Fire Proof Curtains for layouts

[Penlan]

...... All our electrical equipment is PAT tested and we use RCDs as well as a flame proofed curtain. Better safe than sorry and it then becomes a none issue for us.

It's the none issue part I want to arrive at, ..... the fire proofing liquid did not arrive in time for Warley NEC, so I used the Warley club's ('0' Gauge Guild) one's, thus I'm not aware of any 'test' or certificates that may have to have been produced - on the electrical side, I had the RCD tested, and passed, I understand somebody looked at the units on the floor and said something along the lines of that lot looks OK in view of the professional plugs/sockets being used (not the 3 pin square ones).

 

I have had my wiring PAT tested, but again nobody checked it, I don't think it was a requirement anyway.

 

What I did have was those heavy rubber strips the wire slots into (on the back) layed across from the supply to the layout, saved any wire tripping hazard, fortunatly nobody stumbled over them either... I didn't see anybody else with them though.

 

Back to the Fire retardant liquid, I chased the supplier yesterday, apparently the bottle/spray leaked and the GPO returned it to the supplier and they are now sending another one - in view of the fact the terms of the buy/sell states they will notify me when the product's posted, and I never had such notification, one wonders if the GPO return is a little fib in fact at the moment I haven't had another one confirming it's posted either, we shall see, it won't be in time for Warley NEC 2010 though.....

[Nile]

The cynic in me would ask the obvious question 'how would the elf n safety (or us as an uninformed buyer) know if a black fabric drape was or was not fire proof?'

 

By cutting off a small piece and trying to light it with a match (of lighter).This happened to us in Paris a few years ago.The resulting flame meant we couldn't use our drape.

Fortunately a replacement was supplied by the show organisers.

It seems to be the larger public venues that insist on things being fireproof.How long before they object to wooden support legs?

[Penlan]

As mentioned above, the first, alleged, supply of the spray was returned to the supplier leaking by the GPO......

 

The second one has arrived today, leaking, there's about 100ml of the original 750ml left. The cap was loose, no, very loose.

 

The postie is not amused as she has the liquid on her skin and clothes and presumably other post, hopefully there's not to much inkjet generated correspondance in the post bag otherwise that's kna..kered too.

 

I have of course sent a message to the supplier.

[pete_mcfarlane]

How long before they object to wooden support legs?

Surely they won't be a problem if you treat them with fire retardant?

[Giles]

Hi

 

The requirements for Class 1 or Class 0 (fire-proofing, as-it-were) in Public Buildings can be traced to several British Standards (BS 9999 is well worth a read ) and it can get quite rigorously enforced..... and incidentally, one of the reasons fabrics are a sensitive issue is that once they start burning, the flame spreads very quickly indeed. Timber doesn't present quite the same problems - but finishes nowadays often still have to be Class 0 surface-spread-of-flame in many publicly licenced buildings.

 

My background is Theatre Production Management where this is day-to-day stuff.

As a generalisation, try and avoid fire-proofing stuff yourself, as it's not very easy, not very cheap, not pleasant, and difficult to prove that you've done it to a satisfactory standard. In theatre, it is not unknown for an Officer to come along and set fire to it for the statutory 30 seconds to see if it will sustain the flame..... Most of the sprays are salt solutions, and not nice to handle.

 

It's much easier to just buy some appropriate material mail order. IFR (inherently flame retardent), DFR (durably fire retardent) or NDFR (non-durably flame retardent) IFR is obviously best, and none of it is necessarily expensive in our terms. I use Black wool Serge, which is what most theatres use for masking (legs and borders), and being wool, it's durably flame retardent, but the cheapest is probably felt or Bolton Twill, being NDFR - but don't get it wet - you can't wash these things! A licencing officer worth their stuff will recongise the right fabric and won't even bother asking for paperwork.

 

Lastly, if you need a certificate - ask for one when you place the order - not sometime if the future (you won't get one retrospectively!)

 

http://www.whaleys-b...td.uk/index.htm

 

http://www.flints.co...lton_Twill.html

 

http://www.bbrown.co.uk/Home

 

Best of luck