Metal Plast Industries, a fully-owned subsidiary of the diversified multinational business conglomerate Mulk Holdings International, said it has successfully developed Fire Rated A1 grade aluminium composite panel (ACP) core and a proprietary bonding system exclusively for Alubond A1, which will reduce the spread of fire in high-rise buildings globally.
Alubond is a global ACP brand originally developed by American Building Technologies (ABTI) located in Rockford, Illinois, and in UAE by Eurocon Building Industries, a group company of Mulk Holdings.
A technology breakthrough, this is considered a game-changer in the fire rating standards of exterior facades and makes Alubond A1 the world’s safest and highest fire rated composite panels. This is another feather to the world’s largest ACP manufacturer, said a top official.
"I am pleased to announce that we have started manufacturing Alubond A1 Fire-Retardant ACPs that will reduce and stop fire incident in civil structures and save properties and lives across the world," remarked Adnan Ul Mulk, the founder of Metal Plast Industries and Vice-Chairman of Mulk Holdings International.
"We are proud to be the first manufacturer of A1 core in the Middle East – at our flagship industry at Hamriyah Free Zone. The game-changing product has been developed by our own Research and Development team and will soon be exported to other markets in the world and it shall be our endeavour to make the world safer with Alubond A1," he added.
Metal Plast Industries is the first company in the Middle East and Europe to be manufacturing A1 cores. The company has started offering live demonstration of their A1 core manufacturing capability to global experts and buyers in their expansive facility located in Hamriyah Free Zone in Sharjah, UAE, where the new A1 core was tested to achieve below 1 MJ/Kg heat release – an industry benchmark.
Its research and development team, led by Rajiv Ranjan Jha, worked tirelessly to develop the game-changing Alubond A1 Fire-Retardant Core meeting international and UAE Fire Code standards, stated Ul Mulk.
The team used a combination of hybridisation and nano technology by adding nanomaterials and reinforcement fillers to a matrix of minerals to achieve the desired strength and non-combustible performance of the A1 core, he added.
Some of the currently popular construction materials with an A1 grade used in exterior facades are natural stone and solid metal. A composite panel of 4mm with two layers of aluminium skin bonded to an inner core of minerals to achieve A1 standards has always been a dream of the industry.
Alubond A1 has achieved better standards including lowest heat release over high lamination, such as heat value less than 1.0 MJ/kg and peel strength above 7.0 Newton per square metres. In many ways, Alubond A1 is ahead of the curve among all fire-retardant aluminium products.
Bilal Khan, Professional Engineer at WSP Dallas, Texas, said: "Health and safety of the end user is always a top priority in engineering design. Alubond is leading the market by prioritising health and safety with the release of the A1 ACP panel."
Alubond, he stated, was the world’s largest ACP and MCM Brand with over twenty-five million square meters of manufacturing and processing capacity with manufacturing facilities in Europe, UAE, Turkey, Oman and India. The newest addition – the A1 core – is a further proof of excellence and innovation.
Ranjan Jha said: "After 10 years of successful implementation of FR B1 granules and A2 core, our R&D team developed the world’s highest fire rated A1 core for cladding. We are now in the process of adding more patented technologies such as light weighted fireproof cladding, conductive nano core for cladding and nano ceramic dust free cladding."
Alubond A1 is particularly suitable for areas where very high fire protection or the use of non- combustible façade materials is required – for example on high-rise buildings or high-risk buildings, fire exit staircases and the like.
Alubond A1‘s excellent product and processing properties as well as its wide range of choice of finishes guarantee almost unlimited architectural design possibilities – both in refurbishment and new buildings," he added.-TradeArabia News Service
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