UL 2079 Certification for Deck and
Floor Expansion Joints
--What's involved?
UL and ULC Certification of
products for deck and floor expansion joints is a rigorous course of upfront
and ongoing manufacturing inspection and certification as well as product
testing.
UL 2079 testing encompasses the burn requirements of ASTM E119 and
the joint cycling requirements of ASTM E1399 in the same way that ASTM
E1966 does.
However, UL certification goes beyond just
testing. It also encompasses a manufacturing certification of
the materials to be tested and ongoing annual, unannounced on-site
manufacturing audits.
THE UL 2079 PROCESS:
1) Manufacture: UL2079 certification begins
with certification of the manufacturing process. UL personnel observe
the entire manufacturing process from impregnation to coating to packaging.
2) Joint Cycling: Before any fire
testing can commence, the product must
pass UL's cycling requirement through the extremes of the offered movement
range (+25%, -25% from nominal).
Joint movement under UL 2079 occurs
at two levels:
The first, 400 cycles @ 10 cycles/minute simulates thermal and wind-sway cycling.
The
second, an additional 100 cycles @ 30 cycles per minute, is more rapid and
is designed to simulate seismic movement.
EMSHIELD passes cycling for
both Class II and Class III movement capabilities.
3) Installation for
Fire Test: Installation that includes a join between standard
lengths, using the tools, and procedures that will be used in the
field is observed by UL.
Specifically for
EMSHIELD,
4-inch nominal
DFR2
material was installed into 4-inch thick concrete slabs (4-inches of
concrete are required for the concrete itself to provide 2-hours of
fire resistance). Once the epoxy-adhesive and liquid sealants
used in the installation were cured, the slabs were ready for
cycling.
Note: EMSHIELD DFR2 was tested both with just the
intumescent bellows on the bottom side (standard
offering to allow visual inspection verification of presence
of fire proofing), as well as with the intumescent
bellows on the bottom side coated with a silicone bellows
(optional at additional charge to suit designers aesthetic
preference).
4)
Fire Resistance: Within 96 hours of the cycling
tests the fire testing must occur. The concrete slabs
with installed expansion joint material are placed over the
test oven.
The joint gap is set at the maximum offered opening for the material
size tested:
(4-inch nominal material at +25% movement claim = 5-inches).
Thermo couples are
placed on the top side of the material.
(Note: When
fire-blankets are tested, because they cannot support traffic of any
kind, they are tested with a plate or other joint cover across the
joint gap onto which the thermo couples are set.)
For the DFR2, the thermo
couples were placed directly on the trafficable exposed upper surface of the
material--in the middle of the product, at the substrate interface, and
directly over the field-join.
The oven is ignited and the temperature rises rapidly to
near 1650oF (899oC) in about 30
minutes.
After two hours the internal temperature of the oven reaches
1850oF (1010oC).
Data from
the thermo couples is monitored throughout the 2 hour
duration of the test.
To pass, no
single thermo couple can read in excess of 356oF
(180oC) at any point during the duration of the
test.
After two hours, no single thermo couple on the EMSHIELD
DFR2 read in excess of 248oF (120oC).
(Note: The noticeable bow in the concrete slabs is evidence of the
differential expansion of the heated concrete on the
fire-side of the slabs.)
The successful
conclusion of the test earns the EMSHIELD DFR2 the
certification by UL and ULC of this product in sizes from
1-inch (25mm)
to 4-inches (100mm)
with a depth of
seal of of 4-inches
(100mm)
and with a movement capability of +25% and -25% (total 50%)
to be fire-rated for up to 2 hours.
5)
UL Listing
In the weeks
following successful product test UL compiles a report and
issues
UL Listing(s) for publishing to the
UL Listing Database and the
ULC Listing Database.
If a product
qualifies for a range of joint sizes, UL breaks up the
listing into separate assignments to cover certain joint
ranges. For this reason EMSHIELD DFR2 has a listing
for joints from 1 - 2 inches
(25 - 50mm)
and a separate listing for joints from 2.25 - 4 inches
(55 - 100mm).
6)
Ongoing Manufacturing Inspection and Certification
When a
company chooses to certify according to UL standards, it is
required to undergo at least an annual inspection by UL
personnel of its manufacturing process. In addition
the company agrees to subject itself to additional
unannounced inspections at UL's discretion.
In contrast
to non-UL fire rating and certifications, the UL symbol
carries the validation of the product and the manufacturer
and assures continuity of compliance and quality assurance.
