Special Report: Fire Codes and Foam Plastics

SPECIAL REPORT: The testing industry is responding to the challenges of foam plastics with new tests. The corner test, shown above, aims to model actual fire growth in a room-using a three-panel corner and a burning crib of wood. by William Rose Fire-safety regulations are established to guarantee an acceptable measure of fire safety in buildings. Sandwich-panel construction-whether of polyisocyanurate or expanded-polystyrene (EPS) cores-can comply with current fire regulations in the model codes. So a builder can put up a house with sandwich panels and be sure that it is fire safe. Right? Well, not exactly… In a recent article in Progressive Architecture, Richard Rush wrote: “Most fireprotection engineers agree that the code is the last thing they