Many can benefit, on occasion, with some specific professional advice. You might be a manufacturer, a designer, an architect, a developer, a system supplier, a contractor, a responsible person, facilities management, a notified body, a risk assessor or another stakeholder, all of whom could benefit, on occasion, with some specific professional advice. VFS can provide help with Fire Dampers from th
e perspective of products, design, installations standards and regulations. VFS can provide similar services for Smoke Control Dampers and help you understand this very particular application for dampers and how it differs. VFS can provide a service to attend and investigate both ventilation systems and smoke control systems and provide feedback on compliance, adequacy and effectiveness for both fire safety and smoke control where relevant. This will enable you to know that the right questions are being asked and the correct solutions implemented. You can share this information with your risk assessors, as this is an area that can be misunderstood, but still needs attention. How do we feel able to offer this to you? Paul White has been involved with ventilation for most of his career, working with damper and ventilation products for a range of major manufacturers at director level. This experience has included product design and development, fire and laboratory testing and working in standards development, as well as general management. He chairs the committees that write the fire damper and smoke control damper test standards and is an active member of harmonised product standards committees and Differential Pressure Systems for smoke control applications. Working with the Smoke Control Association (SCA) has included work on their apartments guide, within Heating Ventilating and Air Conditioning Manufacturers' Association (HEVAC) the outlet applications guide and within Association Of Ductwork Contractors And Allied Services (ADCAS) feedback on fire resisting and smoke control duct standards development. Involvement in these activities gives early knowledge and potential influence on the development of standards and regulations that could affect your future plans. Latterly, this experience has expanded to smoke control systems design and contracting. Consequently, there are not many people who have such a sound knowledge of the products, the standards, the concepts, the applications and all their quite complex interactions. Training and competency are key issues in today’s construction world. There are no formal qualifications in this area, except some parts of high level qualifications courses. Training and demonstration of competency will become increasingly necessary in the post Grenfell construction world. This will be in general construction and not just fire and smoke related issues or high risk residential buildings. Paul is monitoring the output of the working group set up for competency and has been actively involved in all the consultations in this area as well as those for the Approved Documents. Other challenges will come with the formation of the new Joint Regulators Group and the Construction Products Regulator. Paul is a Chartered Mechanical Engineer and keeps up to date (CPD) by working on standards committees, with trade associations and working with government by providing feedback to the Approved Documents. He has a high profile in the industry for integrity and commitment. If he cannot solve something, he is not afraid to ask others and knows who to ask. CE marking and UKCA marking will bring further changes and these will be carefully monitored in the months ahead. They are quite complex issues, particularly for importers/distributors and exporters. This will also be influenced by trade negotiations going on with the EU and the USA. Paul is monitoring these closely as part of a Trade Association/BSI group at a high level to make sure that fire safety implications and reciprocal trade are at the top of the list. Paul has a sound awareness of most passive fire protection needs having worked within the Passive Fire Protection Federation (PFPF) and been exposed to other products such as pe*******on seals, doors and windows. This is invaluable when looking at smoke control systems, where all of these could be included. Services offered:
(1) Fire damper site test and inspection
(2) Advice on all aspects of Fire Dampers and Smoke Control Dampers
(3) Help with Fire Resisting and Smoke Control Ductwork
(4) Training and competency advice
(5) Continuing professional Development (CPD) presentations
(6) Assessment of existing smoke control systems and their components
(7) Assessment of proposed smoke control designs
(8) Expert witness unbiased opinion
Please call on 07548 754 650 or email [email protected] for more information and an initial discussion. If you are not sure if we can help, call anyway and we can assess your needs or pass you on to someone who can help. Thank you.
