NZ781175A - A passive fire protection thermal shield for air gap insulating heat conductive services during the event of a fire - Google Patents

Abstract

A passive fire protection thermal shield for air gap insulating heat conductive services during the event of a fire has a metal sheet initially in flat form and comprising a plurality of perforated folding lines across most of a width of the sheet and a plurality of convection holes dispersed therebetween. etween.

Description

A passive fire protection thermal shield for air gap insulating heat conductive services during the event of a fire Field of the Invention This ion relates generally to passive fire protection devices and, more particularly, to a passive fire protection thermal shield for air gap insulating heat tive services during the event of a fire.

Background of the Invention Regulatory requirements for construction require fire testing to a standard fire resistance test from which a fire rating is ined for the purposes of tory control.

In Australia for example, the National Construction Code, requires fire testing to AS1530 Part 4, and this allows the determination of a Fire Resistance Level, FRL Maintaining the fire rating where services pass through openings or holes in fire barriers, is known as passive fire protection and the protection of these openings for services is known as fire stopping as the materials installed into these opening stop the fire and its effects There are two important factors, known as integrity and insulation. ity is the ability of the fire stopping to resist the e of flames and hot gases. Insulation is the ability of the fire stopping to keep the temperatures on the re side to below nominated temperature rise thresholds.

In Australia, AS1530 Part 4 requires the ature rise to be maintained below 180K for the period of the FRL. So, for a one hour fire rating, this means the temperature of the fire stopping materials and on the services and any supports like a cable tray for example, the temperature rise must be less that 180K for the total 60 minute duration of the fire test.

Metallic or e services such as steel or copper pipes, cables with copper cores and some new coextruded composite plastic pipes along with metallic cable or services trays and ladders conduct heat even through a fire stopped g in a fire rated barrier such as a wall, shaft, floor or ceiling. In practice, and to pass the insulation criteria in a fire test, the services themselves need some form of insulation material or device to protect the es from ially igniting combustibles in contact with them or in close vicinity.

The present ion seeks to provide a way to me or substantially ameliorate at least some of the deficiencies of the prior art, or to at least provide an ative.

It is to be understood that, if any prior art information is referred to herein, such reference does not constitute an admission that the ation forms part of the common general knowledge in the art, in Australia or any other country.

Summary of the Disclosure There is provided herein a passive fire protection thermal shield for air gap insulating heat conductive services during the event of a fire, the shield comprising a metal sheet initially in flat form and sing a plurality of perforated folding lines across most of a width of the sheet and a plurality of convection holes dispersed therebetween.

As such, the present shield may be easily manufactured and transported and folded on site to a desirous form, such as cylindrical form to insulate a pipe and/or gular form to protect a plurality of adjacent services. The various rectangular forms may be made for attachment to one, two or three sided walls.

The shield forms an insulative airgap between the shield and the service protected therein. Furthermore, the plurality of tion holes encourage convection to allow hot air to flow from the within the shield.

Sides of the shield may comprise integrally formed connecting tongues extending from one side thereof which go into a correspondingly located slots at an opposite side thereof to hold the shield closed, especially when in cylindrical form.

A bottom of the sheet may comprise integrally formed fastening fee t tabs extending therefrom which may be bent outwardly for installing fasteners through apertures thereof. Each tab may be lly elongate and comprise a longitudinal alignment of a ity of fastener apertures for choice of fastener location. Each tab may further comprise a widthwise perforation for bending or breaking off a tab in confined spaces.

A top of the sheet may further comprise a plurality of clearance location fingers ing from an edge thereof. These fingers may be bent in towards the service to maintain a gap spacing between the shield and the service. The fingers may be relatively thin to allow further bending thereof to control the effective offset thereof from the service.

Other s of the invention are also disclosed.

Brief Description of the Drawings Notwithstanding any other forms which may fall within the scope of the present invention, preferred embodiments of the disclosure will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 shows a plan view of a thermal shield in accordance with an embodiment; Figure 2 illustrates the thermal shield folded in rical form; and Figure 3 illustrates the thermal shield folded in gular form.

