FI RE DOOR
This inventions relates to arrangements in fire doors of the kind as defined in the preamble of claim 1.
Fire doors are built in into house buildings, ships, offshore installations and so forth. The task of fire doors is to prevent that the initial state of a fire or local small fires from one place in e.g. a house building is given the opportunity to spread to other parts in the building. A fire door's degree of safety is determined on the basis of for how long the fire door is in a position to prevent that heat having a fire initiating temperature is given the opportunity to spread. This degree of safety can be measured as an increase in temperature per time unit at the fire door's side exposed to fire.
The demands made on fire doors are necessarily great. To ascertain that the products are complying with these requirements are controlled through thorough testing of the products in internationally authorised test institutes.
The great requirements made on the functional properties of the fire doors and on the general quality thereof lead to very high production costs.
In accordance with prior art technique, a leaf for a fire door is made in that, between two parallel, spaced thin metal plates, a 40-60 millimetres thick fire and heat impeding insulation layer is inserted. The insulation layer prevents heat transfer from the hot side (exposed side) of the fire door leaf to the cold side thereof (unexposed side) . The classification of the door leaf is calculated on the basis of for how long its cold side, after having been subjected to strong heat, does not exceed a given temperature after a cer- tain number of minutes (30, 60, 90 or 120 minutes) . These criteria also pass for the fire door's frame, locking case and so forth.
A main problem in the production of known fire doors has been that the surfaces of the door leaf are formed by metal plates having a thickness of 1 - 1.5 millimetres and these conduct heat. Immediately this leads to a higher temperature at the cold side of the fire door. Most producers of fire doors try to compensate for this disadvantage by increasing the overall thickness of the door leaf in order to, thus, reduce heat transfer by letting the distance from the outer wall of the door leaf to the inner wall thereof increase in a degree corresponding to a desired heat transfer reduction.
This increase of the wall thickness of the fire door leaf has developed such that the thickness now has reached 70 millime- tres. This is not desirable, neither technically, economically nor aesthetically. Especially disadvantageous is the weight as well as the price.
The two surrounding metal plates of the door leaf of today's fire doors are attached in that four inwardly folded end sides are riveted, screwed or welded together. Thus, a solid, strong and surrounding joining is achieved. However, said joining constitutes an efficient and undesirable heat bridge.
The object of the invention has been to improve fire doors generally and, thus, primarily reduce said heat transport in the metal of the fire door leaf's surface layer.
According to the invention, the object is realised in that a fire door of the kind as defined in the preamble of claim 1, is formed, shaped and designed in conformity with the characterizing clause of claim 1 and, thus, exhibiting the particular features appearing therefrom. More specifically, a fire door leaf has been developed in accordance with the inven- tion, wherein an insulating, heat durable heat breaking body which, through its positioning between the opposing, adjacent joining plate portions of two door leaf plates, substantially breaks the previously mentioned, heat conducting effect in the door leaf. Through the joining portions of the two outer metal plates, extend attachment screws, bolts or the like. The screws should advantageously have the opportunity of being screwed into internal, threaded blind bores in a bracing/ strengthening flat iron frame extending unbrokenly along the door leaf circumference, inside the innermost circumferential portion of the rear metal plate.
The circumferential frame shaped, insulating, heat durable heat breaker body is constituted of a shape durable, relatively rigid insulation body. Such a rigid insulation body could be provided with predrilled, smooth screw holes or si - ply be screwed through the material during the joining of the two door leaf plates. Many different insulation materials will be usable. At metal plate contact establishing points of the attachment screws, small heat bridges are formed, but these can be neglected in relation to the heat breaking ef- feet achieved according to the invention.
The special solution to the defined problem results in that the new fire door leaf exhibits the same thermal insulation effect in connection with a reduced door leaf thickness as a particularly thicker, known door leaf. A thinner fire door
leaf having the same thermal insulating quality as particularly thicker, more material-demanding, heavier known products, involves economical and aesthetic advantages as well as in respect of weight and resources.
An exemplary embodiment of a fire door leaf is further explained in the following, reference being made to the accompanying drawing, wherein:
Figure 1 shows in perspective an exploded view illustrating the front and rear metal plates of a fire door leaf; and
Figure 2 shows a section through a fire door leaf according to the invention.
