Laboratory → Facility
The test halls
Two halls at Templeborough Works, on the site of a former steel rolling mill. The building was chosen for its head height, which is what a full-scale cladding rig needs.
Hall one — reaction to fire
SBI room, single flame cabinets, two cone calorimeters, the 750 °C furnace and the bomb calorimeter. Extraction is instrumented for heat and smoke release on every rig.
Hall two — fire resistance
A 3 m × 3 m vertical furnace with an observation gallery, a 4 m × 3 m horizontal furnace, and the loading frame for BS EN 1365 work. One test a day, by physical constraint.
The external rig
A 9 m BS 8414 rig in the yard, built for each test and demolished afterwards. Instrumented at four levels externally and two internally, with fixed-position video on three sides.
Specimen preparation
Conditioning chambers at 23 °C / 50 %RH, a joinery bench for mounting substrates, and a storage bay where retained specimens are held for two years after report issue.
Witnessing a test
Clients are welcome at any test on the schedule, and we particularly encourage it for the SBI and the vertical furnace — watching your product for twenty minutes tells you things the data will not.
The gallery above the vertical furnace holds six people. For BS 8414 the viewing position is in the yard at a set distance, and hard hats and eye protection are provided.
