Fire barrier panel

Abstract

A fire barrier panel of the kind suitable for lining car decks and engine rooms of high speed aluminum ferries is described. The panel (10) includes a relatively thin layer of inorganic insulating material (12) adhered to a lightweight support structure (14). The layer of inorganic insulating material may be an intumescent material made from mineral fibers. The decribed lightweight support structure (14) is a honeycomb panel having a honeycomb core (18) of non-combustible aluminum foil provided with two face skins made of glass reinforced plastics resin material (16). This construction of the honeycomb panel (14) is lightweight and has high stiffness and rigidity suitable for stiffening and supporting the insulating material into a rigid panel. The layer of intumescent material (12) supported on the panel expands when exposed to high temperatures to form a thick fire insulating barrier panel. Because the panels are self-supporting, and therefore support structures, installation costs are much lower than for prior art fire insulation systems.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.