temperature on the face 12a or 12b of the wall near the opening 13 in which the mouth is housed fire barrier, this being of course in the closed position, the wall considered being of course the one opposed to the start of the fire. According to these standards, when a temperature of up to 1040 ° C develops in the room to be protected, it is necessary that the temperature rise at the location marked with the letter A or the letter B does not exceed 140 ° C after a duration given following the birth of fire. This condition is very difficult to bear in mind that, by conduction through the wall 12, the elevation natural temperature of the face 12a or 12b of this wall opposite to the one directly exposed to the fire will reach a temperature of around 130 ° C. We understand that to meet the conditions of the standard, it is necessary that the opening 13 into which the mouth is introduced fire barrier does not allow the passage of a sensitive heat flow fault what the temperature at point A or B could not be maintained lower than the imposed value. The problem is all the more complex at solve that the temperature condition actually concerns both ends of the fire hydrant according to the side where the fire started.

Different solutions have already been proposed to solve this second problem in particular through the fire barrier described in the French patent 2,371,557. However, this type of fire barrier allows you to respect the conditions imposed by the standard but it is relatively expensive.

A first object of the invention is to provide a mouth firebreak of the type mentioned above, the manufacturing cost of which be reduced.

To achieve this object, according to the invention, the fire stop intended to be mounted in an opening formed in a wall having a first face and a second face, said mouth comprising a flange having a rim substantially in the form of a half-torus. intended to be applied against the first face of the wall, and a part in the form of a truncated cone, an internal face and an external face, a tubular body of cylindrical shape arranged around the frustoconical part of the flange and placed at the inside said opening, said tubular body having a first edge facing the flange and a second edge, as well as an internal face and an external face, and a shutter mounted to move in the assembly formed by the flange and the tubular body,
is characterized in that it further comprises an annular part made of a thermally moldable insulating material, said annular part extending at least between the external face of the flange and the internal face of the tubular body, said annular part making the connection mechanical between said flange and said tubular body.

It is understood that the mechanical connection between the collar and the tubular body is obtained by the annular piece of material thermally insulating, said flange and said tubular body becoming then united to each other. As will be explained later, this part is preferably obtained by molding, the collar and the tubular body having parts which form "inserts" at the interior of said room. This connection mode is relatively little expensive. In addition, this part allows for the coating thermally insulating which it is necessary to provide since this part is made of a thermal insulating material.

According to a preferred embodiment, the collar and the tubular body are connected through the annular piece in insulating material without contact between the flange and the body tubular.

It is understood that, thanks to this mode of implementation, the second problem previously exposed is also solved. In Indeed, the two pieces, preferably metallic, constituted by the flange and the tubular body are not in contact with each other and are separated by thermal insulating material. We understand that in this way, avoiding the creation of a thermal bridge in the direction of the axis of the fire barrier which in the provisions of the prior art extend directly from the internal face of the wall to its external face. Thanks to that layout, we can actually get a fire mouth that meet the performances imposed by the standard in force while reducing the weight of insulating material and therefore the total weight of the mouth.

According to a preferred embodiment, the collar and / or said tubular body comprises a plurality of positioning members and pre-joining said collar and the tubular body.

As we understand, this provision allows a prepositioning and pre-securing of the tubular body with respect to with the collar to make the part in thermal insulating material moldable. However, these prepositioning and pre-consolidation make contact between these two parts only on an extremely limited area which is not likely to create a significant thermal bridge between the two parts, for example metallic, conductive of heat.

• on dispose ladite collerette dans un moule,
• on dispose ledit corps tubulaire autour de la partie tronconique de la collerette,
• on introduit ledit matériau thermiquement isolant sous forme non solide dans le moule de telle manière qu'il remplisse au moins l'intérieur du rebord de la collerette et l'espace compris entre la face externe de la portion tronconique de la collerette et la face interne dudit corps tubulaire, et
• on provoque la solidification dudit matériau isolant thermique, par quoi on obtient la solidarisation de ladite collerette et dudit corps tubulaire.

Another object of the invention is to provide a method of producing a fire barrier of the type described above. The method of manufacturing a fire barrier according to the invention is characterized in that it comprises the following steps:

• said collar is placed in a mold,
• said tubular body is placed around the frustoconical part of the collar,
• said thermally insulating material is introduced in a non-solid form into the mold in such a way that it fills at least the inside of the flange of the flange and the space between the external face of the frustoconical portion of the flange and the internal face said tubular body, and
• the solidification of said thermal insulating material is caused, whereby the securing of said flange and said tubular body is obtained.

• la figure 1 déjà décrite montre une bouche coupe-feu de type connu ;
• la figure 2a montre en coupe par un plan axial un premier mode de réalisation d'une bouche coupe-feu selon l'invention ;
• la figure 2b montre un deuxième mode de réalisation de la bouche coupe-feu ;
• la figure 3a montre en vue en élévation le corps tubulaire pour un troisième mode de réalisation de la bouche coupe-feu ;
• la figure 3b montre en coupe par un plan axial la collerette associée au corps tubulaire de la figure 3a ;
• la figure 4a montre une vue en perspective d'une collerette pour un quatrième mode de réalisation de la bouche coupe-feu ;
• la figure 4b montre en demi-coupe par un plan axial l'ensemble de la bouche coupe-feu dans un quatrième mode de réalisation ; et
• la figure 5 illustre un procédé de fabrication de la bouche coupe-feu.

