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Smart fire-retardant coatings based on intumescent nanocomposites

Final Report Summary - HEFEST (Smart fire-retardant coatings based on intumescent nanocomposites)

The exposure of steel structural members to high temperatures reduces their strength and rigidity and may lead to structural collapse of the steel when the critical temperature of the structure is reached. Fire safety of steel structural members may be achieved by use of intumescent coatings.

Conventional intumescent coatings containing ammonium polyphosphate, pentaerythritol and melamine have good expanding effects and fire-retardant properties, so they are widely used to provide fire protection for steel structural members. However, they suffer from diverse technical limitations such us poor behaviour when ageing, poor liquid stability and difficulties in their application.

This project aims at overcoming such limitations by the development of new intumescent coating systems based on nanoparticles (organic-inorganic hybrid systems) acting not only as fillers, but also as functional and active intumescent components. The use of such materials will result in the improvement of the following properties:

- higher durability of the intumescent system by improving vapour and water barrier properties isolating the more permeable components, and diminishing leaching out of low molecular weight moisture sensitive elements;
- improved mechanical characteristics by the replacement of the fibers introduced to reinforce char layers by the nanocomposite structures;
- increased thermal insulation enhancing protection of the underlying substrate in a effective way by improved charring and condensed phase mechanisms for flame retardancy;
- lower smoke toxicity taking advantage of lamellar structures of nanocomposites and their related gas barrier properties acting as smoke suppressants.

Project context and objectives:

Annual fire losses in Europe reach EUR 80 billion, 4000 of our fellow citisen die and another 80 000 suffer terrible burn (Geneva Association, Annual World Fire Statistics Bulletin). The high temperatures created in case of fire, make structural construction materials to lose mechanical resistance and eventually breakdown and collapse (this was the case in the Twin Towers, September 2001).

Resistance to fire (FRT) is their property to withstand fire maintaining the structural integrity. Low fire resistance causes problems of integrity and load bearing. Resistance-to-fire is one of the key points in the prevention and protection from fire in commercial and industrial facilities, as well as in public or residential buildings and is related to protection of structures from collapse allowing people to escape and the fire brigade to operate safely.

Paints are the only solution to protect structural elements in construction when aesthetical appearance and easy of application with versatility in any step of the construction is required (small amount per square meter, simple application in thin films with high performance, can be applied to architectural structures without changing their shape and appearance).

To obtain fire retardant properties and fireproof coatings different additives are incorporated in the base polymeric matrices. The most popular are based on halogen / antimony combinations, organophosphorous and metal hydrates (aluminium, magnesium...). Other fillers (metal hydrates) are adequate for certain polymers however the high loading required for acceptable efficiency greatly reduces mechanical properties. Moreover, this option only impart fireproof properties to the polymer itself (no substrate protection).

The use of halogen-containing materials, such as brominated flame-retardants, is a major issue because of the inherent toxicity of certain compounds and their persistence in the environment. During incineration, bromine- and chlorine- containing plastics are believed to contribute to dioxin emissions, and this has been a major factor in the demand for their urgent replacement by safer systems. These drawbacks of halogenated fire retardants, have driven new regulations progressively restricting their use since the year 2000 as for example the Directive 2002/95/EC of the European Parliament, on the restriction of hazardous substances (RoHS). This Directive bans the use of polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) and polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE) compounds in materials for electrical and electronic equipments, starting from July 2006. Penta and octabromodiphenyl either were banned as early as 2003 because of their very high intrinsic toxicity.

Although some exemptions are being negotiated by halogenated compounds producers on the basis of an extensive ongoing risk assessment carried out on each fire retardant, the general feeling in the industry of materials production and end users, is that halogen-free fire retardants should be developed which must however show at least the same effectiveness of halogenated systems. The introduction of the REACH regulation on June 2007 is just making these products more critical referring to the health and safety characteristics.

Moreover, in the case of protection of structures or flammable supports, coatings are required not only to be fireproof but also to protect the underlying substrates (flammable or affected by fire) and this only can be achieved by intumescence mechanisms.

