Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Middle East Foam & Polyurethane
  • UTECH Asia/PU China
  • UTECH Europe
  • UTECH Las Americas
Subscribe
  • My Account
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Coronavirus
  • News
    • Asia
    • Americas
    • Europe
    • M & A
    • Financial results
    • Automotive
    • Chinese mattress exports maintain upswing in value
      Perma-Pipe uses PU in Indian pipeline insulation project
      MPOB develops palm oil polyol
      BPCL Polyol project in doubt
    • Graco negotiates coronavirus in 2020 with unchanged sales
      World automotive registrations recover in H2 2020
      Mlily to increase US market share following anti-dumping duties
      US footwear imports up 25% in November 2020
    • Wheat waste transformed into PU foam
      EC approves Kingspan's TeraSteel and Wetterbest purchases
      BTC Europe to distribute BASF’s polyurethane ingredients
      World automotive registrations recover in H2 2020
    • BPCL Polyol project in doubt
      PPG buys polyurea company Versaflex
      Recticel buys FoamPartner
      Recticel upgrades Q3 outlook despite raw material tightness
    • Graco negotiates coronavirus in 2020 with unchanged sales
      BPCL Polyol project in doubt
      Huafon estimates 2020 profit will be up to 40% higher than 2019
      Mlily to increase US market share following anti-dumping duties
    • World automotive registrations recover in H2 2020
      Car sales down 25% in Western Europe in 2020
      Patchy coronavirus effects hit global car sales in November
      November continues fall in Western Europe's car sales
  • Data
  • Information
    • Country Overview
    • Market Sector overviews
    • Technical articles
    • Company profiles and strategies
    • China’s PU industry on the path to recovery; plans for technology upgrades
      Chinese cold chains grow bigger
      Flexible foam rises to challenges in the Middle East and Africa
      Life at the cross-roads: what does the GCC offer PU?
    • Europe's flexible foam makers face rising prices as outages hit markets
      Western European car registrations rebound slowed in September
      Western European car registrations regained some ground in August
      Western European Car registrations rebound continued in July
    • Take out the VOC with hybrid release agents
      Batteries give pultrusions power
      Seeing a way through VOC and FOG
      Aromatic polyols for simpler rigid PU formulations
    • Hennecke and Frimo: an automotive partnership
      Pushing ahead: AutoRIM drives KM’s UK growth
      BASF opens it first ‘Creation Center’ in Mumbai with a PU twist
      Persistence pays off for CTM
  • Events
    • Exhibitions
    • Conferences
    • Webinars / Livestreams
    • Become a Speaker
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Issues
  • Subscribe
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. News
January 24, 2019 12:00 AM

Grenfell: consider the whole building system says PU Europe

Simon Robinson
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Print

    Preston, UK – PU Europe has called for a systems approach to the causes of the Grenfell Tower fire following a peer reviewed paper from the UK University of Central Lancashire.

    The paper will be formally published in the  Journal of Hazardous Materials

    on 15 April 2019. It is called: Fire behaviour of modern facade materials – Understanding the Grenfell Tower fire.

    The paper examines the way widely-used insulation and cladding materials behave in fires. It also analyses the smoke produced when they burn.

    Arnaud Duvielguerbigny is the general secretary of PU Europe, the trade association for rigid polyurethane foam producers in the EU.

    Duvielguerbigny: investigate the systems

    In a statement he said: 'we would like to express our support to the full-blown official UK Inquiry and investigation process into this tragic fire.'

    Fire engulfed the Grenfell tower on the night of 13 June 2017 and it killed 73 people. The exterior of the building was clad in a mixture of polyisocyanurate and phenolic panels. External cladding of aluminium-polyethylene composite panels protected the insulation layer from the weather.

    London’s Metropolitan Police are investigating to see if the fire is a criminal matter. There is also a Public Inquiry under retired Judge Martin Moore-Blick.

    Duvielguerbigny continued: 'In the report, the authors create a link from the PIR insulation materials, and their said smoke toxicity potential, to the devastating toll of the Grenfell fire.'

    He stressed that the Public Enquiry has unearthed a number of structural and organisational factors that could have significantly contributed to the fire and loss of life.

    He added: 'It is wrong to focus on a component of a building.'

    Duvielguerbigny said it is important to  'look at the end-use application, from design to actual application of the system. The research paper does however go into that a little. It states  "it is arguable whether the refurbished facade was actually compliant" in its introduction. But it does not address this aspect later.'

    PU Europe added 'the PU industry supports the findings of the Hackitt report into building regulation and processes.

    According to the freely available abstract of the paper researchers found that: 'Compared to the least flammable panels, polyethylene-aluminium composites showed 55 times  greater peak heat release rates (pHRR) and 70 times greater total heat release (THR), while widely-used high-pressure laminate panels showed 25 times greater pHRR and 115 times greater THR.'

    The researches moved on to building insulation panels. They found that: 'Compared to the least combustible insulation products, polyisocyanurate foam showed 16 times greater pHRR and 35 times greater THR, while phenolic foam showed 9x greater pHRR and 48x greater THR. A few burning drips of polyethylene from the panelling are enough to ignite the foam insulation.'

    The researches add that this could be 'a novel explanation for rapid flame-spread within the [Grenfell Tower] facade. Smoke from polyisocyanurates was 15 times, and phenolics 5 times more toxic than from mineral wool insulation.

    'Our research demonstrates the need for tighter regulations around flammable and toxic building products, especially when used on towers or buildings with vulnerable occupants, as this could put lives at serious risk,' study author Richard Hull, a professor of chemistry and fire Science, told the journal.

    'The tests that we have carried out provide crucial evidence around the large differences in the fire safety of construction products used on UK buildings, and have clear implications for regulators to ensure the fire safety of occupants living in these buildings.'

    Recommended for You
    Chinese mattress exports maintain upswing in value
    Chinese mattress exports maintain upswing in value
    Graco negotiates coronavirus in 2020 with unchanged sales
    Graco negotiates coronavirus in 2020 with unchanged sales
    Perma-Pipe uses PU in Indian pipeline insulation project
    Perma-Pipe uses PU in Indian pipeline insulation project
    Latest Issue
    Click HERE for Free Download
    View All Archives
    Get our newsletters

    Breaking news and in-depth coverage of essential topics delivered straight to your inbox.

    Subscribe today

    Register to access our archive of leading information on the polyurethanes industry.

    Subscribe now
    Connect with Us
    • Twitter
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Youtube

    Follow us on social media for the latest polyurethanes industry news and event updates.

    Logo
    Contact Us

    Office 127,
    61, Willow Walk,
    London
    SE1 5SF
    E-mail us
    +44 (0) 203 287 5979

    Customer Service:
    +1 313 446 0450

    Resources
    • Advertise with Us
    • Media Kit
    • Staff
    • Careers
    • Ad Choices Ad Choices
    • Sitemap
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Copyright © 1996-2021. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • Coronavirus
    • News
      • Asia
      • Americas
      • Europe
      • M & A
      • Financial results
      • Automotive
    • Data
    • Information
      • Country Overview
      • Market Sector overviews
      • Technical articles
      • Company profiles and strategies
    • Events
      • Exhibitions
      • Conferences
      • Webinars / Livestreams
      • Become a Speaker
    • Advertise
    • Contact Us
    • Issues
    • Subscribe