Sika provides comprehensive solutions where fire resistant construction is required such as commercial, public and residential buildings, steel structures and others. Fire resistant sealants, fillers and backing materials for linear seals as well as solutions for penetration seals enable safer buildings and infrastructure to be built. Passive fire protection applications for compartmentations can be divided into the following three main groups: linear joint seals, cavity barriers, penetration seals.
Linear Joint Seals
Linear joint seals are passive fire protection systems designed to maintain the required building fire resistance across a separating element plus, if and where relevant, to accommodate a defined degree of movement. Linear joint seals can be found in walls, floors and in so called head of wall applications – joints between wall and ceiling or wall and flo
A fire resistant linear joint seal can be achieved by different approaches:
The most common way is to use a fire-resistant joint sealant in combination with a standard PE backing rod. In this case only the sealant is usually required to provide fire resistance while the backer rod is considered as sacrificial.
An alternative approach is to use a fire-resistant backer rod – typically based on an inorganic fire resistant material like mineral wool – and combine it with a standard joint sealant. In this case the fire resistance of the linear seal is provided by the backer rod and the joint sealant is used to accommodate limited movement, ensure water tightness and provide mechanical protection.
The third option is to seal the joint with a fire-resistant expanding foam. This system is only recommended where the joints have very limited movement and are not exposed to water, UV radiation or mechanical impact.
