Arconic discontinues Reynobond PE, an element of cladding linked to the London blaze, for use in high-rise buildings

The company that manufactures an element of the cladding believed to have contributed to the rapid spread of fire through Grenfell Tower has pulled the material from sale around the world.

Arconic said on Monday that is was discontinuing Reynobond PE, panels that are combined with insulation to form cladding that was revealed as flammable in the wake of the blaze that killed at least 79 people in west London.

The firm said it had stopped global sales of the material for tall buildings over concerns about the “inconsistency of building codes across the world”. Reynobond PE, one of several options offered by the company and not the most fire-retardant, has been banned for use on towers in countries including Germany and the US, but not the UK.

The manufacturer said in a statement: “Arconic is discontinuing global sales of Reynobond PE for use in high-rise applications. We believe this is the right decision because of the inconsistency of building codes across the world and issues that have arisen in the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy regarding code compliance of cladding systems in the context of buildings’ overall designs. We will continue to fully support the authorities as they investigate this tragedy.”

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The company emailed clients on Monday to tell them it would no longer sell Reynobond PE to buyers planning to use it on tower blocks. It said this would apply globally due to the difficulty of being sure that its material would be used in a way compliant with building regulations in multiple countries.

Arconic’s factory in Merxheim, France, manufactures several types of Reynobond, an aluminium composite material, for the European market. The panels are just one part of the cladding that was used in the £11m refurbishment of Grenfell Tower. Arconic sold its aluminium panels to Worcester-based Omnis Exteriors, which acted as the “fabricator”, cutting the panels into shape and supplying them to the contractors working on Grenfell.

Cladding contractor Harley Facades then installed the panels, which were combined with Celotex RS5000 insulation to form the overall cladding.Harley won the contract to do so from Rydon Maintenance, the lead contractor overseeing the refurbishment of the block on behalf of the Kensington and Chelsea Tenant Management Organisation.

As part of the response to the fire, tests are being carried out on materials used on hundreds of social housing buildings amid fears that their cladding could contain material similar to that used on Grenfell Tower.

The Department for Communities and Local Government has put in place a “combustibility testing programme” for aluminium composite material. In early testing, 60 samples from buildings in 25 areas were classed as combustible, with about 540 still to be tested.

The panels feature two sheets of aluminium on either side of a core. In some cases, that material is not the fire-retardant type. Reynobond PE features a polyethylene core that is less fire-resistant than Reynobond FR, initials that stand for “fire resistant”.

The government has not said whether the samples that have failed the combustibility test all feature Reynobond, or include other types of panel. The panels can be combined with different types of insulation that could affect the fire resistance of the overall cladding.

The decision to stop selling Reynobond PE for use in skyscraper cladding comes after it emerged that the company knew that the less fire-resistant version, Reynobond PE, would be used on Grenfell Tower, despite its own guidelines warning that it was unsuitable for buildings above 10m tall. Emails obtained by Reuters showed Arconic was involved in discussions about the use of cladding on the building during 2014.

One of its own brochures states that Reynobond PE should only be used in buildings up to 10m, with more fire-resistant products recommended above that height. Grenfell Tower is more than 60m tall.

In a separate statement about the leaked emails, Arconic said: “We sold Reynobond PE to our customer, the fabricator, in 2015 for use as one component of the overall cladding system. We did not supply other parts of this cladding system, including the insulation.

“While we publish general usage guidelines, regulations and codes vary by country and need to be determined by the local building code experts.”

In a statement on its website, Omnis Exteriors said panels such as Reynobond PE should only be used with “a non-combustible insulation material such as mineral fibre” if they are to be installed on high-rise buildings.

• This article was amended on the 27 June 2017. The original article said Omnis Exteriors combined aluminium panels with insulation to form the cladding used on Grenfell Tower. In fact, Omnis Exteriors cut the panels into shape and supplied them to Harley Facades, which combined them with insulation supplied by Celotex.