| |
 |
| |
| |
European Coatings Conference
Extra ++ fully booked ++
Pre-Conference Tutorial
25 October 2007
Berlin, Germany
Main conference
"Fire Retardant
Coatings II"
25/26 October 2007
Berlin, Germany
|
|
| |
 Welcome
At a Glance
Tutorial
Abstracts
|
| |
|
|
| Events > Fire Retardant Coatings II > Abstracts |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
| |
Abstracts
| THURSDAY, October 25th 2007 |
| |
Session I: Status Quo and Perspectives
|
Benefit of flame retardants in high risk items on the fire safety in homes
Dr.-Ing. Anja Hofmann, BAM - Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing, Germany |
|
The Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) has approximately 1600 employees in eight scientific departments that address nearly all aspects of technical safety, including chemical analytics, fire and explosion hazards, structural safety and non-destructive testing. In January 2006, BAM established a Fire Engineering Section, which was formed by merging several working groups. The 18-employee division comprises four working groups in the areas of reaction of structures to fire, fire modeling and analytics, large-scale industrial fires and fire resistance tests. German and European standards are covered. Besides testing and consulting, a broad range of research activities are performed in the new division, with key issues including the modeling of fire scenarios, special testing methods for research and industrial safety. The research activities are focused on applications and it is goal of BAM to implement the results of research to new regulations and standards. One important part of the work in BAM is consultancy and information for industry, the German government, and also individuals.
A recent project within the working group Fire scenarios and chemical analysis of fire products investigates experimentally and numerically the fire safety in homes: Fire losses in Europe are still high, e.g. in Germany more than 500 deaths per year. About
80 % of them occur in homes. Several studies and experience of the fire service lead to the assumption that fires today are developing faster than 30 years ago. The highly increased usage of plastics in all sectors and their high flammability are probably the reason for this decrease in time to flashover from about 17 minutes in the 1970s to around 4 minutes nowadays. In home fires, high risk items like upholstery, mattresses and electrical devices are often involved in an early stage of the fire. In children's rooms, there are often several kilograms of plastic toys in addition. These items are easy to ignite with a small ignition source and produce large amounts of heat and smoke, because there are no mandatory demanding fire safety standards for these items in many European countries.
Recent British and German statistics of home fires revealed that living and bedroom fires are the most relevant fire scenarios because they primarily lead to fatalities ([1], [2], [3], [4], [5]). Children's rooms count as bed rooms in the statistics. Especially in children's rooms, an accumulation of high risk items and plastic toys can often be found.
In this study, the fire development in home fires was investigated numerically with CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) techniques and experimentally in a large scale test in a children's' room. The test was performed with the Berlin fire service and a television network (RTL), figures 1 and 2. The test shows the rapid fire development: after only 1 second contact with a tea candle, the commercial German polyurethane mattress started to burn. After 4 minutes flashover was reached in the room and after 5 minutes the fire service started to extinguish the fire to save the test room. The test room was equipped with 37 thermocouples and one pressure measurement system. Data of the test has been used to validate the numerical models. The influence of a British mattress - which fulfils fire safety standards - on the fire development in the test and its benefit for fire safety were investigated numerically.
|
| |
Aged intumescent coatings
Dr. Renate Jentzsch, Institut für Lacke und Farben e.V., Germany |
Since the seventies many steel buildings have been coated with intumescent coatings. One important example is the old Federal Chancellery in Bonn. In the nineties this chancellery was renovated. In this context, a question arose whether the intumescent effect is still present or not.
Which ageing properties do intumescent coatings have in reality and which potentials are available to evaluate them? The referents have investigated a variety of aged intumescent coatings. The ageing was induced by artificial and natural weathering. The techniques of evaluation and an additional intumescent coating to re-establish the intumescent function are described.
|
| |
Flame retardants and the environment - from life cycle analyses and risk
assessments to REACH
Dr. Adrian Beard, Clariant Produkte (Deutschland) GmbH, Germany |
On the one hand, flame retardants save many lives and property because they prevent accidental fires. On the other hand, there are concerns related to chemical release into the environment and potential health effects. Brominated flame retardants have been in the focus of this scrutiny, with environmental organisations bringing these to wide-spread public attention.
