New milestone for Isopan: after rock wool, Manni Group’s company has also obtained FM Approvals certification for a range of sandwich panels with PIR insulation. Products bearing the FM Approved certification marking adhere to the highest international standards of quality, technical integrity and performance.
FM Approvals is an international leader in testing and approval services and is part of FM Global, a worldwide building insurance and risk management company.
Leveraging over a century of experience, the certification company tests property loss prevention for products and services intended for use in commercial and industrial facilities. The aim is to check that these meet strict quality, technical integrity, and performance standards through a global certification process supported by scientific research and testing.
The process leading to award the FM Approved marking is so rigorous that it is now an international standard of the highest level, which helps differentiate a product on the building solutions market.
As a matter of fact, during the approval process, special attention is paid to the following points:
- Performing objective tests on products and services for accident prevention and approving those complying with stringent accident prevention regulations in accordance with standards 4880, 4881, 4471.
- Promoting the development and use of products and services approved by FM to manage and improve accident prevention practices.
What criteria does the certification take into account? It is based on the successful assessment of the product and the manufacturer during tests, through the inspection of the production facilities and the audit of the management system and quality control procedures. This ensures the manufacturer’s ability to consistently produce the items inspected and tested and the marking procedures used for identification.
To maintain the approval status, these checks are conducted at least once a year as part of FM Approvals' surveillance audit programme.
An FM representative is physically present during all the production steps needed to make product samples to be subjected to the testing process so that the body can check the production conditions as well as compliance with all the parameters required to process orders in which the customer requests the FM marking.
Not only the final product will receive approval, but the whole installation is assessed with the different testing methods approved by FM Approvals. A commissioned engineer follows the whole construction process of a building covered by FM Global insurance, from design to the on-site installation, verifying compliance with the requirements specified in the FM Approvals certification.
Products bearing the FM Approved certification marking adhere to the highest standards of quality, technical integrity and performance. To this end, the auditing process requires specific, state-of-the-art facilities and laboratories. The FM Global Research Campus has the best research and product testing laboratories in the world, each focusing on a specific issue of property loss prevention.
A range of Isopan sandwich panels with PIR insulation has obtained FM Approvals certification: this means that they have been validated after passing numerous tests and obtaining FM Approval Report. FM Approvals certification is nothing new for Isopan, whose rock wool insulation products had been already certified.
To achieve Factory Mutual certification, Isopan sandwich panels have been subjected to extreme tests exposing them to fire, wind, hail, and other aggressive factors.
FM approval guarantees panel resistance, tightness and safety and compliance with ASTM standards - referred to in the FM 4880, 4881 and 4471 standards - which guarantees damage prevention at an insurance level.
The sandwich panels awarded with the FM approval have been tested to guarantee the performance of their intended functions, maintaining the building envelope integrity as per the stated design conditions.
FM Approvals is the only organisation that tests products for fire performance as well as their ability to withstand natural hazard events without compromising the building structure.
FM Approved Isopan sandwich panels meet the following fire and natural disaster standards:
- FM 4471 – is a Class 1 approval standard for roofing panels. The standard governs the testing of structural resistance to hail, wind load (under pressure and depression), and combustibility.
- FM 4880 – is a Class 1 approval standard for fire behaviour of interior wall panels or panels used in false ceilings. The standard certifies their degree of fire behaviour by means of a room corner test.
- FM 4881 – is a Class 1 approval standard for exterior wall systems. The standard governs the structural capacity test of said systems. The exterior wall panels of buildings designed with a face exposed to the outside are subject to several natural hazards such as wind, hail, and debris caused by hurricanes. As a matter of fact, the FM Global Research Approval 4881 standard was developed as a result of the losses suffered after Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
Building panels complying with approval standards 4880 and 4881 have been certified to meet more than just fire propagation criteria. After being tested, they confirmed that they remain intact during significant natural hazard events such as hurricanes.
This comprehensive approach to certification offers unique benefits over non-FM Approvals certified products. For example, the FM Approved marking gives access to projects from the specification of multinational whishing to activate building insurance through FM Global or offer advantageous insurance conditions for their customer.