Forte Testing and Consultants Co., Ltd Hong Kong Laboratory Accreditation Scheme (HOKLAS) with registration no. 191
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Smoke Control Tests

Smoke Control Doors and Shutters

Toxic smoke and hot gases from a fire, rather than the fire itself, are the major cause of mortality. To prevent smoke from spreading around in a building form the fire origin, smoke doors and shutter must be provided; however, most of the ordinary fire doors existing now in building are NOT smoke doors.


Since any door must consist of a clearance between the door leaf and door frame to enable its operation, the door gaps are inevitably a route for air to pass from one side to another side of the compartment. Those gaps would be hazardous in case of a fire. The combustion in a fire generates heat and then creates a positive pressure gradient across the door. Smoke, which describes a mixture of hot gases, toxic combustion products and vaporized fuel, will be “pushed” through the door gaps, and subsequently contaminating rest of the building. Only a trace amount of smoke from the compartment can already decrease visibility significantly and demobilize escaping occupants.



Smoke Control Tests

FORTE is the FIRST Laboratory successfully acquired HOKLAS accreditation on BS EN 1634-3: 2004, AS 1530.7 - 2007 and BS 476: Part 31.1: 1983. We are proud to offer our clients accredited smoke control test services, which test reports will be recognized by the Buildings Department of HKSAR.


In a smoke control test, smoke doors will be fixed in front of a concealed chamber. A testing chamber can be created various pressure differentials by compression air, e.g. 10, 25 and 50 Pa, across the door. The air inside the chamber may also be simply ambient temperature in a “Ambient temperature test - Sa*”, or heated up to 200°C in a “Medium temperature test - Sm*”. The pressure and temperature combination is aimed to simulate different fire and door configuration.


The performance of the smoke door can be established by measuring the amount of air passing through the door, which is expressed in a term called “leakage rate, unit: meter cube per hour (m3/h)”. The lower leakage rate, the less air or smoke may penetrate and thus better a smoke door is.


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