New fire testing facility opens at Jordanstown

by Gráinne Connolly

A new UKAS accredited fire testing facility has opened at Ulster University's Jordanstown Campus.

It's part of a partnership between the Efectis France and Ulster University which specialises in assessing the fire performance of products, systems and entire construction projects.

The new centre will assess fire resistance, reactions to flames, extinguishing systems and equipment.

Equipped with a 600m2 burn wall; the facility is the only UKAS accredited facility on the island of Ireland that allows for full-scale fire research including BS8414 façade tests, to address fire safety issues in high rise buildings, alongside wall and floor furnaces for multi scale investigations in relation to fire and fire resistance testing.

The facility is underpinned by research from the Fire Safety Engineering Research and Technology Centre (FireSERT) at Ulster University and aims to improve the quality of fire safety provisions with particular focus on the behaviour of new and innovative materials and building components for a range of industries including domestic and commercial construction and transport.

(Daniel Joyeux, President of Efectis Holding and Professor Paddy Nixon, Vice-Chancellor of Ulster University pictured at the new UKAS accredited testing facility set to transform fire safety in construction industry across island of Ireland.)

Welcoming the joint venture which links academia and industry Tim Brundle Director of Research and Impact commented; 

“As a world leading provider of knowledge and expertise in fire safety engineering, our researchers have explored the science behind fire and fire safety and having recently secured UKAS accreditation can now facilitate full-scale testing for commercial purposes.

"The partnership with Efectis will help improve fire safety on the island of Ireland and across the UK and Europe to reduce the number of fire related tragedies.”

Talal Fateh, General Manager of Efectis commented; 

“We can provide construction businesses with accredited testing services and peace of mind, we want to avoid tragedies like Grenfell Tower and to guarantee the safety of buildings, including schools and we want to maintain and sustain FireSERT as a centre of excellence in the field of fire safety science.

"We already have enquiries from firms in Ireland, across the UK and Europe. Efectis is actively recruiting staff to meet the anticipated demand.”