FIRE WALL PANELS

Abstract: A prefabricated fire wall panel comprises a metal shell comprising a peripheral frame of expanded metal mesh (6) and side walls (4, 5) of ribbed or corrugated steel. The shell is filled with an insulatory filler medium (8) comprising alternate layers of rock wool and aluminium foil.

Description: Title: "FIRE WALL PANELS" FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to pre-fabricated panels intended for use in fire walls. Such walls are themselves intended to provide non-combustible, heat transmission resistant barriers in buildings for the protection of occupants in the event of fire. A common usage is in the construction of escape tunnels or passages extending from central areas of large buildings to the outside. DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART Fire walls are subject to stringent Governmental regulations concerning the rate at which heat may flow through them and those regulations are expected to become more stringent as time progresses. In particular fire walls are required to withstand a standardised flame applied to one side for several hours before reaching a quite moderate surface temperature on the other side, a surface temperature at which the other side may be touched without substantial discomfort. Hitherto the regulations have only been met by panels of a cementitious or refractory nature or at least panels clad with such materials. One commonly used material hitherto has been asbestos fibre reinforced plaster, but that material is now widely regarded as a health hazard. Unfortunately such materials gather dirt, are difficult to wash and walls having them as their external surface rapidly become unsightly. Therefore it has been proposed to provide metal clad panels comprising a non-combustible hollow metal shell filled with light-weight insulatory medium such as rock wool, glass fibre bats or other first class insulation from a thermal view point but lacking structual integrity without such a shell. All such proposals have been unacceptable hitherto because of the heat flow through the metal edges of the shells where one panel abuts its neighbour, leading to unacceptable temperture rises at the joints between panels. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the invention is to overcome the above mentioned deficiency of prior proposed metal clad panels by very simple means. The invention achieves that object by providing a metal clad fire wall panel wherein at least the upright edge faces of the panel are made of expanded metal mesh. For preference the top and bottom edge faces are likewise made of expanded metal mesh. The metal shells of panels according to the invention may be filled with particulate or fibrous insulation because migration of the medium through the openings in the upright edge panels is prevented when the panels are abutted together in the finished wall. Such migration may be prevented during transport and storage of the panels by the temporary application of a readily removable adhesive tape. In preferred embodiments of the invention the mesh edge panels are complementarily stepped in the manner of tongue and grooved or housed joints so as to increase the length of the conduction path from one side of the panel to the other. Furthermore, the side faces may be stepped at their upright edges to provide a vertically extending recess in the wall surfaces at each joint. That recess may be covered by a metal cover strip with an opening or openings at the top and bottom to constitute a flow path "chimney" for the convective flow of ambient air as the joint warms up to assist in lengthening the time for which an acceptable temperature rise at the joint is maintained. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Fig. 1 is a perspective view of an end portion of a fire wall panel according to one embodiment of the invention. Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken on line 2-2 of Fig . 1. Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 2 of the vertical junction of two panels according to Fig. 1 when assembled in a fire wall. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The illustrated embodiment of the invention comprises a metallic shell, itself comprising a cold side, corrugated steel cladding sheet 4, a hot side, ribbed steel cladding sheet 5, and essentially channel-sectioned edge members 6 secured by rivets 7 to the sheets 4 and 5 to form an external metal shell for the panel as a whole. In accordance with the invention the edge members 6 are formed from expanded metal mesh. Each of the cladding sheets 4 and 5 may comprise two or more commercially available wall cladding sheets partially overlapped and rivetted or otherwise secured together. The aforesaid metal shell is substantially filled with thermally insulating material 8, in this embodiment comprising eight layers of rock wool interleaved with aluminium foils. The flanges of the edge members 6 are stepped at 9 and the space within those members between the steps in the flanges and the channel web may be filled with thermally insulating material, for example, three strips of rock wool 10. When two panels according to the invention as described above are assembled into a fire wall, the upright junctions between one panel and its neighbour are preferably spanned by cover strips 11 and 12. Those cover strips and the stepped flanges of the panel edge members define elongated joint spaces extending from the bottom to the top of the fire wall. The joint space on the hot side of the wall may be filled with insulating material 13. The joint space on the cold side of the fire wall is preferably left vacant and the cover strip 12 on that side is pierced by vent holes at the top and bottom so that the vacant space 14 defined by that cover strip may function as a chimney to induce a flow of cooling ambient air upwardly of the junction.

Claims: CLAIMS 1. A metal clad fire wall panel characterised in that at least the upright edge faces of the panel are expanded metal mesh. 2. A panel according to claim 1 wherein the said edges faces are the webs of channel sectioned edge members. 3. A panel according to claim 2 wherein the flanges of said edge members are stepped. 4. A fire wall comprising two panels according to claim 3 disposed edge to edge wherein the junction between the panels is spanned by two cover strips respectively on the hot and cold sides of the wall. 5. A fire wall according to claim 4 wherein the cover strip on the cold side of the wall is vented at or near its top and bottom. 6. A prefabricated fire wall panel substantially as described herein with reference to Figs. 1 and 2 of the accompanying drawings. 7. A fire wall substantially as described herein with reference to Fig. 3 of the accompanying drawings.

Inventors: SIMPSON ROGER GRANT, SIMPSON, ROGER, GRANT
Applicants: MORGANITE AUSTRALIA PTY LTD, MORGANITE AUSTRALIA PTY. LIMITED
Application year: 1986
Main classification: E04B1
IPC codes: E04B1, E04C2, E06B5