AMCA Certification and Emergency Smoke Extraction Fans (Fans meant to operate in a fire

emergency of for example 250 Degrees/ 2 hours)

AMCA stands for Air Movement Control Association which is a private organization funded by fan
manufacturers (mostly American). It is not an independent certification agency such as ISO or BIS. In
fact, Bureau of Indian Standards does not recognize AMCA as a certification agency.

AMCA Certification for air performance & sound ratings is a certification conducted on prototype
fans by Air Movement Control Association laboratory in either Singapore or Chicago, USA. This
certification is mostly used for mass produced standard (ambient temperature) HVAC fans.

AMCA Certification for air performance & sound ratings is NOT applicable to Emergency Smoke
Extraction Fans. AMCA Certification for air performance & sound ratings is for normal duty fans,
where fans would work under ambient conditions and will never see any fire emergency. When a fan
is certified in the AMCA lab, one of the key parameters that is used as a check of the fan is the tip
gap (the space between the impeller blade edge and the casing). For highest performance and the
lowest noise level possible, this tip gap has to be kept at a minimum (close to zero). The tip gap for
prototype fans tested in the AMCA lab is kept to the lowest possible gap.

CAUTION: DO NOT USE AMCA CERTIFIED FANS FOR SMOKE EXTRACTION

When a fan is exposed to extremely high temperatures, there will be expansion of different parts.
The highest stressed part is the rotating impeller.
This impeller will be subject to expansion and if
enough gap is not provided, the impeller will rub
against the fan casing and would fail. When a fan
is designed for Emergency Smoke Extraction, the
coefficient of thermal expansion need to be
considered. This has to be derived from laboratory
tests and the expansion has to be documented.
The so called AMCA Certified Fans do not take this
factor into account. When a large tip gap is
provided, fan performance is reduced and noise
increases. So, when this gap is introduced into a
standard AMCA Fan, the certification is no longer
relevant. If this tip gap is not considered, the FAN
WILL NOT WORK UNDER EMERGENCY SMOKE
EXTRACTION Conditions!!! This can only be
guaranteed when the fan has been tested as per
the European Norm EN 12101-3 which is
applicable to Emergency Smoke Extraction fans.
The fan manufacturer should document the tip

Figure 1 AMCA Certified Fan failure during heat test due to insufficient tip
gap
 gap for different temperature ranges.
Please ask for this documentation!

AMCA has a Certification standard for

Smoke Management Fans – AMCA 212. The
standard however is temperature ratings
that are not the standard used as per the
EN12101-3 standards:

A: 177 °C (350 °F) / 1 hour

B: 260 °C (500 °F) / 1 hour
C: 260 °C (500 °F) / 4 hours
D: 400 °C (752 °F) / 2 hours
E: 538 °C (1000 °F)/ 15 min.
F: 600 °C (1112 °F)/ 1 hour

Figure 2 Insufficient tip gap causes impeller to strike casing when Until this date, no fan manufacturer has
exposed to high temperatures certified their products under the AMCA
212 standard.