Other characteristics and advantages of the invention will appear better on reading the following description of several embodiments of the invention given by way of non-limiting examples. The description refers to the appended figures, in which:

• Figure 1 already described shows a fire barrier of known type;
• Figure 2a shows in section through an axial plane a first embodiment of a fire barrier according to the invention;
• Figure 2b shows a second embodiment of the fire barrier;
• FIG. 3a shows in elevation view the tubular body for a third embodiment of the fire barrier;
• Figure 3b shows in section through an axial plane the collar associated with the tubular body of Figure 3a;
• Figure 4a shows a perspective view of a flange for a fourth embodiment of the fire barrier;
• FIG. 4b shows in half-section through an axial plane the assembly of the fire barrier in a fourth embodiment; and
• FIG. 5 illustrates a process for manufacturing the fire barrier.

Referring first to Figure 2a, we will describe a first embodiment of the fire barrier. In this figure, we has shown the collar 42 with its rim, for example in the form of half torus 44, intended to be applied to the internal face of the wall and its frustoconical portion 46 forming the seat of the movable shutter 48. We have also shown in this figure the tubular body 50 which has a general cylindrical shape, which surrounds the frustoconical part 46 of the flange 42 and which preferably ends with a flat edge 52 to near the semi-toric part 44 of the collar. We also shown a stirrup 54 secured to the collar 42 for centering a sleeve 56 for guiding the rod 58 to which the shutter 48 is secured.

Preferably, there is no contact between the collar 42 and the tubular body 50 which are both preferably made with a sheet metallic which can be steel or aluminum. In particular, we observe that in zone 60, there is preferably a space between the end of the frustoconical portion 46 of the flange and the end of the cylindrical part of the tubular body 50. The annular space 62 limited by the external face of the frustoconical portion 46 and through the internal face of the body tubular 50 and occupied by a portion of an annular part 64 produced made of a moldable thermal insulating material. The same goes for the volume limited by the semi-toric part 44 of the flange which is filled by the portion 66 of the annular part. Preferably also, this insulating annular piece covers the rear face 52a of the rim 52 of the tubular body 50. The flange 52 being completely embedded in the moldable thermal insulating material, during the solidification of said insulating material, said flange 52 forms an insert which makes it possible to reinforce the mechanical connection obtained between the collar 42 and the tubular body 50.

We understand that this provides an easy connection of the flange and tubular body.

We also understand that thanks to this arrangement, not only there is no contact between the parts, preferably metallic, constituted by the collar and the tubular body, but between these two parts, a thickness of thermal material is interposed insulating. It is therefore understood that between the semi-toric portion 44 of the flange which is in contact with the very high temperature zone and the posterior end 50a of the tubular body 50, there is no bridge thermal likely to favor the thermal conduction between the two faces of the wall in which the fire-rated mouth is mounted.

As will be explained in more detail later, that the annular part made of thermal insulating material 62, 66 is obtained by molding using a suitable material of the two parts made up by the collar and by the tubular body arranged relatively so suitable, parts 42 and 50 would partially constitute inserts, in particular by the presence of the rim 52, the groove 70 and / or the stirrup 54 located on the collar 42, which are each likely to be all or in part embedded in thermal insulating material 62.

In order to further improve the thermal insulation, it is possible to provide that the tubular body 50 is perforated and preferably provision is made on the external face of this body at least one annular groove 70 for the fitting of a seal between this tubular body and the opening in the wall or conduit.

FIG. 2b shows an alternative embodiment which differs from the embodiment of FIG. 2a only in that the piece of thermal insulating material also covers the face outer 50b of the tubular body 50. This part of the annular part which is referenced 72 has a reduced thickness. We understand that this arrangement avoids thermal radiation from the body tubular 50. Preferably, during the production by molding of the portion 72 of the annular part, at least one groove is reserved ring 74 for the installation of a seal.

As already stated, according to the invention, there is no preferably no contact between the collar 42 and the tubular body 50 to avoid thermal bridges. Furthermore, as will be explained more in detail later, the annular piece of thermally material insulation is obtained by molding. To maintain the relative position of the flange and tubular body during molding operations, it is possible to use means for holding the tubular body relative to the collar. However, it is easier to provide means of prepositioning and pre-securing of the tubular body 50 by compared to the collar 42 for their positioning in the mold.

Figures 3a and 3b show a first mode of prepositioning and pre-consolidation. It is a system with bayonet which is formed on the one hand by two inclined slots 80 and 82 produced in the tubular body 50 and by two lugs integral with the flange 42 which are, for example, extensions 84 and 86 of the stirrup 54.

