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Fire codes exist to protect people and property from the hazards of fire, smoke and explosives. However, keeping up with the codes and changes can be daunting. Allegion can help with understanding the codes, ensuring that a facility's fire door assemblies are in compliance, and explaining how doors and hardware contribute to fire safety.
Fire door assemblies are required by NFPA 80 to be inspected after installation, after maintenance, and annually, to ensure that they are functioning properly. Allegion offers laminated fire door inspection cards that contain information about the NFPA 80 requirements for fire door assembly inspections:
You can order Allegion’s Fire Door Inspection cards here. Include your name, shipping address, and the quantity of cards you need.
Fire door assemblies play an important role in protecting building occupants from the spread of smoke and flames. Here’s a video all about fire door assemblies.
Designing fire-rated openings and conducting fire door inspections can be daunting. Allegion has security and specifications consultants that can help.
See some of the key products that are required to meet requirements for fire-rated openings. For assistance with a full solution or specification, contact us.
Fire doors are an important part of a building’s passive fire protection system, and doors in a means of egress provide life safety by allowing people to exit quickly when necessary. An opening protective in a fire barrier is required to be a fire door assembly, which includes the door, frame, hardware, and glazing.
A temperature-rise door is a fire-rated door which limits the heat transfer through the door for a period of 30 minutes. With the increased use of sprinkler systems in commercial and institutional buildings, the need for temperature-rise doors has declined, but there are still locations where they are required.
When panic hardware is installed on fire doors, it must be fire exit hardware which is listed for both panic and fire protection. This hardware will not include the mechanical dogging function, which provides the ability to keep the latch retracted mechanically. “Less-bottom-rod” (LBR) fire exit hardware may be used if allowed by the door manufacturer but will typically require the installation of an auxiliary fire pin.
Self-Closing / Automatic-Closing – Fire doors must be closed and latched if there is a fire and equipped with a) a closing device that closes the door each time it is opened (AKA “self-closing”), b) a closing device along with a hold-open device that is released upon smoke detection and allows the door to close (AKA “automatic-closing“), or c) an automatic operator (AKA “power-operated”). If an automatic operator is used, it must be deactivated upon fire alarm, so the door becomes self-closing.
Fire-rated glass is specially designed to prevent the spread of flames and smoke, and depending on product makeup, the transfer of radiant and conductive heat. In the world of fire safety, this is known as compartmentation. While many types of fire-rated materials can provide this form of protection, only fire-rated glass can do so while still allowing full vision for aesthetic, daylighting and security purposes.
Listed locksets and latchsets provide the positive latching required by code, in order to keep the fire door in the closed and latched position. A fire door that is not latched may be forced open due to the pressure from a fire or the hose stream.
Although gasketing and thresholds are not complicated products, the codes do not contain much prescriptive information about use on fire rated assemblies, making them more difficult to specify and supply correctly.
NFPA 80 includes prescriptive requirements related to hinges, spring hinges, continuous hinges and pivots. The required hinge quantity, material, size, and type can be found in the standard.
In addition to swinging fire doors, sliding fire doors are also available for installation where opening protectives are required.
Sustainable Building Solutions
Sustainable building construction prioritizes environmentally friendly practices, and resource efficiency. Learn more about how hardware can contribute and how our team supports you through the process.
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Openings can contribute to a healthy building by reducing the number of touch points, hence reducing the spread of infections. Learn about this and other solutions to keep your occupants healthier.
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Learn about the requirements and products needed for areas that experience extreme weather events, such as hurricanes and tornados.
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Most buildings are required to comply with one or more sets of accessibility standards, such as the ADA Standards for Accessible Design, ICC A117.1, or a state or local accessibility standard. This page helps simplify these codes and provides resources to help.
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