Glass Testing and Certification

With fire protection there can never be any doubt or compromise about standards or product performance.

Promat fire rated glass and glazing systems provide proven and assured levels of fire protection and, backed by a wealth of testing and third party certification that complies with or exceeds UK and European standards.

Fire Testing

Fire tests on elements of building construction have been carried out in accordance with a number of British and European test methods. The BS 476 series used in the UK and many other countries where British Standards are traditionally used, is being gradually superseded by European (EN) fire testing standards which are used in the European Single Market. Visible recognition of these is given in Approved Document B: 2006 and national equivalents in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

The adoption of European standards is intended to remove technical barriers to trade in Europe. The international fire testing standard, ISO 834, is similar to the other standards and is in the process of being revised to bring it more in line with the European standard.

Click here for further information in the FAQs section. 

Exhaustive and regular testing is commissioned by Promat, to ensure total performance reliability is sustained, and is carried out independently by third parties including Element Warringtonfire, BM TRADA and BRE Global.

• Promat UK: 500+ independently conducted fire resistance tests
• Promat Group: 2,500+ fire resistance tests since 1988

The Promat UK fire testing facility, operated by Warringtonfire, is located at the Heywood site and offers fire testing to BS, EN, IMO and ASTM to both cellulosic and hydrocarbon fire curves. 

Promat Fire Resistant Glass Certification

Promat UK endorses the use of third party accreditation bodies such as CERTIFIRE for products. Credibility given by such authorities gives the whole marketplace confidence in not only the product, but also the installation.

• CERTIFIRE: operated by Warrington Certification Ltd (WCL) assures performance, quality, reliability and traceability of fire protection products. Recognised by regulatory authorities worldwide, it is an internationally respected mark of fire safety and one of the most authoritative in the industry.

Promat UK is fully committed to delivering quality products, advice, service and support and is accredited to ISO 9001: 2015 (quality), BS EN  and ISO 14001:2015 (environmental) and OHSAS 18001 (health & safety management system).

Types of Testing

Primary test report

Product performance is demonstrated through a specific test report from a UKAS-accredited or notified European test laboratory. Raw data is published from a physical test in which a product or complete assembly is built and burned, conducted privately or via a third party accredited test facility.

Assessment report

Used in lieu of a test report to criteria determined by the PFPF (Passive Fire Protection Forum), these are based on the overriding premise that the assessed performance would be achieved if the construction were tested. Assessments can only be made by appropriately qualified persons and are useful for a range of variants to systems when testing would simply be impractical and uneconomical.

Field of application report

Appropriate when an extension to a product is deemed to be slight and, therefore, representative of expected performance for very specific applications, and with strict scope and conditions attached. The manufacturer will be clear about the range of situations in which their product can be sold.

Classification report

Written by an accredited body to provide a summary of the data from a test, including information on products and performance. Certain data may be redacted for IP reasons, but a classification report is accepted as proof of performance.

Third party accreditation

Third party accreditation under schemes such as the BM TRADA Q-Mark and Certifire offer independent monitoring along the supply chain to ensure standards are being upheld at every stage. These schemes have requirement for systems and products to be included which go over and above the fire test, with membership dependent on product sampling when testing, FPC audits and production controls, as well as a product recall procedure should this be required. In addition, the installer should also hold some training certification which may be system-specific, or industry recognised such as FIRAS.

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