The Fire Impact Test simulates the effects of a real office fire, subjecting the safe to searing temperatures and then dropping it the equivalent of over two floors.
The test is carried out in the following stages:
1) Furnace
The furnace is heated to temperatures around 800˚C and the safe is placed inside for about 30 minutes.
2) Drop
The safe is removed from the furnace and dropped from a crane from a height of over 9m onto a bed of rubble.
This simulates a drop through over two floors to the basement – something which is very likely to happen in a severe structural fire.
3) Furnace
The safe is returned to the furnace and heated to temperatures around 1000˚C.
This is to simulate the heat of a real office fire.
Remember: Paper documents require protection from temperatures higher than 177˚C and digital media from temperatures higher than 55˚C. So while it is approaching 1000˚C outside, the inside of the safe must remain several 100 degrees cooler, otherwise it fails the test.
4) Cooling
The safe is left to gradually cool down. This is known as the “cooling period” or “soak out” and lasts for the same length of time as it took the temperature to peak during the fire endurance part of the test.
When an office fire has been extinguished, temperatures still remain high and heat is drawn to cooler areas, such as the interior of the safe. Therefore the contents are still at risk for several hours after a fire has been put out.
5) Check protective function
Throughout the test, the internal temperature is continually monitored and recorded. At the end of the cooling period the safe is removed and the recording devices are checked. If it has exceeded the limit at any point (177˚C for paper and 55˚C for digital media), then the safe will not pass the test.
