Pilkington Pyrostop Provides Power Protection
10 March 2008Pilkington Pyrostop™, the specialist fire-resistant glass, has been installed at Heysham 1 Power Station in Lancashire.
The nuclear power station’s Fire Safety Engineer specified the glass for four partition walls, separating stand-by gas turbines from their control rooms. The glazing in each wall stretches 9ft wide by 5ft high, and is composed of two 5ft by 4.5ft panes of Pilkington Pyrostop™. The glazing, in combination with its surrounding wall, provides a fire protection system which offers integrity and insulation for 60 minutes.
The glass allows visual contact between staff in the control rooms and those performing routine safety checks on the turbines next door. Pilkington Pyrostop™ maximises the available levels of natural light and visibility, without compromising on fire-resistant qualities.
Roger Millis, Fire Safety Engineer, British Energy, specified the glass, he said: “Safety is paramount in a nuclear power station and it is important that we have the correct measures in place to ensure the safety of both the people working on the site and the essential plant. We needed glass that could fit into a system that would provide 60 minutes integrity and insulation. Keeping fire contained for that amount of time is incredibly impressive and will maintain the required fire compartmentation without impacting on normal plant operations. Pilkington Pyrostop™ provides reassurance because it has easily accessible test certificates to prove the performance of the glass, and guarantee that our stringent safety requirements on the plant can be achieved.”
Pilkington Pyrostop™ turns opaque when in contact with fire, providing passive protection against heat, flames and hot gases. Pilkington Pyrostop™ complies with the strict requirements defined in European test standards and ISO test standards and is part of a suite of fire-resistant glass offered by Pilkington.
Customers can log onto www.pilkington.co.uk/specifire to access the Pilkington Specifire, an online specification tool which details the entire Pilkington range of fire-resistant glass and its extensive testing portfolio. It allows users to identify the most appropriate fire resistant glass quickly, easily and accurately together with a pdf of the applicable fire test summary to aid specification and approval.