Fire protection materials are materials that can resist fire damage and extend the usable life of a building structure. These materials can resist a high-temperature flame without disintegration. In the U.K., the Joint Code of Practice provides advice on how to prevent fires through the use of such material. Even noncombustible items like steel can be badly affected by extreme temperatures. But, since basic structural elements aren't normally loaded into their full structural design capacity, even bare steel can have enough load-bearing capacity to resist the destructive effects of fire. This makes fire protection all the more important.
There are different fire-resistant materials that you can use to enhance the load-bearing abilities of a steel member. The material's thickness largely depends on its purpose. For instance, sheets of steel that have smaller thicknesses are meant for covering holes that are left after a fire has devastated a building. But these kinds of fire-resistant materials are unsuitable for covering thick walls since they will not allow air to pass through them.
Another class of fire protection materials is those which are intrinsically fire retardant. These materials are usually chemically treated to be fire retardant or fireproof. These materials include coatings, which are commonly applied on steel members. The most common among these coatings are the polyurethane-coated steel sections. Some of these coatings have a significantly higher degree of fire retardancy than others, and it is based entirely upon the manufacturer's particular standards.
In addition to steel and noncombustible coatings, other materials are designed to be fireproof. One example is fireproofing materials that are used in structurally sound buildings (i.e., steel buildings) which are exposed to fire risks. These materials are made to be both highly resistant to fire and intrinsically fire-resistant. In this way, they can help prevent fire damage even if the building is otherwise susceptible to fire damage. Aside from the use of non-combustible materials, steel doors are also fire-resistant. As a result, if a fire were to start in a steel door, the heat would simply dissipate. However, keep in mind that not all doors made from steel are inherently fireproof.