Fire door insight from ‘the door guy’: a Q&A

Tell us a bit about your role at Pyroguard?

Working within the fire door market, the product I’m most involved with is Pyroguard Advance. In many ways, mine is a dedicated role to help spearhead its launch and promote the product to our existing customer base and wider market, alongside Steve Goodburn.

On a day-to-day basis, I work closely with timber door manufacturers from across the industry – it’s all about building a strong relationship with them, understanding their buying habits, looking at their testing programmes, their fire door systems, future products and considering how we can best support them.

I’ve also been meeting with composite door manufacturers, which is a completely new sector for me and for Pyroguard – and is really exciting. Again, our focus is on gaining an understanding about how their systems are put together, whether it’s a timber core or a more hybrid structure, and how can we then help them both technically and with testing.

We aim to provide a dedicated and individual approach to customers, as opposed to a generic sales approach – we’re getting to know them, their business and their processes first. The fire door market’s supply chain is often missing this dedicated technical support and so we are keen to change this.

You’ve worked in the fire door industry for over seven years. What is your view on the market as it currently stands?

Personally, I feel that the fire safety industry has taken a really positive move down the education route recently, which is much needed.

It’s not a sector that you can sit still in; the market changes, regulations change, and new products and systems are launched. It’s one of the reasons why it’s such a fascinating industry, but you do have to constantly educate, evolve and stay up to date. We need education as a united industry.

The British Woodworking Federation, Architectural and Specialist Door Manufacturer Association (ASDMA) and Association of Composite Door Manufacturers (ACDM) have some great courses on offer. As do FDM Limited, with an educational facility and ‘showroom’ available to learn about the variety of products and elements, from door closers and fire glass to intumescent seals and tapes.

For example, I have now gained a Fire Door Diploma qualification and am already looking at registering for a Fire Door Inspector Scheme. Of course, in my current role, I will never be responsible for inspecting fire doors, but it’s all about gaining knowledge and all-round understanding.

In your opinion, why is Pyroguard Advance a ‘game changer’ for the industry?

From our customers point of view, when glazing their doors they may have historical buying habits with regards door cores and glazing systems. The market is also regularly shifting in terms of glazing tape preferences, from closed cell foam tape to intumescent tape. As such, the glass used ideally needs to be interchangeable, suitable for different sealing systems and able to stand up to production changes in-house.

With Pyroguard Advance, you can achieve this without worry – trusting that the glass can stand up to it.

Another consideration is the debate around the British Standard (BS) and European Standard (EN), with the industry holding a split view on if the shift will take place and when. For those supplying to the UK market only, the move to EN test standards will likely be a gradual one. While, for those who have aspirations of the export market, the EN standard will be looked at more urgently. Many simply prefer to have EN test evidence to futureproof their business and protect against any changes in the future, with architects and developers already pushing for products with the EN test evidence.

Regardless, Pyroguard Advance ticks both boxes, providing peace of mind and reliability. Against the BS Standard, it will exceed. Likewise, it can also comfortably meet the EN standard, renowned in the industry for being a more vigorous test.

Pyroguard is currently working on an update to its Certifire Certificate of Approval for Pyroguard Advance (CF 5818) – what does this mean for customers?

It’s really credit to the significant investment we have made via our testing programme that we are now updating this. Featuring a range of different glazing systems and seals, the updated CF 5818 certificate will give our customers even more opportunities for using Pyroguard Advance in their fabrication processes.

The updated CF 5818 certificate will help make the buying process easier for our customers, enabling them to easily see if their specific application and requirements are possible, cross-referencing the document for their Field of Application. It provides added assurance and peace of mind, with the well-documented paper trail and comprehensive test evidence available to back up the specification.

We’re really focussing on delivering a whole, complete package, with the high-performance product, comprehensive test evidence and dedicated technical support – nothing can compete.

Learn more about Pyroguard Advance here.