Although existing intumescent compositions provide a relative high degree of flame retardancy they suffer from a variety of technical limitations being the most relevant:

- efficiency decreases with exposure to the environment;
- lack of liquid stability and application difficulties.

The main goal of HEFEST project is to develop new intumescent coating systems by means of nanoparticles (hybrid organic-inorganic systems) acting not only as fillers, but also as functional and active components of the system to obtain:

- intumescent paints with higher durability in service-life;
- easier application properties, in can stability, as well as higher heat blocking capacity and increased smoke suppressant properties.

Scientific objectives:

- To develop nanocomposites with improved performance of intumescent paints based, taking advantage of the peculiar properties of several types of nanoparticles (lamellar and needle-like organoclays, layered double hydoxyde, carbon nanotubes and nanofibres, etc.).
- To chemically modify inorganic nanoparticles, obtaining nanoparticles able to control the intumescent effect at nanoscale.

Industrial objectives:

- To apply a cutting edge technology such as nanotechnology, in an application field plenty of possibilities: the coating industry. This development will mean a breakthrough in the field of nanocomposites at European level.
- To develop long life products (After ETAG 018-part 2 (Guideline for European technical approval of fire protective products 'Reactive coatings for fire protection of steel elements'), FR losses < 25%) by improving vapour and water barrier properties (intrinsic properties of nanocomposites) isolating the more permeable components, and diminishing leaching out of low molecular weight moisture sensitive elements.
- To reduce smoke and toxic gases generation of intumescent coatings in case of fire by taking advantage of lamellar structures of nanocomposites and their related gas barrier properties.
- To increase thermal insulation of intumescent coatings in case of fire (FR at least R90 (ENV 13381-4 on HEB) therefore, increase the protection of the underlying substrate.
- To protect building structures against fire by means of an easy to apply coating with high mechanical properties, without using macroscopic fibres.
- To develop a high-tech coating that will allow the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to compete with products meeting market demands and fire standards and specifications.

Economical objectives:

- To obtain high-tech intumescent coatings at a competitive price.
- To improve the competitiveness of SMEs belonging to different sectors: composite sector, fire additives, resins, coating sector and protection of materials for construction.
- To develop new market areas for the nanotechnology.

Social objectives:

- This project allows sustainable development in the field of coatings. It reduces the employment of hazardous materials and uses leading edge technologies developing more effective materials.
- Improvement on citizen's safety by reducing the risks caused by the fire cases in buildings. Taking into account that fire safety in buildings is present in our daily lives, any improvement in that field will have a direct positive impact in the society in general. But, undoubtedly, the specific general buildings (hospitals, office buildings, spot installations...) will receive a more beneficial impact, being those where more strict rules in fire protection must be considered.
- To safeguard the human health and the environment, avoiding the emission of harmful particles from coatings and analysing the whole product life-cycle.

Environmental objectives:

- Obtaining of fire-proof products avoiding halogens and other harmful substances.

Project results:

The aim of the HEFEST project is the preparation and characterisation of a new class of intumescent coating by means of nanoparticles. The project addresses scientific and engineering expertise in nanotechnology, analysis of polymeric materials and application and study of performance of intumescent coatings in real-scale fire tests.

During the 28 months of the project, several intumescent coatings containing different nanoparticles have been developed and compared. Type and content of nanoparticles and other additives as well as final thickness of the coatings have been the most critical aspects of such development. Therefore, the formulation activities have been focused on the selection of adequate raw materials, the dispersion of the nanoparticles and the search of adequate top-coats that allow low liquid water permeability and enhance durability of the coatings.

Among the main results obtained it can be highlighted the development and characterisation of different nanocomposites based on the most promising modified nanoparticles developed and both water-borne and solvent-borne resins. Moreover, different fire tests at laboratory scale have been evaluated in order to find quick ways for preliminary evaluation of the coating intumescence process.

A method to evaluate the intumescent degree of intumescent coatings was proposed and preliminary experiments to test thermal protective properties by cone calorimeter were carried out. An experimental setup was built to evaluate thermal protective properties of intumescent coatings in bench scale testing by in-line temperature measurements on a cone calorimeter and applied to investigate the influence of the presence of the nanoparticles.

