Final Report Summary - STEELPROST (Innovative Fire Protective Coatings for Steel Structures)
At the end of the project, the STEELPROST consortium considers that has successfully meet the initially planned goals. The three research and technology development (RTD) companies have coordinated efforts in order to develop a novel chemistry for high fire resistance performance. This novel chemistry has been enhanced also by other fire and mechanical resistance enhancing mechanisms meeting stringent steel constructors requirements.
Generated foreground includes enhanced intumescent water borne coating with high fire resistance performance, lower intumescent temperature, high mechanical and chemical performance and low smoke and toxic gasses emissions. Advanced drying mechanisms have been evaluated so that thick layers and thin layers of applied protection in order to decrease delays and coating application costs.
Lab scale formulations have been successfully replicated at industrial scale by ALCEA and manufactured stable intumescent dispersions have been tested and validated by Talleres Ruiz and Bersch und Fratscher.
Generated foreground has been evaluated according to the EuroCodes and Fire Engineering Design. An important effort has been made by the three associations ECCS, SGG and AIN and the end users Talleres Ruiz and Razpon in order to integrate the new technology combination with advanced engineering criteria to reduce costs and optimise performance.
In order to reach the market, it is necessary to allocate important resources. STEELPROST consortium has defined an investment plan to cover necessary certification and marking to commercialise developed foreground. This plan has been implemented through a demo application currently being evaluated by the European Commission (EC).
Generated foreground has been worldwide protected by a PCT shared by ECCS, AIN and SGG.
Project context and objectives:
Structural steel has seen its market share significantly reduced due to the low fire resistance of structural steel elements. The current state of art does not offer efficient solutions to overcome the stringent legislations requirement in affordable costs.
Current intumescent coatings show low fire, mechanical and chemical resistance and its application involves several layers with long drying times.
The poor water resistance and the long drying times of current state of art makes difficult the use of these coatings, mostly applied on site, as exposure to rain can reduce the efficiency of the final protective coating. So, the coatings are not weather resistant and are not suitable for exterior use and can be damaged during construction.
Long drying times and poor mechanical properties hinder the industrial application off site. The final coatings is not hard enough to endure transport to construction area and the poor film forming properties of current intumescent coatings are not compatible with off-site assisted drying techniques.
Moreover, the lack of mechanical and fire resistance in a single layer and the long drying times delays construction; removing one of the main steel advantages versus concrete.
In summary, protecting steel against fire is expensive, delay construction times and offers low reliability and robustness. Because of the abovementioned drawbacks steel is not competitive enough and its use for structural uses has significantly decreased, damaging an industry predominantly made up by small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
The object of the project it is to provide structural steel market an efficient tool to overcome the share market lost in the last ten year due to the coming into force of stringent fire resistance legislations. To do so, a robust and reliable fire resistance system to protect steel against heat effects:
- cost efficient fire resistance;
- easy and quick to apply;
- increased mechanical and chemical resistance;
- environmental values.
The main scientific objectives of the project have been enhancing the understanding of steel fire protection and its synergies and interaction with application and chemical and mechanical properties. This new knowledge have been applied to develop a cost efficient new intumescent coatings second generation with enhanced mechanical, fire resistance and application features, in order to meet the current structural steel market fire resistance needs.
The main technological objective has been to developing new fire resistant non toxic coatings based on a new intumescent insulating system which rheology and composition improves application issues and performance.
Project results:
- Fire resistance performance under industrial integration up to 2.4 times better than state ofaArt intumescent coatings.
- Mechanical resistance enhancement compatible with 2.4 times fire resistance performance; 30 hardness up to 70 % abrasion resistance and 100 % impact resistance.
- Drying times under 120 minutes for thick single 1250 microns wet layers.
- Drying times under 2 minutes for thin 500 wet microns layers due to the application of NIR lamps.
- Drying times 30 min for a multilayers automatic approach.
- Drying times under 5 h for thick intumescent single 1250 wet microns layers.
- High solids water borne formulation under 50 g/l V.O.C*
- Up to 75 % gasses emission due to the combination of nanocoated ATH combined with low expansion temperature EG.