Description of Embodiments A thermal shield 100 ses a metal sheet 101 lly in flat form. The metal sheet 101 may comprise mild steel and may be laser cut.

The shield 100 comprises a plurality of perforated folding lines 102 across most of the width of the sheet 101. The perforated folding lines 102 being across most of the width of the sheet 101 aids the bending of the sheet 101 into cylindrical form around a pipe 106 in the manner illustrated in Figure 2 or into rectangular form in the manner shown in Figure 3 to nd a plurality of conduits 107.

The shield 100 further comprises a plurality of convection holes 103 sed between the perforated folding lines 102. A convection hole 103 may be wider than a perforation 104 of a folding line 102. The convection holes 103 may be dispersed across most of the height of the sheet 101 to aid effective connection. Furthermore, the convection holes 103 may be generally equidistantly spaced.

In the embodiment shown, the shield 100 comprises a column of convection holes 103 between each adjacent pair of folding lines 102.

Each perforation 104 of each g line 102 is preferably greater than an interstitial portion 105 between adjacent perforations 104. In the embodiment shown, each perforation 104 may be elongate and in alignment with the folding line 102.

The folding lines 102 may be lly equidistantly spaced across most of the width of the sheet 101.

The folding lines 102 may allow for side regions 108 of the sheet 101.

One side of the sheet 101 may comprise integrally formed connections tongues extending from an edge 110 thereof. The opposite side of the sheet 101 may comprise connection slots 111 ating in vertical elevation with the connections tongues 109 and sized to receive the s 109 therethrough. In the embodiment shown, the connection slots 111 may be generally rectangular. When the shield 100 is formed in cylindrical form as is rated in Figure 2, the connections tongues 109 are inserted through the corresponding connection slots 111.

With reference to Figure 1, edge connection slots 111 may be located at an edge of the sheet 101 opposite the tongues 109 for larger-diameter interconnection with the connection tongues 109 and intermediate connections slots 111 may be further located in from the edge of the sheet 101 for smaller-diameter interconnection with the connections tongues 109. The spacing of the connection slots 111 may be spaced so as to allow for enclosing of both 150 mm and 100 mm diameter pipes when onnected with the tongues 109.

In the ment shown, the shield 100 comprises three connections tongues 109 which may be equidistantly . Furthermore, uppermost and bottommost tongues 109 may lie in from corresponding top and bottom edges 112, 113 tively.

A bottom of the sheet 101 may further comprise a plurality of integrally formed fastening feet tabs 114 extending from the bottom edge 113 for fastening the shield 100 to a slab 120.

Each tab 114 may comprise at least one fixing aperture 115. Each tab may be generally elongate and comprise a plurality of fixing apertures 115 therealong.

As such, for example, the tab 114 may be folded at the bottom edge 113 and any one of the fastener apertures 115A, 115B or 115C used for short, medium or long fixing tively.

The tab 114 may comprise at least one widthwise perforation 116 thereacross to aid the g of the breaking off of the tab 114 for tight . In the embodiment shown, the widthwise perforation 116 goes through one of the fastener apertures 115, such as the centre aperture 115B.

The sheet 101 may further comprise a plurality of fixation apertures 117 across the height of the sheet 100 at the side regions thereof. These fixation apertures 117 may be used to affix the side regions 108 of the shield 100 to a wall structure 118 or the like when the shield 100 is in the rectangular form illustrated in Figure 3.

A top of the shield 101 may further se a plurality of integrally formed clearance location fingers 119 extending from the top edge 112 thereof.

In the manner shown in Figure 2, these fingers 119 may be bent over to space the shield away from the pipe 106. In rectangular form also as is illustrated in Figure 3, the fingers 119 may space the shield 101 away from the conduits 107.

Each finger 119 may preferably be longer than 3 cm such that the shield 100 may maintain an airgap of at least 3 cm from the heat conductive service.

Each finger 109 is ably relatively thin to be easily bent to adjust the effective offset thereof. For example, each finger 105 may be approximately 8 mm or less in width.

