Kingspan had no role in the Grenfell Tower refurbishment or the design of the cladding.
Our K15 insulation product was used without our knowledge. It comprised approximately 5% of the insulation purchased for use by the contractors. The Phase 1 Report of the Grenfell Inquiry stated that “the principal reason” for rapid fire spread on Grenfell was the unsafe ACM cladding panels, which had been used as an external rainscreen on the Tower. The ACM panels were not a Kingspan product.
Insulation is just one part of a complex cladding system comprising a range of elements of which insulation is one.
Figure 1: Example cladding system comprising FR ACM, K15 and masonry block substrate
The insulation is typically positioned between an external rain screen (that acts like an ‘outer skin’ of the building), and the building itself.
The Phase 1 Report of the Grenfell Inquiry has stated that “the principal reason” for rapid fire spread on Grenfell was the polyethylene (PE) cored ACM cladding panels (the ‘outer skin’) which had been used as an external rain screen on the Tower. This PE ACM was not a Kingspan product. Additionally, Phase 2 evidence by the Inquiry’s own experts - Professors Bisby and Torero – is that the type of insulation used behind the “uniquely hazardous” PE ACM made no material difference to the nature and speed of the spread of the fire. Indeed, the expert evidence is that even had non-combustible insulation been used, it would have made no material difference to the speed or spread of the fire.
This evidence is further underpinned by post-Grenfell fire tests undertaken by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities in 2017 which demonstrated that PE ACM cladding systems failed large scale BS 8414 testing with both non-combustible mineral fibre and combustible PIR insulation.
Both systems failed rapidly within 8 minutes; indeed, the system incorporating non-combustible mineral fibre failed marginally more quickly than the system incorporating combustible PIR insulation.
So hazardous was the PE ACM used on Grenfell Tower that, to our knowledge, no facade system using this rainscreen cladding has ever passed a BS 8414 large-scale system test, regardless of the insulation used (whether combustible or non-combustible).