Patent ID: 7866108

Claim:
A fire retardant head-of-wall assembly configured to accommodate up and down ceiling deflections, comprising: an elongated sheet-metal footer track; an elongated sheet-metal header track confronting and vertically spaced apart from the footer track, the header track including a web integrally connected to a pair of spaced apart and downwardly extending sidewalls, at least one sidewall having an upper sidewall portion adjacent to the web and a lower sidewall portion separated from the upper sidewall portion by an outwardly facing protrusion that runs lengthwise along each sidewall; an elongated intumescent strip affixed lengthwise on at least one of the outer sidewall surfaces of the pair of sidewalls and above the outwardly facing protrusion; a plurality of sheet-metal studs having upper and lower end portions, the studs being vertically positioned between the spaced apart and confronting footer and header tracks such that the lower end portions are received into the footer track and the upper end portions are received into the header track; wallboard having an inner face and outer face attached to at least one side of the plurality of studs, the wallboard having an elongated upper interior wallboard surface in contact with or proximate to the outer strip surface of the elongated intumescent strip, the header track being movable relative to the plurality of studs and wallboard so as to be able to accommodate up and down ceiling deflections, and wherein the outwardly facing protrusion protects the intumescent material from compression associated with the wallboard by being substantially in contact with the inner face.