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Keep up to dateBy Jim Dunton and Tom Lowe2020-12-04T10:24:00
Further details emerge of insulation giant’s efforts to convince construction industry Kooltherm K15 was safe for high-rise use
Leading insulation manufacturer Kingspan spent a second week in the spotlight at the public inquiry probing the background to the Grenfell Tower fire, which claimed 72 lives in 2017.
Current and former staff at the firm gave more evidence about the efforts they went to in order to convince the construction industry their Kooltherm K15 phenolic insulation was safe to use on buildings above 18m – despite a lack of genuine test data to evidence those claims.
Last week the inquiry heard that Kingspan relied on 2005 fire-test data for a different version of K15 to support its marketing. This week it emerged that later fire-test results were secured using a “trial” version of the product that was also different to the version actually being sold to the construction industry.
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