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.
The cassette panels used on Grenfell Tower burned faster and released around seven times as much heat and three times the rate of smoke as the rivet panels, an inquiry into the disaster heard.