Presentation: Development of a novel, clear, water-borne, fire retardant coating system for wood substrates

Presentation at ECS Conference 2019, Nuremberg: Traditionally, opaque intumescent coatings were used to reduce, or prevent, the spread of fire on wood substrates, typically achieving a Class A rating in the ASTM E84 test. However, clear intumescent coatings have struggled to achieve the same rating when evaluated on wood substrates, while producing a plastic-type visual. A novel, waterborne coating system (NWC) has been developed that can achieve a Class A (25 FSI/50 SDI) rating in the ASTM E84 test on Poplar wood substrates, while also providing a true wood visual. In addition, the NWC system can be air dried or convection dried to a water resistant layer while providing the ability to tint without losing fire performance, hardness, adhesion, and coating integrity. The patent pending new, clear, waterborne coating system is a significant development in the fire-retardant coatings market for wood substrates.