- Stable industrial dispersion validated at industrial scale.
- Validation of manufactured formulations by Bersch and Talleres Ruiz.
- Integration into EuroCodes and fire resistance calculations.
- 5 % cost increase of developed formulations, under set 25 %.
- Project results disseminated to main European steel constructors community including a training session in ECCS annual meeting.
- Over 60 % cost reduction due to combination of advanced fire design criteria and developed foreground.
- FR 120 for 300 m-1 section factor values for natural and localised fires (according to EN 13881-8 criteria).
- FR 120 under ISO 834 conditions for 60 m-1 section factor profiles (according to EN 13881-8 criteria).
- Definition of a complete top-coat / intumescent coating / primer water borne system.
- PCT application.
- Definition of a funding plan for the launch to market of developed foreground.
Potential impact:
Three main large communities of SMEs will be the main beneficiaries of the results of this project. The main target sub-sector is the manufacturers of steel structures for construction sector (end users of the technology). This sub-sector comprises 4500 SMEs and employs 250 000 workers, producing an annual turnover of EUR 50 million. Despite the recent construction crunch, this sector is still of vital importance to the European cconomy. In fact, the industrial construction that concerns to this project has not felt any direct side effect of the crisis mainly affecting to residential and commercial buildings. With an annual turnover of almost EUR 1000 billion, a total direct workforce of more than 11 million, and another 15 million employed indirectly, it contributes to about 10 % of the European gross domestic product (GDP). Approximately a 7 % of the construction sector corresponds to steel structural components, of which 50 % are subject to fire-resistance regulation, such as beams and columns, steel decking, steel framing, roof truss, laminate timber products, stairs and railing, retaining walls, poles and piling, fasteners, brazing systems. Typical application of these components includes mezzanine structures, industrial plants, warehouses, car parks, etc. Therefore, the market of steel structure manufacturers to be faced in this project is worth EUR 25 billion. And the market for the fire retardant coatings that must be applied to them is EUR 370 million. Hence, the second collective of SMEs beneficiaries of this project will be the fire retardant paint manufacturers. This small group of about 10 SMEs gathers employs than 1000 workers in this support group to the construction sector. The high cost of the current paints and their relatively difficult application regime affects the competitive position of both the manufacturers of steel structures and the manufacturers of the intumescent, fire retardant paint for the structures.
Estimations provided by various SMEs within the structural steel sector, indicate a concerning market reduction in the use of steel in construction as a consequence of the high costs associated to coating steel structures against fire; this fact is reducing the steel in construction share which is been replaced by traditional concrete. In particular, it is estimated that the proportion of use of steel vs. concrete in the industrial warehouse construction over the last 10 years has decreased from 50 % versus 50 % to 20% versus 80 %, which is translated as a 30 % reduction in the use of steel in those application were fire-protection with intumescent coatings is required.
Fire protection legislation applies in other world regions with similar legislative frames, and even with more strict guidelines in the case of Japan and United States (US). This, combined with the fact that paint manufacturers in those regions tend to be much larger, with much greater research and development (R&D) resources, means that there is a thread for an imminent development of a second generation of intumestent, fire retardant paints outside Europe, which will potentially generate a significant change in the imports / exports proportions. Clearly, both the manufacturers of steel structures and the manufacturers of paints need to come together to create sufficient critical mass of resource to create a European paint product to share amongst the SMEs in the sector that is significantly cheaper than current paints to apply by being easier to paint and covering a larger area faster, without the need for several coats. With this shared resource, it is believed that the market for steel structures will recover back, closer to its 1996 level and that the European paint manufacturers will be able to recover 10 % of the market share previously lost to imports.
Project exploitation will be integrated into the EuroCodes and applying legislation so that steel constructors will be able to provide fire resistance values at cost efficient validated values for steel structures what will allow steel constructors market to recover former market share and also penetrate international markets.