To detect steel substrate temperature (inner temperature), the thermocouple tip was set in the centre of the steel plate and at half the thickness, thus ensuring good thermal contact of the thermocouple with the steel plate and providing a reliable average temperature of steel along its thickness. The appropriate distance between the cone heater and the sample surface is a key factor in the cone calorimeter setup since it ensures a uniform and defined external heat flux. The distance between the bottom of cone heater and the upper surface of the samples was set equal to 60 mm, in order to avoid the swelled char to approach the cone heater, where the local temperature may rapidly increase and the heat flux may not be homogeneous on the specimen surface.

Several factors such as heat flux, heat insulating materials, edge effect and sample thickness have been investigated in detail. Regarding the inner temperature profiles of blank steel plates at different heat flux it was found that only the final temperature (about 610 °C) at a heat flux of 50 kW/m2 was higher than that typically used to predict the collapse of steel materials. Comparing the inner temperature profiles of blank steel plate and the standard ISO 834 curve, which should cover most of the potential courses of fires in common buildings and was widely used for the fire resistance design, the temperature at a heat flux of 50 kW/m2 was closer to the standard temperature during initial stage. Practically, 50 kW/m2 irradiance is close to the utmost of the cone calorimeter, when using a distance of 60 mm from the bottom of the cone heater. Although higher heat fluxes may be reached for distances lower than 60 mm, the use of a reduced distance may result in excessive approaching or touching the cone heater when testing intumescent materials with high swelling ratio. On the other hand, even if the maximum temperature of a natural fire can exceed the ISO-curve as fire tests demonstrated, after the maximum it decreases again, whereas the ISO-curve rises continuously.

Some thermocouples were also placed at different positions above the steel plate covered with intumescent coating, i.e. on the coating surface, 20 and 30 mm above the steel surface, in addition to the thermocouple embedded into the steel plate. It is worth noticing that since the intumescent degree of the coating used in this work is more than 30 times the initial thickness, thermocouples will be embedded in the intumescent char at the end of the swelling process.

Basically, three stages were observed during the swelling of the intumescent coating, namely pre-heating (stage I), fully-developing (stage II) and stabilising / decaying phases (stage III). Initially, the temperature increased sharply with time at pre-heating stage and reached above 370 °C within 60 s, this representing the temperature of air corresponding to the given heat flux and air flow. At the end of the pre-heating stage, the temperature seemed to somewhat level off while intumescence started. During the development of intumescence, the temperature increased rapidly, likely due to the occurrence of exothermic intumescent reactions, until the swelling char touched the thermocouple and temperature continued to increase at lower rate to an almost constant plateau value of about 630 °C. Similarly, the temperature profiles obtained at 30 mm above steel surface confirmed such behavior. The three swelling stages could also be interpreted by the temperature profile at the initial coating thickness, i.e. 1 mm above the upper steel surface. After a similarly sharp temperature increase at pre-heating stage and the earlier swelling, temperature decreased during the developing stage. The final temperature just above the upper steel surface was about 140 °C lower than that observed at 20 mm above the steel surface, evidencing the good thermal shielding of the intumescent char.

The inner temperature of steel plate increased with a much lower rate than the surface temperature and its profile showed a different intercept at different stages. Compared with temperatures in the char, prone to be affected by the surroundings and by the occurrence of the intumescent process, the steel inner temperature could directly reflect the real average temperature of the steel plate. The thermal protective properties of the intumescent layer are proved by the significant difference between char and steel temperatures.

Comparing the temperature profiles of coated steel plate and the standard ISO 834 curve, it was found that the temperature at 20 and 30 mm above upper steel surface at 50 kW/m2 was nearly coincident with ISO 834 curve before leveling off, indicating that the local temperature ramp up obtained with a heat flux of 50 kW/m2 is close to the real fire condition defined by ISO 834.