This bayonet system allows to secure and preposition the collar 42 relative to the tubular body 50, the final attachment being achieved by molding the annular part in thermally insulating material. In addition, after solidification of the material thermally insulating, said extensions 84 and 86 of the stirrup 54, all like said stirrup 54, constitute inserts making it possible to reinforce the mechanical connection of the collar 42 with the tubular body 50.

It should be noted that the contact surface between the pins 84 and 86 and the edge of the slots 80 and 82 is very small and does not constitute a significant thermal bridge.

In FIGS. 4a and 4b, a variant of the positioning and pre-consolidation system. It is made up of two elastic tabs 88 and 90 fixed on the frustoconical part 46 of the collar 42, for example, by welding points. The extremities elastic tabs are supported on the internal face of the body tubular 50. In addition, said elastic tongues 88 and 90 form preferably inserts that increase resistance mechanics of the integral assembly formed by the collar 42, the body tubular 50 and the insulating material 62.

It goes without saying, however, that we would not go out of the invention if the edge 50b of the tubular body 50 was in abutment on the internal face of the rim 44 of the collar. In this case, the thermal bridge between the flange and the tubular body, although existing, is very small compared to to known embodiments, since this thermal bridge is limited to contact between the edge 50b of the tubular body and the internal face of the flange of the collar.

Referring now to FIG. 5, we will describe a mode preferred for making the fire barrier by molding.

To make the fire barrier, we use a mold that comprises a lower base 100 and an internal part substantially frustoconical 102. The flange 42 is placed on the base 100 and around the internal part 102. Then, the tubular body 50 is placed in position suitable. If means of prepositioning exist, the body tubular is held in place by its connection with the collar 42. In otherwise, it is necessary to provide a support means, not shown, for maintain the tubular body 50 in the ad hoc position. In particular, all the elements likely to constitute inserts, such as the flange 52, the bracket 54, the lug 84 and / or the tongues 88 and 90 are positioned so that it can be at least partially covered with material thermal insulator. Then, we put in place the cylindrical external part 104 of the mold. The thermal insulating material is then introduced into the mold in its non-solid form.

After the insulating material has set, piece 62 is obtained which adheres both to the outer face of the frustoconical portion and to the face internal of the tubular body 50, and which thus ensures the mechanical connection between the collar 42 and the tubular body 50. In particular, when the aforementioned elements capable of constituting inserts are coated with insulating material, they strengthen the mechanical connection obtained between the collar 42 and the tubular body 50. We can then unmold the fire-resistant mouth.

In the previous description, we have more particularly envisaged the case where the collar and the tubular body are metallic. he goes of course we would not go out of the invention if these parts were made made of a plastic material such as PVC.

In addition, the surface of the flange and / or the tubular body could have significant roughness or crevices allowing to increase the adhesion of the insulating material and thus increase the resistance of the mechanical connections obtained between part 62 and the collar and respectively the tubular body, said collar and said tubular body being all the more integral.

Claims (10)

Fire stopper intended to be mounted in an opening in a wall having a first face and a second face, said mouth comprising a flange having a rim substantially in the form of a half-torus intended to be applied against the first face of the wall , and a part in the form of a truncated cone, an internal face and an external face, a tubular body of cylindrical shape disposed around the frustoconical part of the flange and placed inside said opening, said tubular body having a first edge turned towards the flange and a second edge, as well as an internal face and an external face, and a shutter mounted mobile in the assembly formed by the flange and the tubular body,
is characterized in that it further comprises an annular part made of a thermally moldable insulating material, said annular part extending at least between the external face of the flange and the internal face of the tubular body, said annular part making the connection mechanical between said flange and said tubular body. Firestop according to claim 1, characterized in that there is no contact between said flange and said tubular body. Firestop according to claim 2, characterized in that said collar and / or said tubular body has a plurality positioning and / or pre-securing members of said flange and said tubular body. Firestop according to claim 3, characterized in that the frustoconical portion of the collar comprises at least two elastic tabs protruding from the outer face of said frustoconical portion, the ends of said tongues cooperating elastically with the internal face of said tubular body to position and pre-securing said tubular body relative to said flange. Firestop according to claim 3, characterized in what the frustoconical portion of said flange and said tubular body have a plurality of pins and a plurality of slots to form a bayonet system. Firestop according to any one of Claims 1 to 5, characterized in that said tubular body is perforated. Firestop according to any one of Claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the external face of said body tubular has at least one annular groove and a seal mounted in said groove. Firestop according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that said annular part in thermal insulating material covers the external face of said tubular body. Firestop according to claim 8, characterized in what the portion of the annular piece that covers the outer wall of the tubular body has at least one annular groove and in that a seal is mounted in said groove. Method of manufacturing a fire barrier according to any one of Claims 1 to 8, characterized in that it comprises the following steps: said collar is placed in a mold, said tubular body is placed around the frustoconical part of the collar, introducing said thermally insulating material in a non-solid form into the mold in such a way that it fills at least the interior of the half-toroidal portion of the flange and the space between the external face of the frustoconical portion of the collar and the internal face of said tubular body, the solidification of said thermal insulating material is caused, whereby the securing of said flange and of said tubular body is obtained.

Images