Heinen

The first steel fire door in the world was designed in 1973 by Hans-Dieter Heinen in his father’s art ironwork workshop in Malmedy, Belgium. 

The tragic fire at the Innovation department store in Brussels in the late 1960s, which claimed over two hundred lives, led to a strict tightening of fire safety standards. As an engineer-physicist at the University of Liège, Heinen developed a door that met these new requirements through the innovative use of steel and a intumescent product he invented, which slows heat transfer while cooling the metal. This breakthrough made it possible to create a door capable of withstanding fire for up to four hours.

Today, the Metal+ Inside concept remains the foundation of all security doors (fire-resistant, burglar-resistant, explosion-resistant, or fully soundproof) produced by the Belgian manufacturer.