Development and characterization of advanced intumescent coatings for enhanced fire-resistance protection of structural steel

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Quantum Technical Services Ltd. is one of Canada's leading manufacturers of fire-resistant coatings used in steel-frame buildings. These coatings are used as passive fire-resistance systems, and help in delaying the temperature rise in the steel frame during a building fire. One of the most promising products, SafeCoat TFI, is a thin-film intumescent coating, which swells into an insulating foam char ~2" thick when exposed to fire. This foamed coating becomes highly porous and thermally insulating and immediately protects the steel substrate from the fire. Despite the coating's proven performance in field tests, its behavior as a function of temperature remains unclear. For example, the kinetics of char formation and the chemical and physical properties of the char at different temperatures remain unknown. As a result, researchers from Quantum and the University of British Columbia have jointly identified a research program to obtain essential and fundamental quantifiable scientific metrics regarding the coating's properties during high temperature exposure. Specifically, microstructural evaluation of the foam char, its stability and thermal-insulating behavior will be determined to enable future product development at Quantum. The research team has successfully carried out an NSERC-Engage pilot project, where a novel approach to study the performance of the SafeCoat TFI intumescent coating was developed. The researchers are now in position to use these tools to enable a significant R&D work into new product development, with a view of optimizing existing TFI coating, along with developing novel intumescent coatings with advanced thermal-insulating properties. Such R&D efforts will position Quantum as a leader in North America in offering superior product in the specialty coatings market.