Ceramic pads and/or ceramic fibre blankets are usually used to sustain the samples in cone testing. To abate heat losses from the specimen back of the steel plate, a refractory fibre blanket with lower thermal conductivity was applied between ceramic pad and steel plate. The effect of the fibre blanket on the temperature of steel plate at different heat fluxes has been studied: for blank steel plate, no significant differences were observed at either 35, 42 or 50 kW/m2. For coated steel plate, the difference between inner temperature with and without fibre blanket become prominent. Indeed, when the steel plate was coated on the top surface, the contribution of steel plate heating from the back, i.e. heat conducted to the plate from the directly exposed part of the ceramic pad, became significant. On the other hand, the presence of the low density fibre blanket strongly reduced the heat transfer, leading to lower temperature in the steel plate. This phenomenon was observed for all the different heat fluxes; the higher the heat flux, the larger the difference. The temperature difference at 50 kW/m2 was as high as 64 °C.

While in real application and in large scale tests the specimen is usually large enough to neglect edge effects, this cannot be done when using as small specimens as in the present work: in particular, the edge effect on swelling and the heat exchange from the edges have to be considered. Indeed, when swelling at the edges is lower as compared with the specimen centre, this may have an influence on the overall swelling degree of the paint, especially when the size of the plate is relatively small. On the other hand, in the proposed experimental setup, uncoated sides of the plates may have an effect in heat exchange, due to direct irradiation from the cone and/or heat losses by air convection. The importance of edge effect on heat transfer was investigated by comparing the inner temperature of coated steel plate with and without edge coating. Analysing the inner temperature profiles at different heat fluxes, with and without edge coating, similar inner steel temperature profiles were found 35 and 42 kW/m2 heat fluxes; at the same time, the temperature without edge coating was slightly higher than that with edge coating irradiated at 50 kW/m2.

The intumescent coating is usually applied on the surface of interest to a dry thickness of less than 2 mm; in particular, 1 mm thickness is commonly used. A different sample thickness will lead to differences as far as the substrate temperature is concerned. The effect of coating thickness on the inner steel temperature was studied: when the coating thickness increased from 1.0 mm to 1.6 mm at 50 kW/m2, the temperature at 2000 s decreased from 391 °C to 347 °C. The influence of thickness on the substrate temperature can be approximately predicted by simple linear curve-fitting in the explored range, i.e. 0.1 mm additional thickness corresponds to about 7 °C decrease for tests performed at 50 kW/m2.

In conclusion, it was demonstrated that the cone calorimeter coupled with in-line temperature measurements represents a useful method in order to evaluate the thermal protective properties of intumescent coatings. The testing results depend on some important factors including heat flux, coating thickness and edge effect. The temperature profiles obtained at 50 kW/m2 were proved to be close to the standard ISO 834 curve in its earlier heating stage, thus suggesting that the proposed method is good for the evaluation of intumescent coatings in bench scale testing comparable to the early stage of real fire scenarios.

This method was exploited for evaluating the thermal protective properties of the intumescent coatings. The results highlighted that the modified nanoparticles can be employed successfully in intumescent coatings because, at low contents, they can fulfil the established requirements.

Some results regarding the influence of the addition of pristine and functionalised nanoparticles in the thermal shielding properties of a commercial intumescent coating according to the proposed method (in-line temperature measurements on a cone calorimeter) are the following: The higher steel plate temperature of coatings containing pristine nanoparticles with respect to commercial coating proves the weakened thermal shielding properties, especially at high content of nanoparticles. Contrarily, improved thermal shielding properties are obtained for the coating added of functionalised nanoparticles, which seems similar for different contents (loading range: 1.5- 4.5 %). As a result, the use of nanoparticles modified with intumescent components is a good way to get better thermal shielding properties.

Finally, the best nanocomposite-based intumescent coating has been selected and tested in real-scale validation tests (fire resistance and durability) taking into consideration the minimum thickness needed for complying with objectives.

The selected system consisted of:

- primer 036 (Iris Vernici);
- intumescent layer: containing modified nanoparticles;
- top coat: IDROSOL (Iris Vernici).

Regarding horizontal fire resistance furnace according to ENV 13381-4 the system performs as well as conventional intumescent systems. Regarding durability, the system passed class Y able to be applied in semi-exposed conditions.

