Intumescent coatings for steel fire protection

Intumescent coatings are a great alternative for passive protection of metal substrates against fire, with binder polymer being one of the main components of an intumescent system. The objective of a recent work was to compare five different resin types (epoxy, acrylic, alkyd, silicone, and silicone–epoxy hybrid) in an intumescent formulation and to study the influence of resin concentration on the fire protection performance of the coating.

Results from TGA and MCC analysis of resins and coatings indicated that coatings containing silicone are thermally stable and release smaller amounts of heat. In the fire resistance test, samples containing epoxy and silicone resins had lower temperatures (130–160°C) compared to the other samples. It has also been found that it is possible to decrease resin concentration in formulations containing epoxy and silicone resins up to 25.6% and to maintain or even improve their fire protection capability.