Lower metal plate 10 of the door leaf of figure 1 corresponds to rear metal plate of the fire door, and upper metal plate 12 corresponds to the front plate. The door leaf of the fire door is assembled from the two metal plates 10, 12 by means of their circumferential configurations.
It is presupposed that the front plate 12, preferably, has the same circumferentially cross-sectional shape along its entire outer circumference, and that the rear plate 10 has substantially the same circumferential edge configuration along its inner circumference, such as this edge configuration is visible especially for the rear metal plate in figure 1.
At the external side of the rear metal plate 10, on a broad, outwardly directed circumferential edge forming flange 10', placed an endless, rigid and shape durable heat breaker body in the form of a high quality heat insulating layer 16.
The insulation layer 16 constituting the essence of the invention is mounted in between the en sides of the door leaf 10,12; a further account of which will be given later.
The front plate's 12 projecting circumferential flange 18 of metal plate and a similar circumferential flange 10* of metal plate from the rear plate 10 are, as previously known, formed as hollow bodies and are, as all remaining cavities between the door leaf halves 10 and 12, filled with e.g. calcium silicate 19 or another thermal insulating material. Inwardly of the rear metal plate's 10 circumferential flange 10' is disposed a thick, bracing, strengthening flat steel frame 22, the circumferential shape thereof following the course of the heat breaker body 16. The calcium silicate layer appearing in the form of granules, may, between the opposing inner faces 10", 12" of the metal plates 10, 12, have a thickness of 40 - 60 millimetres, representing technique known per se.
On the other side, it is mainly the insulating, substantially shape durable, circumferential frame shaped body 16 between joining portions 10''', 12''' of the plates that breaks the undesired heat conducting effect between the metal in the fire door leaf's two configured metal plates 10, 12, the invention consisting in the building in of a heat breaker 16 in the door leaf 10,12 of as fire door, said heat breaker 16 extending along the entire circumference of the door leaf, im- mediately inwardly of the freely terminating outer edge portions 10''', 12''' of the projecting flanges 18, 10', said edge portions being mutually parallel and extending perpendicularly to the plane of the two metal plates 10, 12.
In the quadrangular frame of flat steel 22, inwardly di- rected, threaded holes 32 are formed, said holes preferably forming blind bores, accommodating attachment screws 34. Due to the circumferential frame shaped heat breaker body's 16 consistence and structure, the attachment screws 34 can be
screwed through the heat breaker body 16, or screw holes therefore can be predrilled therein.
As a result of the heat breaker body 16, heat transfer between the metallic plate portions of the door leaf is reduced to an essential degree.
The broad circumferential flange 18 of the front plate 12 is formed by an outer circumferential edge portion of the front plate, said circumferential edge portion outermostly passing into a first right-angledly bent out metal plate portion 24 which, in its turn, passes into a right-angledly bent plate portion 26 extending parallel to the plane of the front plate 12, and passing into said one freely terminating outer edge portion 12 ' ' ' . The rear metal plate's 10 circumferential edge configuration is, in principle, correspondingly. Here, the broad circumferential flange 10' is formed by an outer plate circumferential edge portion passing into a right-angledly bent out, second metal plate portion 28 which, in its turn, passes into a right-angledly bent plate portion 30 which, again, passes into said second, freely terminating outer edge portion 10 ' • ' which is withdrawn in relation to the front plate's 12 freely ending outer edge portion 12 * ' ' .
Thus, it will be appreciated that the opposing main portions of the freely terminating outer edge portions 10 ' • • , 12 * ' ' form a broad, endless, chamber-like groove for the accommoda- tion of the endless heat breaker body 16.
The invention is not restricted to the shown circumferential configurations at the fire door leaf's metal plate edges. It is sufficient that each metal plate 10, 12 in assembled position exhibits a circumferential edge face shaped joining por- tion 10 ' ' ' , 12 * ' ' extending substantially right-angledly on the two opposite outer main faces of the fire door leaf, and which, in parallel orientation, are spaced in such a distance
that substantially corresponds to the thickness dimension of the heat breaker body 16.