The management of the project has been carried out by strictly keeping in contact the partners with the coordinator. All the partners have been involved in the main strategic and executive decisions. The kick-off meeting was organised on 19 November 2008 at Tecnalia's facilities (Azpeitia, Spain); the six months meeting was held on 23 April 2009 at POLITO in Alessandria (Italy); the mid-term meeting was held by audioconference on 4 November 2009 between Tecnalia (Azpeitia, Spain) and Polito (Alessandria, Italy); the eighteenth month meeting was hosted on 15 April 2010 by CHEMSTAR in the Czech Republic and the final meeting was held by audioconference on 27 October 2010 between Tecnalia (Azpeitia, Spain) and POLITO (Alessandria, Italy).

Potential impact:

Following the data of the European Council of the Paint, Printing Ink and Artists' Colours Industry (CEPE) which represents the 85 % of the total sales in Europe the total business affairs only in western Europe was in 2005 a around 5,5 millions of tons, around EUR 15 billions. The 60% of this quantity is related to the construction field being in Europe around 2500 coating manufactures (more than 1500 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)), employing more than 100 000 people. Within the euro-zone, the exports of this sector are five times higher than imports, what means that this is a leading industry for Europe.

Although the vast majority of the coating sector enterprises are SMEs, almost two thirds of the coatings market in the EU is covered by multinational enterprises (European market of overall paints and varnishes. Source: The coatings agenda Europe 2003).

Paints market: 9.470 million litres (major players: Azko Nobel, BASF, Du Pont, TotalFina, 40 %), market growth of +3.5 %.
Varnishes market: 53 million litres (mayor players: Akzo Nobel, Dyrup, ICI, Ronseal, 80 %), market growth of -0.5 %.

The tendency towards larger companies became more intensified with the internationalisation of down-stream companies and, looking to the market shares evolutions, it is clear that year by year this concentration is becoming more important and those big firms are gradually absorbing smaller coating companies.

SMEs are more and more turning to specialisation and starting to serve niche markets. Market requires constant innovation in order to adapt to customer's wishes as well as environmental and health regulations. SMEs have an important challenge to face because larger companies can raise capital for research far more easily and also attract skilled personnel. Obviously, SME's are unable to make such economical efforts, and as a result of it, they are loosing competitiveness day by day.

Thus, HEFEST project is very important for the European SMEs that manufacture paints and varnishes as it will clearly improve their competitiveness in the European market in the niche of fire resistant coatings, developing new high tech products adapted to the market needs. In this sense, the development of this project will help SMEs to develop a new 'smart' coating based on a leading edge technology such as nanotechnology that will improve their competitiveness in a very important way.

Moreover, the new requirements of the REACH regulation imply new challenges in many systems, making difficult the use of systems allowed until now and the project takes into account this fact introducing alternative elements.

Benefits and the improvement of competitiveness for the SME proposers are clear. The applicator of systems on metal structures will be able to provide their products with new coatings giving an added value to the structures and other elements, being able to accomplish buildings of an increased responsibility, safety and security. A brief description of this market is the following:

European market dimension (Source: The coatings agenda Europe 2003):
- Market of intumescent for steel (paint): 1.6 million litres
- Major players (market share): Ameron, DuPont, Nullfire (65 %)
- Major customers: Sports stadiums, atria, distribution centres, shopping centres
- Market growth: +3%.

The initial market analysis performed reveals very promising figures. The penetration of the new coatings in the market will be progressively higher. The following data show the expected annual increase of sales in tones of coating, kilograms and market share (taking the market size of 2003 as reference).

Expected sales of new intumescent paint (tons): 17 (year 1), 24 (year 2), 30 (year 3), 33 (year 4) and 37 (year 5)
Expected sales of new intumescent paint (kg): 16 783 (year 1), 23 976 (year 2), 29 970 (year 3), 33 300 (year 4) and 37 000 (year 5)
Expected sales of new intumescent paint (% over market size): 1.4 (year 1), 1.9 (year 2), 2.4 (year 3), 2.7 (year 4) and 3.0 (year 5)

During the first year, the increasing of sales could be quite high, since there is a market niche already waiting for high-quality intumescent paints and varnishes. After the third year, the sales increase will be slower.

As a consequence, five years after the project is over (year 5), the market share of the new paints could be 4.9 %.

