Fire Rated Doors – What Are They?

Do you require a fire rated solution to adhere with your building regulation, your industry requirements and to offer an additional level of protection for your products? If the answer is yes, why not consider a fire rated door? 

Fire rated doors are designed to protect your premises, products and personnel from the spread of smoke and flames. They are an efficient way to protect your business from potential fire hazards, but what exactly is a fire rated door? MTCSS is here to explain. 

What Is A Fire Rated Door? 

Put simply, fire rated doors are doors manufactured to offer fire protection between 60 minutes and 240 minutes, helping to protect your employees, products, buildings, and cold rooms in the event of a fire. 

Fire rated doors can play a fundamental part in a building’s fire protection, because they help to keep the fire or smoke contained in the room or compartment where it started – preventing fire or smoke from spreading to other areas of your business. 

The doors are fitted with an intumescent strip on every edge of the door frame. When heated, the intumescent strips expand to fill any voids/gaps between the fire rated door and the door frame, giving the doorway a widespread seal to inhibit spreading for any given time (depending on the fire resistance of the door). 

There are both internal and external fire rated doors, and they can be made bespoke to your specific requirements to ensure your cold room is efficiently protected. Internal fire rated doors are designed to protect your property and personal from the spread of flames and smoke, and external fire rated doors are a means of escape in the event of a fire. 

How Are Fire-Rated Doors Manufactured? 

Fire-rated doors have a panel thickness between 54-55mm and a solid core that is comprised from 1.2mm corrosion resistant Magnelis (a metallic coating) steel sheets and are available in a variety of colours and finishes. For high corrosive environments, stainless steel is used to prevent corrosion of the door. 

Using Magnelis steel sheets to manufacture the fire-rated doors allows them to be well protected from harmful elements (such as weather and environments where there are high levels of salt in the air, EG coastal environments) in the surrounding environment that the door is installed. However, the most critical element in ensuring safety when using fire rated doors is that the door is tested and certified to withstand fire for a minimum of 30 mins. 

Internal and External Fire Rated Doors 

It’s important to know the difference between an internal and external fire rated doors: 

Internal Fire Rated Doors

Internal fire rated doors are suitable for a variety of wall constructions and are designed to offer strength, durability and security. They have a panel thickness of 54mm and are tested to BS 476 Parts 20 & 22, and BS EN 1634 ensuring they are safe for your business. 

There are three internal fire rated door options available from MTCSS: 

• 60-minute fire protection
• 120-minute fire protection
• 240-minute fire protection

These can all be manufactured to be latched (lockable for extra security) or unlatched (non-locking) doors dependent on your requirements. 

Fire-rated doors provide a cost-effective solution with an aesthetic design and durable construction that will last. So, whether you’re a school, a hotel or a supermarket, fire rated internal doors can benefit a wide range of internal industry applications! 

Also, you can order a single or double-bladed external fire rated door to act as a means of escape for your personnel in an emergency. However, it is worth noting that a double-bladed fire rated door must have one door blade secured at all times for security. In the event of a fire, both doors can be opened simultaneously by pushing the escape bar for effective escape. 

Additional Fire Rated Door Components 

There are a range of additional and customisable components for your fire rated doors. 

Both internal and external fire rated doors are available with vision panels, louvre panels, and side/over panels. Fire rated doors are also customisable by colour and size – get in contact with our team for more information! 

Vision Panels – To comply with building regulations, every fire rated door (internal or externally installed) should have a vision panel installed for additional safety. Each vision panel that comes standard on a fire rated door is double glazed and helps to maintain the thermal performance of the fire-rated door. 

Locking solutions – Internal fire-rated doors can be fitted with locks and latches for added safety precautions. All locks are tested to BS EN 12209, and can also include panic furniture where required for extra peace of mind for your employees.  

External fire rated doors can also be fitted with access devices for practical, controlled and durable access to your business or cold rooms. 

Fire Rated Doors From MTCSS 

MTCSS’ door range includes internal fire rated doors and external fire rated doors, made to measure and bespoke to your requirements. Designed to protect personnel and buildings from the spread of flames and smoke. 

All fire rated doors are bespoke, so any business requirements can be adhered to. 

If you’d like some more information on fire rated doors from MTCSS, or would like to speak to an expert regarding fire-rated doors, fire-resistant cold rooms or fire-rated panels then contact our team below! 

Email us at sales@mtcss.flywheelsites.com, call us on 01886 833381 or fill in an enquiry form here.