Main dissemination activities took place at:
- NanoFormulation 2012, Barcelona, May 2012
- ECCS Annual Meeting 2012, Lisbon, September 2012
- Automekanica 2012, Frankfurt, September 2012
- New approaches to High Temperature Coatings Conference, October 2012, Lanzarote
Project website: http://www.steelconstruct.com/steelprost/index.html
Generated foreground includes enhanced intumescent water borne coating with high fire resistance performance, lower intumescent temperature, high mechanical and chemical performance and low smoke and toxic gasses emissions. Advanced drying mechanisms have been evaluated so that thick layers and thin layers of applied protection in order to decrease delays and coating application costs.
Lab scale formulations have been successfully replicated at industrial scale by ALCEA and manufactured stable intumescent dispersions have been tested and validated by Talleres Ruiz and Bersch und Fratscher.
Generated foreground has been evaluated according to the EuroCodes and Fire Engineering Design. An important effort has been made by the three associations ECCS, SGG and AIN and the end users Talleres Ruiz and Razpon in order to integrate the new technology combination with advanced engineering criteria to reduce costs and optimise performance.
In order to reach the market, it is necessary to allocate important resources. STEELPROST consortium has defined an investment plan to cover necessary certification and marking to commercialise developed foreground. This plan has been implemented through a demo application currently being evaluated by the European Commission (EC).
Generated foreground has been worldwide protected by a PCT shared by ECCS, AIN and SGG.
Project context and objectives:
Structural steel has seen its market share significantly reduced due to the low fire resistance of structural steel elements. The current state of art does not offer efficient solutions to overcome the stringent legislations requirement in affordable costs.
Current intumescent coatings show low fire, mechanical and chemical resistance and its application involves several layers with long drying times.
The poor water resistance and the long drying times of current state of art makes difficult the use of these coatings, mostly applied on site, as exposure to rain can reduce the efficiency of the final protective coating. So, the coatings are not weather resistant and are not suitable for exterior use and can be damaged during construction.
Long drying times and poor mechanical properties hinder the industrial application off site. The final coatings is not hard enough to endure transport to construction area and the poor film forming properties of current intumescent coatings are not compatible with off-site assisted drying techniques.
Moreover, the lack of mechanical and fire resistance in a single layer and the long drying times delays construction; removing one of the main steel advantages versus concrete.
In summary, protecting steel against fire is expensive, delay construction times and offers low reliability and robustness. Because of the abovementioned drawbacks steel is not competitive enough and its use for structural uses has significantly decreased, damaging an industry predominantly made up by small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).
The object of the project it is to provide structural steel market an efficient tool to overcome the share market lost in the last ten year due to the coming into force of stringent fire resistance legislations. To do so, a robust and reliable fire resistance system to protect steel against heat effects:
- cost efficient fire resistance;
- easy and quick to apply;
- increased mechanical and chemical resistance;
- environmental values.
The main scientific objectives of the project have been enhancing the understanding of steel fire protection and its synergies and interaction with application and chemical and mechanical properties. This new knowledge have been applied to develop a cost efficient new intumescent coatings second generation with enhanced mechanical, fire resistance and application features, in order to meet the current structural steel market fire resistance needs.
The main technological objective has been to developing new fire resistant non toxic coatings based on a new intumescent insulating system which rheology and composition improves application issues and performance.
Project results:
- Fire resistance performance under industrial integration up to 2.4 times better than state ofaArt intumescent coatings.
- Mechanical resistance enhancement compatible with 2.4 times fire resistance performance; 30 hardness up to 70 % abrasion resistance and 100 % impact resistance.
- Drying times under 120 minutes for thick single 1250 microns wet layers.
- Drying times under 2 minutes for thin 500 wet microns layers due to the application of NIR lamps.
- Drying times 30 min for a multilayers automatic approach.
- Drying times under 5 h for thick intumescent single 1250 wet microns layers.
- High solids water borne formulation under 50 g/l V.O.C*
- Up to 75 % gasses emission due to the combination of nanocoated ATH combined with low expansion temperature EG.
- Stable industrial dispersion validated at industrial scale.
- Validation of manufactured formulations by Bersch and Talleres Ruiz.