Market dimension (2003) and expected market share:

Intumescent paint: market size (annually) of 1.6 million litres and 1231 tons; market share (annually) of 77 985 litres, 60 tons, 4.9 %.

Dissemination activities and exploitation results:

The following diffusion material was elaborated:

- Development of the project website: The webpage address is http://www.hefest.info The website contained two sections: public area (abstract, objectives, consortium, news and contacts of the project) and restricted area (the presentations of the meetings, work documents, minutes and other project documents are collected). A project presentation report was also prepared. This report was collected in Deliverable 2.In this report, an abstract of the project can be found together with partners involved in the project. A poster with the project presentation was also prepared in English and Spanish.
- Presence in other websites: Tecnalia, Polito, IRIS-Vernici and Procoat included a reference to the project in each partner's website.
- Sectorial websites: Bio Info Bank Library http://lib.bioinfo.pl; Basque Technologic Parks Network Infobrochure http://www.parkea.com; http://www.construarea.com (18 June 2010) and http://www.parque-tecnologico.net (17 June 2010).
- Participation in congresses: European Construction Technology Platform (Brusssels, 24-25 November 2009) TECNALIA presented a poster; Jornadas de toxicidad de humos. Organised by Fundación Fuego (Asturias, 23 November 2009) Tecnalia presented an oral presentation; European Coatings Conference (ECC); 'Fire retardant coatings IV' Congress (Berlin, 3-4 June 2010). POLITO was present with an oral presentation: 'Intumescent coatings for the protection of steel structures: State of the art and perspectives'. G. Malucelli, Z. Han, A. Fina, G. Camino; Latvian exhibition on the achievements and results within EU projects. Latvian University (Riga, Latvia, 19 November 2009): Let-Comm participates as an exhibitor representing HEFEST consortium.
- Scientific publications:'Testing fire protective properties of intumescent coatings by in-line temperature measurements on a cone calorimeter'. Z. Han, A. Fina, G. Malucelli and G. Camino. Progress in Organic Coatings, Volume 69, Issue 4, December 2010, Pages 475-480.
- Technical publications: Financni Management No. 3 - 2010 (19 April 2010), Czech Republic.
-Participation in sectorial fairs: BATIMAT Le Salon International de la Construction (Paris, France) 7 to 12 November 2009, European Construction Technology Platform (Brusssels) 24 to 25 November 2009, Embedded Word (Nüremberg, Germany) 2 - 4 March 2010, Veteco Feria Internacional de la Ventana y el Cerramiento Acristalado (Madrid, Spain) 4 to 7 May 2010, Clay Conference (Budapest, Hungary) May 2010, Construmat Salón Internacional de la Construcción (Barcelona, Spain) 12 to 15 May 2011, Eurocoat International exhibition and congress for the paint, printing ink, barniz, glue and adhesive industries (Genoa, Italy) 9 to 11 November 2010.

Exploitation of results:

Concerning the exploitation of the project, these are the possible exploitable results:

- Development of a new intumescent coating system based on functionalised nanoparticles to be used in substitution of conventional intumescent systems.
- Development of intumescent systems with advantageous properties such us higher durability by isolating the more permeable components, improved mechanical properties of the foam and, therefore, increased thermal insulation.

Likewise, the exploitable knowledge coming from this project can be mentioned:

- Modification of nanoclays for obtaining hybrid organic / inorganic systems to be used as functional and active intumescent components.
- Formulation of intumescent coatings to be used in fire safety of steel structural members.
- Definition of a fire protective coating for steel elements with advanced properties.

Partners have envisaged two different types of exploitation and dissemination strategies:

- Local strategies: These strategies include the exploitation and dissemination activities carried out by industrial partners, who will use the results within their companies such as introduction of the new products developed on the project, introduction and implementation of new technologies into their production structure, training and education on knowledge management, continuous improvement into production areas.
- Advanced strategies: These include the activities carried out by partners, in order to achieve a wider exploitation of the results of the project as well as a proper dissemination of those results to the whole European industry as well as to research organisations. Those activities include: use of the communication and diffusion networks provided by the European Commission (EC), such as CORDIS, etc, presentation on international conferences and publications on specialised journals, inclusion of results on the partners' websites, presentations on public workshops, publication of best practices reports for industrial readers, disclosure of information through project brochure to relevant associations and organisations, attendance to national and international trade fairs, direct marketing actions, conferences and promotion through industrial associations in each country.