Over the past decade, 12 flame retardants are undergoing or have undergone a risk assessment according to the European Regulation 793/93/EC. This evaluation assesses the risk a substance may pose to human health or the environment, taking into account the (eco)toxicological profile and the exposure to the substance.
In addition, the new European chemical regulation REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals) was adopted in December 2006 and entered into force in June 2007. REACH will change the whole chemical industry in Europe, because it requires all chemicals new and old to be registered, and is based on the principle of no data, no market. In future, flame retardants will be evaluated over their whole life cycle like e.g. processing by extrusion, use phase, accidental fires, incineration and end-of-life disposal.
|
| |
New perspectives in fire retardant coatings
Prof. Giovanni Camino, Politecnico di Torino, Italy |
The most established, widely used fire retardants have provided the necessary low fire risk that allowed in the last fifty years the safe development and application of polymer materials and hence of all our technologies in advanced areas as well as in everyday life. However, the "traditional" fire retardants generally show unsatisfactory performances in terms of environmental impact and fire hazard. Thus the past fire retardancy strategy mostly aiming at quenching the flame in the gas phase, will have to be abandoned in favour of condensed phase mechanisms aiming at reducing the supply of combustible gases to the flame, below the self sustaining combustion level.
A most suitable technology presently pursued to this purpose, involves thermally induced surface development of a protective thermally stable surface layer, acting as barrier to heat and mass transfer thus protecting the underlying material from the action of flames. Properly formulated coatings can provide the most suitable treatment to develop this material fire protection approach.
In particular, a breakthrough in the search for new fire retardance approaches is likely to come from the new generation of polymer materials based on dispersion of nanosize inorganic fillers in the organic matrix in which for the first time improvement of fire retardance is combined with improvement of physical and mechanical properties. Nanocomposite coatings have shown to combine improved coating properties with fire retardancy.
|
| >>Top |
| |
| FRIDAY, October 26th 2007 |
| |
Session II: Intumescent systems and Halogen-free fire retardants
|
New developments in intumescent fire-protection-combinations for
thermoplastics
Dr. Thomas Futterer, Chemische Fabrik Budenheim KG, Germany |
| |
Nanocomposite PUD's - a new concept for waterbased fire protection varnishes
Markus Dimmers, Alberdingk Boley GmbH, Germany |
| |
Mechanism of fire protection in intumescent coatings
Dr. Sophie Duquesne, Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Chimie de Lille, France |
Intumescent coatings represent an important class of passive fire proofing materials, which concern insulating systems designed to decrease heat transfer from a fire to a substrate being protected. They appear similar to a traditional finishing coating, and remain stable at ambient temperature. However, in case of a fire, coatings expand to many times their original thickness resulting in the formation of an insulating foam-like layer or 'char' which protects the substrate.
The intumescence process results from a complex succession of chemical reactions that have to occur in an adequate sequence. As heat is applied, the polymeric binder begins to soften. The heat also leads to a release of an inorganic acid (for example phosphoric acid coming from ammonium polyphosphate). The acid reacts with a carbon source (such as for example polyol) leading to a carbonisation of the system. Gases coming from the decomposition of the blowing agent or of the system enable the carbonaceous material to expand.
At a final stage, solidification of the foamed char, through cross-linking reactions occurs. The chemistry involved in the development of the intumescent process is a major concern when dealing about those systems. However, it is not sufficient to understand how they proceed; the physical aspects of the intumescent systems are also an important task of investigation.
The talk will investigate the fire protection of structure using several classes of intumescent coatings for the fire protection of several substrates (textile, steel…). We will first focus on the investigation on the chemical interactions that occurs in the intumescent systems. The mechanism of expansion resulting from the low diffusion of gaseous degradation products through the carbonaceous material and/or from bubbles growth will be then examined. Finally, we will identify and describe the main factors that affect the development of the intumescence process.
|
| |
Novel halogen-free flame retarded thermosetting matrices - properties and
applications
Paul Perez, University of Bayreuth, Germany |
A systematic and comparative evaluation of the processability and resulting structure-property-relationships of an epoxy-based resin modified with halogen-free compounds is presented. Various concentrations of reactive and non-reactive 9,10-dihydro-9-oxa-10-phosphaphenanthrene-10-oxide (DOPO)-based compounds were used to modify an amine-cured difunctional bisphenol-A epoxy resin. Alternatively, various novel phosphorus-containing aminic hardeners (with different oxidation state of the phosphorus in the hardener molecule) were used to cure the bisphenol-A epoxy resin. The influence of such compounds on the viscosity, curing kinetics and solid-state properties of the resulting materials is discussed with particular attention paid to the thermal stability and flame retardancy.
