Glazing in Fire Doors

[PaulL]

At one of my clients, a vision panel is needed in a 30 minute fire door.  My client is a food producer and does not want to use glass because of the risk of contamination.  Are any other materials acceptable or would it be OK to apply safety film to prevent the loss of glass splinters if the panel is cracked?

Thanks in anticipation

[Guest]

Paul - this shouldn't be an insurmountable problem.   Specialist fire door manufacturers can provide FD30 doors with easi-clean glazing, suitable for hospitals and food processors.   From your message it appears that your client already has the door and you are looking to fit glazing into the existing one?   Dangerous territory unless you know exactly the leaf construction, who made it and whether the construction type is covered for being glazed.   Far safer to go for a ready-glazed door when you can ask the manufacturer for evidence of compliance.

I can't give you many names of door manufacturers that I know do such glazed fire doors but two spring to mind - Leaderflush/Shapland whose details are readily available, or C M Whitby (contact details can be found on the ASDMA website www.asdma.com)

[Guest]

There are many out there who would take a sharp intake of breath and say 'my God you cant do that to a fire door'.
But lets get real here, if the door is already FR and has FR glazing, you are only going to add a piece of thin film to the door glazing then what is the problem? If there is a fire and the door is subject to heat the worst that will happen is that the piece of film will flash off and thats the end of it. More probable is that it will just shrink to just about nothing.
Just my view.