The exploitation line proposed by the consortium partners aims that each industrial partner can exploit the project results individually, while other consortium members would have advantageous conditions. In this sense, SME partners can expand their markets to new customers maintaining the roots of their know-how. They can acquire and offer to their market a high-technology material which can increase their competitiveness in their respective countries. They will introduce a new line of products in their actual market.

In the case of building protection i.e. the civil / general industrial buildings based on ISO 834 fire curve (cellulosic fire protection). A conventional intumescent paint (generally named acrylic on the marketplace) is sold to the end-user at about EUR 8/kg (small works) to EUR 4/kg (large building contract). Solvent based systems are equal or sometimes some 10 % more expensive than water based systems.

For average fire ratings (R30 to R60) dry film thickness (DFT) is about 500 - 1000 microns to 1000 - 2000 microns also depending on steel section factor. Considering a very common use, say 1000 microns global average it is necessary about 2 kg/m2 wet paint approximately.

This material means a cost of EUR 8 to 16/ m2 material only depending on work size. Considering the application in some cases by spray gun and overspray losses an additional waste ranging from 20 % up has to be considered, depending on section shape.

Petrochemical industry particularly seashore oil platforms refer to 'hydrocarbon fire' this has specific products more expensive (about 10 times, epoxy systems in two package) used much thicker, 1 cm and more. Therefore cost/m2 can be even 100 times higher.

In general, clays are naturally occurring minerals sourced provided for few cents/kg so they have the potential to be cheap if made in large scale.

Existing treated clays (cation exchanged and/or organophylic by tall oil or common surfactants) sold as additives i.e. bentonites cost for several EUR/kg (<10) to the paint industry. Considering dosage can be in the range of 1 % they can add few eurocents to a formulation offering and acceptable price increment for these products.

For novel MMT production technology is similar and basic chemicals are in the price range offering solutions at the same economical level. However, these materials are still small-scale in their production and the price is more influenced by this fact, related to the production scale and therefore the small market size. Initially, it can considered an extra cost of 15 times due to this small scale use.

Although the price per kilogram will be higher final cost of a coating depends on thickness needed for a given performance. Currently, people use accurate dimension tables to calculate the thickness. Therefore competition is done not only in price per Kg but on performance (i.e. microns needed). Thickness used is in the range of 1 - 2 mm = 2 - 4 Kg/m2.

The new coatings will have improved intumescent properties, thus, thinner layers will give the same fire protection. Furthermore, the new coatings will have a better rheological behaviour, which will translate in easier application properties. Overall required thickness is expected to be reduced 10 %. Though the reduction is difficult to estimate, it will also be a commercial strength of the new products. Taking into account the increase of the coating price per kilogram and the decrease of thickness needed, the price of the new paints developed within the HEFEST will be higher than the existing nowadays in the market. An increase in final price of 17-23 % is expected due to the introduction of nanocompounds.

Industrial and commercial routes:

The main industrial and commercial routes used by the consortium to disseminate and exploit the project results are described in the following points:

IRIS Vernici has during recent years, established different distribution channels in Italy, several European countries including Eastern Europe (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania), Northern Europe (Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland) and Russia. Work is in progress to setup a distribution network in the Far East (Singapore, China, Vietnam).

Chemstar: This company has a strong position in the Czech market (with a market share in some products of 30 %), and makes direct marketing of their products to the end-users through direct deliveries. Their commercialisation in the European market is done through foreign partners and the main market is Central and Eastern Europe (Germany ...).

Pointer: This Italian producer of hardeners and special resin for epoxy systems works together with other company (Euro-Beta S.n.C.) that provides the commercial capacity to distribute the products of Pointer. This distribution is mainly done in the Italian market and in some neighbour countries (such as France).

LET-COMM: has an interesting commercial network that covers mainly the Baltic countries and Scandinavia.

The SMEs' industrial and commercial routes cover almost the whole EU-25.

Project website: http://www.hefest.info