Where the market trusted for years on chemical fire retarders and questionable test methods, we chose a fundamentally different path.
Also for Paulussen there were two options on the table in the beginning: treating the wood or developing a completely new approach.
Because it is known that fire retarders lose their operation after a short time, the first route soon dropped out.
We opted for science and for the power of the basic material itself.
We fully rely on the unique properties of untreated wood, combined with a smart system design.
After intensive research, aluminum turned out to be the ideal partner: thanks to compartmentalization and heat conduction, Forestlines® achieves fire reaction class B-s1,d0 - without any treatment or after-treatment.
This means that Forestlines® is the first wooden facade system that legally fulfills the requirements for fire reaction class B.
A real revolution…
The Forestlines® Facade, Roof and Ceiling System is the first to achieve fire reaction class B-s1,d0 without any fire retardant treatment.
This result came after years of research and hundreds of structured fire tests.
An unseen wide series of variants was successfully tested: more than fifteen types of wood, different shelf widths, aluminum profiles, hits and system buildings.
Thanks to this research, freedom in design is completely retained. Variable widths of wood and aluminum are possible, and even combinations of different types of wood and dimensions in one facade.
Forestlines® proves that fire safety does not have to rely on artificial additives, but can be achieved through well thought out design and system innovation.
The well -known researchers Birgit Östman and Lazaros Tsantaridis already stated in 2016: “It’s relatively easy to obtain an improved fire performance of wood products.”
Everyone can temporarily treat wood fire -retardant, and a fire test is then only a snapshot.
The real challenge lies in maintaining those performance after a realistic aging of your facade.
More and more research confirms that this is virtually impossible for treated variants without periodic maintenance.
A resin or surface treatment only gives a temporary extension.
That is why the EN 16755 was introduced in 2017: the standard that must demonstrate how a fire -retardant treatment behaves over time.
However, practice shows that the market often opts for an accelerated aging test (EN 927-6) in combination with the Cone Calorimeter (ISO 5660-1).
Science has been points out for years to the major error margins and the lack of representativeness of this method.
Fortunately, this approach will be deleted in the upcoming overhaul of the standard.
What remains intact is the clear requirement in and 16755:
"If there is a contestation, the reference test is EN 927-3 with fire testing accordance to and 13823 Before and afterweathering."
Simpel gezegd: If your building is on fire or if there is doubt about the performance of the facade, then only the combination of natuurlijke veroudering (EN 927-3) én een SBI-test (EN 13823) is legally conclusive.
Forestlines® is the First and only wooden facade system that this normative method successfully completed. Even after a year of natural exposure, our weakest variant remains stable within Fire reaction class B-s1, d0.
Thanks to Forestlines®, the construction sector has a wooden facade system for the first time:
In short: a facade system that finally unites fire safety, ecology and design freedom.