The foregoing ption, for purposes of explanation, used specific nomenclature to provide a thorough understanding of the invention. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that specific details are not required in order to practise the invention. Thus, the ing descriptions of specific embodiments of the invention are presented for purposes of illustration and description. They are not ed to be tive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed as obviously many modifications and variations are possible in view of the above teachings. The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and its practical applications, thereby enabling others skilled in the art to best utilize the ion and various embodiments with various modifications as are suited to the particular use plated. It is intended that the following claims and their equivalents define the scope of the invention.

The term “approximately” or similar as used herein should be construed as being within 10% of the value stated unless otherwise indicated.

Claims (27)

Claims

1. A passive fire protection thermal shield for air gap insulating heat conductive services during the event of a fire, the shield comprising a metal sheet initially in flat form and comprising a plurality of perforated folding lines across most of a width of the sheet and a plurality of convection holes sed therebetween.

2. The shield as claimed in claim 1, wherein each perforation of each folding line is greater than an interstitial portion between nt perforations.

3. The shield as claimed in claim 2, wherein each perforation of each folding line is elongate and in alignment.

4. The shield as claimed in claim 1, wherein there are convection holes between each nt folding line.

5. The shield as claimed in claim 1, wherein the folding lines are generally equidistantly spaced apart across most of the width of the sheet.

6. The shield as claimed in claim 1, n there are convection holes across most of the height of the sheet.

7. The shield as claimed in claim 6, wherein the convection holes are generally equidistantly spaced.

8. The shield as d in claim 1, wherein the sheet further comprises a plurality of fixation apertures across the height of the sheet at the side regions thereof.

9. The shield as claimed in claim 1, wherein one side of the sheet comprises integrally formed connections tongues extending from an edge thereof and wherein an opposite side of the sheet comprises tion slots collocating in vertical elevation with the tongues are sized to e the tongues therethrough.

10. The shield as d in claim 1, wherein uppermost and most connections tongues avoid respective top and bottom edges of the sheet.

11. The shield as claimed in claim 1, wherein a bottom of the sheet comprises a plurality of integrally formed fastening feet tabs extending from the edge thereof.

12. The shield as claimed in claim 11, wherein each fastening feet tab is elongate and comprise a plurality of fastener apertures therealong.

13. The shield as claimed in claim 11, wherein each fastening feet tab is elongate and comprise a widthwise perforation thereacross.

14. The shield as claimed in claim 13, wherein the widthwise perforation is across a fastener aperture.

15. The shield as claimed in claim 11, wherein outer fastening feet tabs are located in from side edges of the sheet.

16. The shield as claimed in claim 1, wherein a top of the sheet comprises a plurality of nce location fingers ing from an edge thereof.

17. The shield as claimed in claim 16, wherein each finger is longer than 3 cm.

18. The shield as claimed in claim 17, wherein each finger is less than 8 mm in width.

19. A method of installing the shield as claimed in claim 1, the method comprising bending the initially flat form sheet along the ated folding lines thereof and installing the shield around an insulative heat conductive service to in an airgap therebetween.

20. The method as d in claim 19, wherein the method ses bending the sheet into cylindrical form and connecting sides thereof together.

21. The method as d in claim 19, wherein the method comprises bending the sheet into rectangular form with side regions thereof extending outwardly and ng the side regions thereof to a structure.

22. The method as claimed in claim 20, further comprising the shield as claimed in claim 9, further comprising inserting the connections tongues into respective connection holes.

23. The method as claimed in claim 19, further comprising the shield as claimed in claim 11, further comprising bending the fastening feet tabs outwardly and driving fasteners through fastener apertures f into a structure.

24. The method as claimed in claim 23, further comprising the shield as d in claim 13, further comprising bending the connection tab at the widthwise perforation.

25. The method as claimed in claim 23, further comprising the shield as claimed in claim 13, further comprising breaking off the connection tab at the widthwise perforation.

26. The method as claimed in claim 19, further comprising the shield as claimed in claim 16, further comprising bending the clearance on fingers over in towards the heat conductive service.

27. The method as claimed in claim 26, r comprising further bending each tion tab to adjust an effective offset thereof. 112 117 111 109 111 111 117 105 117 111 117 109 108 115A 102 102 108 115B 116 114 114 114 119 100 109 1 14 FIG. 3