Fire Safety – Storage Cabinets

Storage cabinets are often incorrectly referred to as safes, but there are actually several different types of storage cabinets including: safes, document cabinets and data media cabinets.

Safes

A safe is a storage cabinet that has been tested against attack and is used for the storage of cash and other valuable items. Its Protection Class determines the maximum insurable value of its contents. A safe can also have a Fire Rating, in which case it is often referred to as “fire safe” or “fire resistant safe”. Both fire safety and burglary protection are tested at SP. 

Document cabinets

The prime purpose of a document cabinet is to protect paper against fire. It does not have any rating in terms of its protection against attack, although it does provide some protection against access.

Filing cabinets

A filing cabinet is simply a document cabinet equipped with drawers. It should not be confused with a document cabinet as described above or a safe.

Data media cabinets

A data media cabinet provides fire protection for computer media such as diskettes and CD ROMs. It provides better protection against heat than other types of cabinets.

Fire safety storage cabinets for inflammable goods and gas cylinders
Fire Safety Storage Cabinets are safety storage cabinets that provide protection of flammable goods and pressurised gas cylinders.

Storage rooms for inflammable goods

These are specially designed storage rooms that are designed as entirely isolated rooms, composed of  fire separating materials in a fire resistance class, in accordance with EN 13501-2, for example EI 30, EI 60 and EI 90. Each separating element is tested separately. Be aware of that storage cabinets cannot be classified with a fire resistance class in accordance with EN 13501-2. This is only possible for storage rooms. 

Testing 

SP can carry out fire testing in accordance with several standards. Here are the most common:

Certification

P-mark

Based on tests in accordance with NT FIRE 017 and SP Method 1716 SP, it is possible to issue P-mark certificates. The P-mark is a widely recognized and cost effective way to demonstrate high quality performance of storage cabinets. A variety of classification times and levels are available depending on the needs of the clients. The cabinets are divided into nine fire resistance classes:

The test data may be applied to other filing cabinets, data cabinets or diskette cabinets of identical construction provided that the external volume is not less than half of and not more than twice the volume of the tested cabinet. 

The following steps have to be concluded to achieve a P-mark certificate:

• Fire test according to NT FIRE 017 or SP Method 1716
• Application of P-mark certificate at SP Certification Department
• Initial inspection of manufacturing premises
• Agreement concerning continuous manufacturing inspection would have to be established and signed between the manufacturer and the inspection body
• Compliance with SP Certification rules 002.

Please visit our list of issued certificates at: www.sp.se/cabinets.  

ESSA certification

SP is a recognized testing laboratory by ESSA.- European Security Systems Association. ECB•S is the brand of ESSA.

Based on tests in accordance with EN 1047-1 and EN 15659 carried out at SP, ESSA is able to issue ECB-S certificates.                 

For more information please visit www.ecb-s.com  

UL listing

SP is a recognized testing laboratory by UL – Underwriters Laboratory. SP can carry out fire tests in accordance with UL 72 and under the witness program of UL i.e. a UL representative will witness any test in accordance with UL 72 which is carried out at SP if the intention is to use the test report for UL listing application.

For more information please visit www.ul.com