High performance fire retardant coatings

The traditional building material wood has besides a variety of advantages, also some disadvantages. One of them is the combustibility. Wood is regarded as a normal inflammable without any special proof. Depending on implementation and processing it can even be classified as "easy inflammable" (e.g. 2mm thick veneer) or as "hardly inflammable" (e.g. surface protection with fire retardant coating). Although it behaves very good as a structural component in fire hazards (long lasting loadcarrying capacity of highly designed, wooden members, no sudden collapse and furniture raises the overall fire risk significantly. One possibility to controle the fire risk of wooden constructions is the use of intumescent fire retardant coatings. In 2001 and 2002 the Fraunhofer WKI started two research and developement projects in cooperation with Technical University Braunschweig, iBMB, Fraunhofer ICT and several industrial partners. Intention was the developement of a high performance fire retardant coating with enhanced properties.