SureFire

Research and Development of Next Generation Fire Resistant Materials

The objective of the project was to develop a brand new class of materials that exhibited properties such as strength, stiffness, hardness and fire performance to compete with conventional materials such as steel and concrete.

To achieve this, nano particles and fibre reinforcement were integrated in a polymer matrix to give unique properties in comparison with the standard virgin polymer system.

These new materials have the potential to open up a massive range of applications in areas such as building, construction, offshore and mass transit where fire performance and light weight have always been critical issues. This specifically meets the business drivers of sustainability, legislation and product competitiveness and the industrial driver of Future Product Platforms, through increased performance and the ability to meet legislative requirements.

Each of the constituent parts of the nano composite was investigated and tailored to give optimum properties within the system.

• Polymer systems: The project concentrated on thermosetting based polymer systems, primarily polyester, giving a good balance between low cost and baseline properties (especially in fire) and hence the broadest possible exploitation route. Both the matrix system and the coating will be based on polyester systems
• Nano-reinforcement: The most common nano-reinforcement is montmorillonite, the material which was concentrated on the most. Much of the project was in this area, especially in chemical modification of the particle surfaces to ensure good exfoliation and compatibility with thermosetting polyester resin systems.
• Fibre-reinforcement: To keep the applications as broad as possible, we concentrated on low cost fibre-reinforcement systems, primarily glass and steel. Chemical and physical interactions between the fibres and the nanofillers were addressed to ensure that conflicts were avoided.

This new type of material offers more freedom in the design and specification of materials and structures, as there will no longer be a need to choose between conflicting performance requirements such as fire and light weight.

• Low weight structural parts with high fire & temperature performance, solvent resistance and corrosion performance
• Coating systems with scratch resistance and fire performance

WWW Link: http:// www.sure-fire.org.uk