A fire rated safe that has been through a fire cannot be reused because the gypsum no longer provides fire protection. If the fire rated safe has a good inner door seal, the exiting steam created a positive pressure inside the safe walls, preventing smoke from entering the safe body.Ī fire rated safe with plain drywall that has been through a fire is finished. At this point, the value of the gypsum as a fire protector is over.īut that steam generated during the fire is also useful. Heat it above 250° Celsius and a further chemical reaction takes place, removing the rest of the water:Īfter the gypsum has all been converted by the heat, the end result is that the gypsum has been converted to a dry plaster of paris and steam. This results in a chemical called calcium sulfate di-hydrate (CASO4 ½H2O). This reaction takes a lot of energy (heat) to occur, and every bit of energy going into calcinating the gypsum is heat that is NOT making it to the contents within your fire rated safe. It’s this reaction makes fire safes work to protect your valuables. And it takes lots of lots of heat to get it done. It’s a chemical reaction happening, which changes the structure of the molecules themselves. This is a chemical reaction where the bonds that hold the water, chemically attached in the gypsum, start releasing their bonds that hold them together. This isn’t like evaporation like you see in your swimming pool. This heat is then transferred to the next layer in your safe, which is likely the gypsum board or slurry that was poured between the interior and exterior walls of the fire safe (which will of course has cured by the time it’s in your home.)Ī Chemical Reaction Protects Your Safe’s ContentsĪt above 80° C (180° F) Gypsum starts a process called ‘gypsum dehydration’ or ‘calcination’. What happens in a fire is the exterior walls of the safe begin to heat up.
In a Fire Your Fireproof Safe Starts Heating Up Gypsum Insulation in an AMSEC Fire Rated Safe How Does Gypsum Work to Make Fire Rated Safes? Type C is like Type X, but with more glass fibers and a form of vermiculite added, increasing resistance even further, up to 2 times as long as standard Type X. Type X drywall has additives to increase fire resistance. In the manufacturing of gypsum into drywall, additives are added in precise quantities to achieve desired fire ratings. It’s the water molecules in gypsum that make it become a fire-resistant material used in fireproof safes. It became very popular after WWII when the building boom was happening in the US, because it was less expensive than traditional lath and plaster. Gypsum can also be produced and refined in other industrial processes. The water is combined in a chemical reaction to the other minerals, and the resulting product contains H2O of about 20% by volume and 50% by weight.
It’s made up of calcium, sulfur, oxygen, and water. Gypsum is a naturally occurring mineral, the chemical name for gypsum is Hydrous Calcium Sulfate (CaSO4-2H20). What is Gypsum? What material is used to make fireproof safes?
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Shop Our Fire Rated Safes – Free Curbside Delivery Low-end safes use simple drywall as their main insulation, and higher-end fire rated safes use a more fire-resistant drywall or a poured slurry containing gypsum (and other ingredients).įor simplicity, I’ll focus on gypsum board, but the same concept applies elsewhere. These may vary in their level of protection. Some fireproof safes use a poured-in insulation material that will act similar to gypsum, though various proprietary blends. The most common is gypsum board (also known as drywall, fire board, sometimes called Sheetrock (a trademark branded name owned by USG Corp). There are several materials that can be used to make fireproof safes and act as insulation. The answer to these questions is science, and it’s freaking cool science.