RUSKINIMPROPER FIRE DAMPER INSTALLATION防火风门安装.pdf

IMPROPER FIRE DAMPER INSTALLATION Background Contractors are increasingly being required to provide certain aspects of fire damper and combination fire/smoke damper installations which are technically unnecessary, potentially detrimental to the installation, and which could result in voiding the UL listing of the damper. Specifically these are: 1. Sealing the retaining angles to the wall, floor, etc. 2. Placing materials such as mineral wool, ceramic fiber or firestopping caulks in the clearance space required on all fire damper installations. This paper will discuss each of these issues and provide guidance to all parties concerned with the proper and approved methods of fire damper installation. Note that this discussion applies only to fire dampers and combination fire/smoke dampers. It is not intended to address smoke dampers which are used for smoke management/control only and are not used as fire separation protection. Discussion A general diagram of a standard fire damper installation is shown in Figure 1. While there are other elements of an approved damper installation this figure will represent the elements in this discussion. All UL listed dampers are tested according to UL Test Standards. UL 555 is the test standard for fire dampers; UL 555S is the test standard for smoke dampers. Combination fire/smoke dampers must meet the test requirements for both UL test standards. Based on these tests, dampers are then given a fire rating, leakage rating or both for combination dampers. Manufacturers test their dampers in accordance with specific mounting and installation requirements. These requirements are then listed in the manufacturers installation instructions. If a damper is then installed on a project in accordance with those installation instructions it can be designated as an approved installation. Any deviation from the sp