Fire Safety and Protection khaleej times | ADVERTISING SUPPLEMENT
Third party quality assurance Thomas Bell-Wright International Consultants offers independent Testing, Inspection and Certification (TIC) services primarily for the building construction sector
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homas Bell-Wright International Consultants (TBWIC) is a Dubai-based, multi-accredited, privately held engineering firm providing independent Testing, Inspection and Certification (TIC) services primarily for the building construction sector. The company is focused on large commercial buildings. “We provide a range of TIC services for building architectural elements, as well as for fire separation and material safety. Along with becoming a successful Product Certification body in the region, our services of small and large-scale testing, including for
cladding, are being sought in the more established developed world as well,” says Thomas F. Bell-Wright, the CEO and Chief Technical Officer at TBWIC, in an interview with Khaleej Times. He speaks about the company’s role in fire safety and protection. “In the same way that we pioneered weathertightness testing for building envelope/ curtain wall systems; we were the first ones in the region to set up fire testing for fire rated doors and partitions about a decade ago. We continue to expand the number of fire tests to meet the needs of suppliers, contractors and consultants in meeting the requirements of the building codes. It’s all about making our society safer.” In the last few years, TBWIC has added a number of tests that help to test the fire safety of cladding materials and systems. This includes the LargeScale Fire Propagation Test for cladding as per the American testing standard NFPA 285, as well as British Standards (BS 8414). “We also have several small-scale tests used to check materials used for cladding and interior finishing. These tests have also been
helping building owners recently investigate the fire risk of their existing building materials quickly and inexpensively,” Bell-Wright explains. Stressing on the importance of the UAE market for the company, he says, “We are born in the UAE, and our primary aim has been to support the country’s construction industry. Our local presence has supported a very large number of local manufacturers develop their products to international standards. We are now taking UAE’s name out not only to the MENA region but also across Europe and the Asia Pacific.” As for the future, TBWIC has recently invested in expanding its testing capabilities by a considerable amount.
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“We pride ourselves in providing testing reports and certification with an urgency previously unknown in the fire testing world. We think this is crucial to doing business in the UAE but we are also finding it attractive abroad, and we, therefore, plan to develop our testing in the more established markets on this basis,” he notes. Bell-Wright adds, “We recently launched our product certification programme and the certification mark is designed to reflect the iconography of our adopted home. The falcon is designed in Arabic calligraphy to say mutamad ( ), which means “certified”. We particularly like this design and have had a great response from our clients.”
Fire protection is a priority The company is specialised in design, supply, installation, testing and commissioning and offers annual maintenance for various types of fire detection and firefighting systems A One Technology LLC was established with the view of giving high importance to fire protection, which comprises mainly of fire alarms and firefighting systems in the UAE and the emerging need for technological inputs. A professional team of technically trained staff provide quick fire protection response to its valued customers. A One Technology LLC provides highquality service and is civil defence approved in the field of design, supply, installation and maintenance
of fire protection systems in residential, industrial and oil field facilities. With a robust backend in place and a sharp customer focus, today A One Technology LLC is not only designing and building safety solutions but is also integrating safety into life and ensuring that your world is safe. A One Technology LLC is therefore creating a sense of future readiness through automated systems that ensure that we live and work in spaces that are intelligent and safe.
Services: ■■ Design, supply, installation, testing and commissioning of fire alarm and fire fighting system, fire suppression and kitchen hood system for onshore, offshore, oil and gas field, residential and industrial areas. ■■ Getting preventive certificate from Civil Defence. ■■ Annual maintenance of fire alarm and fire fighting system for onshore, offshore, oil and gas field, residential and industrial purposes. ■■ Refilling and certification for fire extinguishers. ■■ Repairing of fire pumps and fire alarm control panel.
cladding on my building safe? Read what experts have to say to keep your building safe In low-rise buildings, the roof and intermediate floors are supported by the outside walls. However, in high-rise buildings, the floor slabs and ultimately the roof is supported by systems of columns. The outer walls are hung off the slabs (hence ‘curtain walls’) to form an interconnected network which has to resist wind loads and to “keep the weather out and the people in”, as we like to say. In one sense the curtain wall is the building cladding, but ‘cladding’ also refers to the covering of a construction element, such as a column, for example, to give it a finished appearance. By extension, it can also be the open areas between the glass in many buildings. Around 2005 or so, an inexpensive, architecturally pleasing and easily worked material started to be used for those areas; it is called ACP – aluminium composite panel. ACP is usually 4 or 6mm thick with two thin skins of aluminium, sandwiching a core material. Unfortunately, this product came on the scene during a massive construction boom. As a result, it was placed on many buildings around the world before anyone realised that it had a serious flaw – the core material then being used could catch fire under certain conditions. Surprisingly, that early ACP is relatively hard to ignite initially, even though it can mushroom into a serious cladding fire. Over the course of time different and safer materials have been substituted for the original core. How do we know they are safer – because we test them following international standards in our Fire Testing laboratory in Dubai. Can we do the same for your building? Yes. Samples of cladding can be removed from the building, and these are sufficient for small-scale and inexpensive tests which can determine the characteristics of the core.
Design, Supply, Installation, Testing & Commissioning Annual Maintenance Fire Alarm and Fire Fighting System For Residential and Industrial Fire Suppression and Kitchen Hood System Intruder Alarm & Perimeter Surveillance System Emergency & Exit Lighting System Getting Preventive Certificate From Civil Defence Refilling & Servicing for The Fire Extinguisher
Member of European Group of Organisations for Fire Testing, Inspection and Certification
Member of Association for Specialist Fire Protection (UK)
UKAS accredited to ISO 1702 as a Testing Laboratory
UKAS accredited to ISO 17065 as a Certification Body
SIA-211 AC 291 for Special Inspections