By Tom Lowe2021-02-20T07:00:00+00:00
Hearings focused on the degree to which manufacturer had misled customers over the fire performance of its ACM cladding panels
“Deliberate concealment” is how Grenfell Inquiry barrister Richard Millett QC described materials manufacturer Arconic’s marketing of its combustible ACM cladding.
The accusation was a central theme in this week’s evidence at the inquiry, which focused on the degree to which Arconic knowingly misled its customers on the fire safety of its combustible Reynobond PE cassette cladding panels.
The firm sold 3,000sq m of the cassettes to the team working on the refurbishment of the Grenfell Tower – cladding which, along with other materials produced by Kingspan and Celotex, has been found to be the “primary cause” of the disastrous fire in June 2017 which claimed the lives of 72 people.
By Tom Lowe2021-02-19T14:00:00+00:00
Hearings focused on the degree to which manufacturer had misled customers over the fire performance of its ACM cladding panels
“Deliberate concealment” is how Grenfell Inquiry barrister Richard Millett QC described materials manufacturer Arconic’s marketing of its combustible ACM cladding.
The accusation was a central theme in this week’s evidence at the inquiry, which focused on the degree to which Arconic knowingly misled its customers on the fire safety of its combustible Reynobond PE cassette cladding panels.
The firm sold 3,000sq m of the cassettes to the team working on the refurbishment of the Grenfell Tower – cladding which, along with other materials produced by Kingspan and Celotex, has been found to be the “primary cause” of the disastrous fire in June 2017 which claimed the lives of 72 people.
By Tom Lowe2021-02-16T10:41:00+00:00
But UK sales manager says he was never given the instruction
Arconic ordered its French sales team to stop selling the type of combustible cladding installed on Grenfell Tower over a year before the West London fire, the inquiry has heard.
The hearing was shown an internal email on Monday from the firm’s French sales director Alain Flacon instructing French sales teams to stop recommending Reynobond PE, a type of ACM cladding, to customers because of fire concerns.
Reynobond PE, which contained a combustible 100% polyethylene core and had burned ferociously in fire tests, had been downgraded to a lower fire rating in 2014 which prohibited its use on high-rise buildings.
By Tom Lowe2021-02-16T10:51:00+00:00
But UK sales manager says he was never given the instruction
Arconic ordered its French sales team to stop selling the type of combustible cladding installed on Grenfell Tower over a year before the fire, the inquiry has heard.
The hearing was shown an internal email on Monday from the firm’s French sales director Alain Flacon instructing French sales teams to stop recommending Reynobond PE, a type of ACM cladding, to customers because of fire concerns.
Reynobond PE, which contained a combustible 100% polyethylene core and had burned ferociously in fire tests, had been downgraded to a lower fire rating in 2014 which prohibited its use on high-rise buildings.