A fire rated expansion joint filler was an essential requirement in the specification for General Electric’s Gas Turbine Test Stand 8 in Greenville, SC is the manufacturing home of the world’s largest and most efficient gas turbine. It’s an enormous structure capable of housing assembly lines capable of producing the turbines. The construction needed an interior and exterior, UL certified 2-hour fire-rated wall expansion joint system for a long vertical run joining two walls in a corner. The large walls were also constructed in different planes incorporating a horizontal bump out to join the different planes.

For the Emshield family of products, GE selected the Emshield WFR2 system because it provided a UL 2-hour fire-rating, met the expansion joint movement requirements, and the single-unit design offered an installation method which would be quick and wouldn’t damage the existing wall system.

EMSEAL’s Checklist was filled-out onsite and provided the necessary field measurements to determine the best widths for the sticks of WFR2. To accommodate the bump-outs, and maintain the continuity of seal, a group of EMSEAL technical support, and manufacturing personnel gathered to design a custom, 3-D solution. They determined that a slight alteration to the standard WFR2 Universal-90 transition would allow the expansion joint to transverse from one plane to the next. The flexibility of WFR2 allowed this design to be achieved with no damage to the integrity of the system.

The success of this project showed that the unique field conditions didn’t pose an obstacle; they allowed the flexibility of the WFR2 system design to come through and handle engineering modifications needed to complete the wall. The ability to meet design challenges found in many new and retrofit structures is one of the many features found in all EMSEAL products.

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