Fire Door Seals

What is a fire door seal?

Fire door seals are fitted between a door and its frame to fill any gaps that would otherwise allow smoke and fire to escape, in the event of an emergency. They are a vital part of any fire door and they must be correctly designed and fitted to guarantee that the protection they offer is effective.

In any door fitting there has to be a gap between the door leaf and the frame so that the door can open and close easily. However, this same gap can cause problems in the event of a fire, because it would allow toxic smoke and heat to escape, which would limit the fire door’s ability to contain the damage to property and risk of danger to people. This is why the seal within a fire door installation is so important: it allows for everyday opening and closing of the door without obstruction, but if a fire breaks out it expands in order to seal the gap.

Seals within fire door mechanisms are designed in such a way that when they expand considerably when they heat up, so if there is a fire, the high temperatures will activate this enlargement automatically. This allows the seal to fill the space between a door and its frame, preventing any smoke from leaking out of the gaps, and stopping fire from spreading. Seals are an essential part of a fire door’s capability to limit the spread of an outbreak of fire for anything from 30 minutes to two hours, containing it to a single part of a building to minimise smoke and flame damage to people, property and external and internal structures.