This work was aimed at improving the flame retardancy of the epoxy matrix using halogen-free compounds, without causing deleterious effects on its processability and overall properties.
The results presented in this study clearly highlight the potential of optimising the flame retardancy and the resulting physical and mechanical properties of epoxy systems for modern applications by tailoring the chemical structure of the organo-phosphorous compounds.
|
| |
Properties of organic phosphorus compounds and their effects on flame
retardance and processing of coatings
Otto Mauerer, LANXESS Deutschland GmbH, Germany |
Organic phosphorus compounds already play an important role in flame retardance of plastic materials. Since there are an increasing number of new and more severe fire tests and regulations, there is also an interest in flame retardance in specialty polymer applications like sealants, adhesives and coatings.
The use of organic phosphorus compounds as additives in coatings requires not only a good effect, but also a variety of additional application-specific properties. The additives should for example be compatible, halogen-free, non-toxic and not inflammable. The coatings should for example remain transparent, meet the VOC Solvents Directive and not be subject to unfavourable labelling regulations. The presentation shows that organic phosphorus compounds can help to meet many of these requirements and presents some examples of applications of selected compounds in coatings and their performance with regard to fire testing and processing.
|
| |
Phosphorus rich polymers and mixed intumescent polymeric salts
David Aslin, Prometheus Developments Ltd, Great Britain |
|
The paper will discuss Phosphorus Rich Polymers (PRP) and the derivative technology, Mixed Intumescent Polymeric Salts (MIPS). These provide a system of fire protection and enhancing the reaction to fire behaviour of flammable substrates and materials. The products involve a novel chemistry that integrates the functional components of conventional intumescents at the molecular scale to produce non-flammable and intumescent polymeric materials that activate at low temperatures and produce negligible smoke. PRP liquid oligomeric materials are used to produce fire protective paints, varnishes, elastomers, foams and composites. MIPS is a powder, which is used as a halogen free flame retardant additive for a wide range of polymers. The progress of the commercialisation and IPR protection of the system will be discussed.
|
| |
Supracolloidal structures through self-assembly and polymerization
Stefan A. F. Bon, University of Warwick, Great Britain |
|
We would like to discuss in depth our new and unpublished results on Pickering stabilized miniemulsion and suspension polymerization. We will report the synthesis of polymer latexes (styrene, (meth)acrylates and vinyl esters) using Laponite clay and colloidal silica as the exclusive stabilizers. We have developed a model which allows us to correlate particle size distributions with the amount of Pickering stabilizer used. Moreover, we will show that we can correlate the thermal behaviour of the resulting nano-composites with the particle size of the armoured structures. With respect to liquid-liquid interface driven assembly on micronsized droplets we will show that Pickering systems are a tool to the design of non-spherical and high-aspect ratio microspheres. Moreover, we will demonstrate a new set-up to produce Janus particles using Pickering stabilization as a tool. Finally, we will report on the concept of using self-assembly of supracolloidal structures, as a versatile strategy to prepare cellular polymer materials. These materials are light-weight as they show a very high porosity, typically > 80%, resembling cellular natural objects such as sponges, bone, and wood. We will show that we can control the properties of our cellular supracolloidal materials by variation of the building blocks from which the individual supracolloidal units have been build, and by use of different scaffolding techniques, such as radical polymerization of the continuous phase. It is our belief that our approach widens the window of the design of cellular materials and has scope to deliver exciting innovations in areas such as chromatography, cell storage, catalysis and sensors/detectors.
|
| >>Top |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
empty
Back to Events
