A proposal for the future
With the proliferation of AESS being used in today’s building designs and the variation and cost associated with meeting finish levels that complement the AESS standard for IFRM materials, new standards should be developed to facilitate the growth of this sector of the coatings industry. This standard should consider both, the AISC AESS standard and the formulation, application, as well as the finishing requirements of the IFRM materials required for fire protection.
Alignment of a new global IFRM finish standard with current AISC AESS standards is essential for several reasons, and could be accomplished through a series of connected endeavors:
- First, the appearance quality of the IFRM coating depends substantially on the specified quality of the AESS. Therefore, standards for IFRM finish quality should be created to align with and complement the steel quality standard. For example, since IFRMs will mirror any defects in the underlying steel, high-quality finishes cannot be achieved on a lower quality steel member.
- A secondary project could be undertaken to evaluate the relative cost of modifying each coating material type to meet requirements for a series of standard finishes. This way, reasonable cost estimates could be established to help with project budgeting and bid validation to mitigate disputes and improve results in field projects. The exception to these rules would be any custom finishes.
- A tertiary project could include standardizing best practice application techniques into an applicator training and certification program, which could be used to qualify applicators.
Taken together, efforts that would produce a new global IFRM finish standard could dramatically improve the accuracy of project proposals involving protected AESS by offering specifiers a more objective mechanism for aligning performance, finish, and cost expectations with the most appropriate materials and well-trained applicators. At the same time, a new IFRM coating finish standard would help to drive the growth of the fire protection coatings industry, while offering architects and owners new options for safe and visually appealing building designs and more consistent outcomes.
A new standard such as this would play a role in minimizing project and material costs, eliminating the need for decorative or covering elements, such as column covers and drop ceilings, and create more beautiful, greener, and more economical structures in the future.
References
1 See the Code of Standard Practice for Steel Buildings and Bridges, Section 10: Architecturally Exposed Structural Steel p. 65-66 (June 15, 2016), American Institute of Steel Construction (AISC), 130 East Randolph Street, Suite 2000, Chicago IL, 60601.
2 See GA-214-2021, Levels of Finish for Gypsum Panel Products (September 30, 2021), Gypsum Association, 962 Wayne Ave., Suite 620, Silver Spring, MD 20910.
3 Refer to the Technical Guide Document 16 (TGD 16), Code of Practice for Off-Site Applied Thin Film Intumescent Coatings (Second Edition), Association for Specialist Fire Protection (ASFP), Spectra House, Westwood Way, Westwood Business Park, Coventry CV4 8HS, U.K.
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