Final Report Summary - STEELPROST (DEMONSTRATION OF INNOVATIVE FIRE PROTECTION COATINGS FOR STEEL STRUCTURES.)
FP7-SME-2008-2-STEELPROST Research Programme Project outcomes provided a solution to current surface treatment limitations by developing a second generation fire-protective coatings solution comprising:
• An enhanced intumescent formulation.
• Efficient spraying and drying systems.
• Detailed study of the application of developed solutions according to the EuroCodes and CE Legislation.
SteelProst was a 30 months FP7 Research for Associations project under Grant Agreement number: 243574-2. Overall budget sums up 2.387.000 €. Steelprost Consortium represented Structural Steel stakeholders. Three European Associations; SGG (Slovenian Construction Cluster), AIN ( Asociación Industrial de Navarra) and ECCS (European Convention for Constructional Steelwork ) are the driving force of a consortium that also includes ALCEA (paint manufacturer, Italy) and Bersch und Fratscher ( spray gun manufacturer, Germany) as supply chain SME´s. Talleres Ruiz (Spain) and RAZPON (Slovenia) participate as end users and technology validators.
In order to continue with the exploitation and route to market, SteelProst Consortium Associations and Industrial Partners applied for a demo project that has been funded by the European Comission: STEELPROST - DEMONSTRATION OF INNOVATIVE FIRE PROTECTION COATINGS FOR STEEL STRUCTURES (FP-SME-2013, Grant Agreement 604920)
Project Context and Objectives:
The objective of the project was to validate and certify the previous SteelProst project results in order to transform research results into available commercial products. At the end of the project, important knowledge and technology advances have been achieved on the different tasks addressed:
• ALCEA has scaled up the production of the new intumescent coatings and has tested the material according to EN-13381-8 normative. Carried out tests will offer classical tabulated data and the λ variable values.
• Dürr Systems Karlstein GmbH and AIN have developed an automatic spraying and drying prototype that significantly reduces processing times and costs with an optimal applied thickness control. Tailor-made plants are available for steel constructors under request.
• CMM, member of ECCS, and SGG have made the assessment of FR according CE legislation and the EuroCodes. Detailed guidelines on procedures and calculations for cost efficient fire protection of structural steel are available allowing steel constructors to efficiently protect steelworks against fire and address new scenarios in which steel was not currently competitive.
• Talleres Ruiz, project coordinator and structural steel designer and manufacturer has integrated all these processes and results into its CE marking offering cost efficient and dully supported fire resistant structures.
At the end of the SteelProst DEMO (12-2015) project the integrated solution is available for the Structural Steel European Industry increasing their competitiveness; it is expected to gradually recover the 50% market share lost by the steel construction market during the last 10 years. Around 10% should be recovered in the first five to ten years of commercialization
Project Results:
Since the beginning of the project, September 2014, the Consortium has developed an integrated solution that combines a nano-enhanced intumescent coating, automatic spraying and drying techniques and advanced engineering criteria. All these concepts have been integrated in the CE marking of Steel Structures manufacturing process.
The new intumescent coating has been tested in order to obtain the necessary inputs to address currently non-addressed fire scenarios in which intumescent coatings are particularly efficient. Section factors ranges and FR values currently out of the performance of State of Art Intumescent Coatings have been covered.
As examples of cases in which FR values of 90 and 120 minutes can be achieved with thin intumescent layers; open parks, residential building, hospitals, hotels and others.
In order to efficiently coat structural elements, work done in automatic spraying and drying allows to coat a beam with a 1000 μ dry intumescent coating in less than 10 minutes. Each spraying and drying device is equivalent to five teams of painters working on site and cost reduction is the range over 75% of total spraying costs.
The whole solution has been integrated into CE marking procedures including the different case scenarios definitions, FR requirements and quality control procedures for the overall steel manufacturing and fire protection. Time and cost savings have been evaluated and the implementation of the new solution allows steel to be competitive in traditionally concrete controlled sectors like residential buildings and others.
In order to allow the efficient use of the new developed technologies, most representative scenarios for real Steel Construction have been evaluated in detail; residential buildings, warehouses and open parks. The translation of complex structures into simple elements to allow the use of simplified methods has been accomplished and detailed on a guideline. To provide efficient tools based on Excel and also ELE-FIR software have been generated. Currently the Consortium is working in an agreement with Engineering Software companies to integrate SteelProst advances in engineering software.
The technology has been protected through a European Patent and the next Exploitation stages include agreements with key intumescent coatings manufacturers for project European and non-European project deployment during the next years.
Potential Impact:
SteelProst Demo exploitation is expected to allow steel construction to recover a 50 percent of market share lost during the last years 10 years in the next five to ten years. The exploitation of the project will not only allow steel manufacturers be more competitive versus other construction technologies like concrete. Moreover an important opportunity has been generated in some markets like open parks, residential buildings and others in which the steel industry is trying to assume a market share.
The SteelProst Project deployment it is expected to impact and change currently implemented FR assessment and protection of steel structures based on inaccurate estimations that results into risks, inefficiencies and over costs. The new structural steel FR approach based on advanced engineering, translated to simplified methods and integrated in the EuroCodes and CE marking provides:
- Cost efficient fire protection.
- Security and dully validated FR values to address administration requirements.
The implementation of automated spraying and drying processes will not only reduce costs and times but also will allow to deliver intumescent paint coated steel elements under stringent quality control procedures. Developed solution can be assimilated by SME´s resulting into affordable Return of Investment values.
List of Websites:
http://www.steelconstruct.com/site/index.php?o=committees&id=103&ct=2