Placing a fire-rated roller shutter is not random. Rules apply, as below:
- Per building security and fire design, besides firewall settings, if there is no firewall between two fire zones, a fire shutter is required.
- Common places: enclosed escape stairs to a corridor; enclosed elevator lobbies to anterooms and anterooms to corridors; check doors of cable shafts, garage door pipe shafts, smoke ducts, trash chutes, and other vertical shaft doors.
- Per rules, buildings split into fire zones and control zones. Doors on firewalls and fire partition walls: when a firewall or fire door is hard to fit, use a fire shutter instead, with a water curtain for protection, and the rules require fire- and smoke-rated partition doors.
- Per standards, the fire shutter should also have a backup power. With no main power, the backup works. Inside, a fuse device must be set; at a certain temperature, the inner metal piece melts.
- Use of premium fire shutters: mainly for fast fire compartment formation, often in large spaces. As a visible fire divider, makers paint them in bright colors. This looks good when rolled up and, in a fire, the bright, penetrating color shows the escape path and buys time.
- In placing fire shutters, beyond the fire divider role, when rolled up they must not disturb normal life.
- In high-rises, picking and placing the premium fire shutter’s effective compartment is key to its real fire function. Balance normal life with effective compartment.
- The total max floor area of fire shutters should not exceed the fire-zone area set by the building grade. When upper and lower openings have fire shutters or water curtains with a rating over 3.00h, the areas need not add up. Lobbies and passages linking a room to an atrium should have class-B fire doors or fire shutters with a rating over 3.00h.
Clearly, fire shutters give good compartment protection for life and property, but more is not always better. Placement needs scientific calc and design by usable floor area.