2.3.3 Urethane & Polyisocyanurate Combustibility ‘The self-ignition temperature, the temperature at which the material will spontaneously smoke or flame, is between 800 F to 850 F. Below that temperature range the foam will char or burn rather than melt like EPS and XEPS (Andrews 1992, p. 36). Urethane and polyisocyanurate do not contain any formaldehyde-related chemicals. However in a fire, carbon monoxide and trace amounts of hydrogen cyanide are released, both very deadly gases. (Andrews 1992b). 2.4 FACING MATERIALS ‘Two general categories of facing materials are used for foam panels: sheet metal and panelized wood. Sheet metal facings vary in gage thickness and are primarily used in cold storage and some commercial building applications. Panelized wood facings are predominant in residential and light commercial construction. Common wood facings include plywood, waferboard, and OSB. OSB is prevalent because it is available in large continuous sheets, up to 8 feet wide by 28 feet long (Andrews 1992a, p. 39). OSB, developed in the early 1980s, is an advancement of waferboard. It is an engineered product made exclusively by processing small-diameter, fast-growing trees into strands. It is a mat-formed panel product where the wood strands are layered and pressed together. The surface layer strands are aligned lengthwise and the inner layers are random or cross aligned giving it greater dimensional stability than waferboard, whose strands are entirely random. The strands and layers are bonded together under heat and pressure with a waterproof resin (Structural Board Association 1992). The resins, in combination with the oriented strands, give OSB dimensional stability and moisture resistance. OSB and waferboard permeability, the rate at which moisture passes through a material, compares favorably with plywood. The thermal resistance of OSB is R-1.32 per inch and is similar to other wood-based products such as plywood (Structural Board Association 1992). Louisiana-Pacific has recently developed a structural gypsum wallboard called FiberBond, which could replace the interior foam panel facing and gypsum wallboard, reducing material and manufacturing costs. FiberBond panels consist of gypsum, perlite, and cellulose fiber made from recycled newspaper. It is two to three times more rigid than conventional gypsum wallboard. FiberBond panels can provide the 28