On Sunday, June 25, 2017 at 1:18:19 PM UTC-4, rbowman wrote:
On 06/25/2017 07:39 AM, Ed Pawlowski wrote:
I also find it unconscionable for Alcoa to make a product that is known
to burn and is not approved in much of the wold. Hey, it cheaper and
the Brits will buy it. A bunch of people should end up in jail from this.

Arconic (Alcoa) has two varieties of Reynobond, PE and FR, with FR
standing for 'fire resistant'. For many applications the cheaper PE
would be fine.

Architects and structural engineers are expected to evaluate materials'
suitability for the project at hand. Somewhere along the line somebody
said "Let's go cheap.' I would follow the chain from Omnis Exteriors,
Harley Facades, and Rydon Maintenance to the building owner.

Having been involved in engineering I'm willing to bet that all along
the way there were people saying "This is a bad idea, but the big boss
says 'Do it!'"

I'm not an Arconic shareholder or fan but pointing to them is like a
homeowner installing the cheapest possible vinyl siding and then
bitching when it fades and cracks within 10 years.

The essential difference is that fading doesn't kill people, while
fire does. And that it was well documented for decades that this
type of product was a fire hazard. No further engineering evaluation
is needed to know that this crap should not have been used. We even had
the spectacular UAE skyscraper fire, all over the news, with
videos, just a year ago, which used the same stuff. Even Arconic
had a do not use warning for other parts of Europe, but not
for the UK. It's a very bad case of bad corporate behavior.