Sustainable fire protection for plastics and composites

The design of a flame retarded product is a challenging process due to complex interactions of thermal degradation products of different flame-retardant ingredients as well as the protected material. Moreover, fire protection implies mostly a trade-off between fire performance, mechanical performance, processing properties, sustainability, cost and other properties. Careful consideration of all requirements is therefore necessary for each material and each application when designing a sustainable flame retarded product. Due to the complex chemical processes during fire, it is difficult to predict the fire performance of a flame-retardant system for a certain material. The development of a flame-retardant system is therefore traditionally based on empiric investigations, which are time and cost intensive.

How RISE can provide support

RISE experts can help to reduce development time and cost through our expertise regarding fire retardancy mechanisms, toxicology and cost of different flame retardants, as well as their potential influence on processing, mechanical and other product properties.

For a smooth and efficient support, we have created a team with relevant expertise and collected our earlier experience in guidelines for an efficient choice of protection approaches and technologies.

Our interdisciplinary team includes experts within fire regulations and testing, plastic and composite materials, as well as toxicology and sustainability. Our experience ranges from formulation of flame-retardant systems for plastics to surface protection of composites. Together, we have in recent years gathered comprehensive knowledge about commercially available as well as innovative technologies for fire protection and have supported various industrial partners in their choice of flame-retardant solutions.

For more information on our work in the area, have a look at our related projects below or the 'Guide' document to the right.