Fire Door Vision Panel Regulations

Glass sizes and core regulations when working with fd60 and 44m doors.

Fire door vision panel regulations.

Inches in door vision panels in 60 90 minute exit enclosure and passageway doors provided that building was fully sprinklered. Glazed vision panels are often used within door leaves to let light into a room for aesthetic reasons or for safety i e. For reasons of security door leaves and side panels wider than 450mm have vision panels towards the leading edge of the door whose vertical dimensions include at least the minimum zone or zones of visibility between 500mm and 1500mm from the floor if necessary interrupted. Vision panels exceeding 100 square inches in 60 and 90 minute doors require fire resistive glazing.

Vision panels are needed where doors on escape routes sub divide corridors or where any doors are hung to swing both ways. Allowing people using the door to be seen vision panels should be towards the leading edge and with vertical dimensions including at least the minimum zones shown either with or without a horizontal rail. Subject to door size. If it is covered then it is no longer a vision panel.

Eg in the door to an inner room so the occupant s can see if there are signs of fire in the outer room. The vision panel may be a single panel or may be interrupted between 800mm and 1150mm to accommodate a horizontal mid rail if necessary. These have implications in safety primarily to avoid opening doors on a person coming the other way but also in case of fire to avoid opening a door onto a fire. Glass sizes and core regulations when working with fd30 and 44m doors.

Unless it can be argued otherwise in the access statement e g. Regulations for maximum vision panel sizing on fire doors. Door leaves and side panels that are in excess of 450mm wide must be provided with viewing panels giving a zone of visibility between 500mm and 1500mm from floor level as illustrated below. Ada section 404 2 11 requires that at least one of the vision panels in a door and sidelites adjacent to a door be no more than 43 inches 1090 mm above the floor line to provide visibility and safe access for all.

A vision panel is a small window in a door which allows people to look through without opening the door. Before the 2012 ibc the code provided for an exception that allowed fire protective glazing such as ceramics and wired glass to exceed 100 sq. Code change clarifies glazing panel size in 60 90 minute exit enclosure exist passageway doors. Vision panels are sometimes in walls generally adjacent to a door.

Note also the provision in approved document m access to and use of buildings concerning vision panels in doors across accessible corridors.