Colourful Fire Doors, what could be better, and with our extensive RAL Chart you have a great deal to choose from!
Aside from the pretty colours and extensive array of them, the colour actually does play an important part when it comes to fire safety.
Within the Fire Protection Industry we have a term LRV (Light reflective value).Light reflective values are a scale that is a measure of the amount of visible and usable light that is reflected from a surface when illuminated by a light source. This scale is used in architecture and interior design in determining how much light a colour reflects or absorbs. LRV is measured on a scale ranging from 0 (completely absorbing black and reflects no light) to 100 (Being completely reflecting of white that reflects all light). Reflective value is a proportion of the light reflected off the surface, rather than the amount of light that falls on it, typically the sharpest of whites will have a LRV of 85 points and the black at it's darkest will have an LRV of 5 points.
LRV's and their importance:
The Equality Act 2010 requires that all new and refurbished public buildings have accessibility for all regardless of an individual's disability, age, or gender, ensuring safe entry, access and travel through a building.
British Standards code of practice (BS 8300-2:2018) states that adequate visual contrast between building surfaces and their surrounding areas is necessary to meet the access needs of disabled people.
The required contrast between light reflectance values -
The British Standard recommends an LRV contrast of at least 30 points, 20 being acceptable if illuminance on surfaces is 200 Lux (Unit of measurement of light level intensity) or more. If the doors furniture projects beyond the face of the door and creates a significant differentiation in shade, the LRV contrast must be a minimum of 15 points.
Fire Doors:
LRV when it comes to fire doors (as well as doors un-fire rated) must consider the contrast between the door facing and ironmongery as well as those stated below, to comply with BS 8300:2018 requirements.
See below how different components will affect the end LRV:
RAL CHART - LRV:
The RAL chart is very extensive each with their own LRV. Combining these colours is where we have to monitor the contrast.
Ex: Evolution very often use both American White Oak (Crown Cut - LRV 31.80) alongside Anthracite Grey for our frames (LRV 5). The combination of these colours and well as the ironmongery differentiation creates an LRV value of 27.80 which sit within the standardization of BS830 0-2:2018.
Light reflective values of each component work together to create the total of LRV of the door set. This including the doors furniture. See below a visual representation of the standard recommended contrast difference (30 points) lighter and darker than the LRV value to pair with.