- Integration into EuroCodes and fire resistance calculations.
- 5 % cost increase of developed formulations, under set 25 %.
- Project results disseminated to main European steel constructors community including a training session in ECCS annual meeting.
- Over 60 % cost reduction due to combination of advanced fire design criteria and developed foreground.
- FR 120 for 300 m-1 section factor values for natural and localised fires (according to EN 13881-8 criteria).
- FR 120 under ISO 834 conditions for 60 m-1 section factor profiles (according to EN 13881-8 criteria).
- Definition of a complete top-coat / intumescent coating / primer water borne system.
- PCT application.
- Definition of a funding plan for the launch to market of developed foreground.
Potential impact:
Three main large communities of SMEs will be the main beneficiaries of the results of this project. The main target sub-sector is the manufacturers of steel structures for construction sector (end users of the technology). This sub-sector comprises 4500 SMEs and employs 250 000 workers, producing an annual turnover of EUR 50 million. Despite the recent construction crunch, this sector is still of vital importance to the European cconomy. In fact, the industrial construction that concerns to this project has not felt any direct side effect of the crisis mainly affecting to residential and commercial buildings. With an annual turnover of almost EUR 1000 billion, a total direct workforce of more than 11 million, and another 15 million employed indirectly, it contributes to about 10 % of the European gross domestic product (GDP). Approximately a 7 % of the construction sector corresponds to steel structural components, of which 50 % are subject to fire-resistance regulation, such as beams and columns, steel decking, steel framing, roof truss, laminate timber products, stairs and railing, retaining walls, poles and piling, fasteners, brazing systems. Typical application of these components includes mezzanine structures, industrial plants, warehouses, car parks, etc. Therefore, the market of steel structure manufacturers to be faced in this project is worth EUR 25 billion. And the market for the fire retardant coatings that must be applied to them is EUR 370 million. Hence, the second collective of SMEs beneficiaries of this project will be the fire retardant paint manufacturers. This small group of about 10 SMEs gathers employs than 1000 workers in this support group to the construction sector. The high cost of the current paints and their relatively difficult application regime affects the competitive position of both the manufacturers of steel structures and the manufacturers of the intumescent, fire retardant paint for the structures.
Estimations provided by various SMEs within the structural steel sector, indicate a concerning market reduction in the use of steel in construction as a consequence of the high costs associated to coating steel structures against fire; this fact is reducing the steel in construction share which is been replaced by traditional concrete. In particular, it is estimated that the proportion of use of steel vs. concrete in the industrial warehouse construction over the last 10 years has decreased from 50 % versus 50 % to 20% versus 80 %, which is translated as a 30 % reduction in the use of steel in those application were fire-protection with intumescent coatings is required.
Fire protection legislation applies in other world regions with similar legislative frames, and even with more strict guidelines in the case of Japan and United States (US). This, combined with the fact that paint manufacturers in those regions tend to be much larger, with much greater research and development (R&D) resources, means that there is a thread for an imminent development of a second generation of intumestent, fire retardant paints outside Europe, which will potentially generate a significant change in the imports / exports proportions. Clearly, both the manufacturers of steel structures and the manufacturers of paints need to come together to create sufficient critical mass of resource to create a European paint product to share amongst the SMEs in the sector that is significantly cheaper than current paints to apply by being easier to paint and covering a larger area faster, without the need for several coats. With this shared resource, it is believed that the market for steel structures will recover back, closer to its 1996 level and that the European paint manufacturers will be able to recover 10 % of the market share previously lost to imports.
Project exploitation will be integrated into the EuroCodes and applying legislation so that steel constructors will be able to provide fire resistance values at cost efficient validated values for steel structures what will allow steel constructors market to recover former market share and also penetrate international markets.
Main dissemination activities took place at:
- NanoFormulation 2012, Barcelona, May 2012
- ECCS Annual Meeting 2012, Lisbon, September 2012
- Automekanica 2012, Frankfurt, September 2012
- New approaches to High Temperature Coatings Conference, October 2012, Lanzarote
Project website: http://www.steelconstruct.com/steelprost/index.html