One of the prime reasons people use steel in building construction is strength. Steel is a very tough material for construction and is used in buildings. But, this strength is challenged by the severe heat of a fire. In case of a fire, it can only take only a few minutes for unprotected steel to reach a critical failure temperature of 550° C. At this point it loses its capacity to bear heavy loads and leads to building collapse 300° C. That is why you need fireproof paint for steel.
Fire protection paint for steel can provide many benefits. Some of the key benefits are listed below:
- Fire protection for upto 120 minutes preventing building collapse.
- Extending crucial evacuation time
- Letting firefighters more time get the firs under control
In this informative post, we have outlined different types of Fireproofing paint for steel structure and why they are best to use. Let’s know about them.
There are mainly two different types of fire resistant paints that can be used for steel. 1) fire retardant paint and intumescent paint. The fire retardant paint responds to heat with flame damping gas that limits the spread of flames across a surface. But, fire retardant paint is not used often on steel structures as compared to intumescent paint as it has limited insulating properties.
Fire retardant paint: This paint works by releasing a flame damping gas when heated that prevents the spread of fire across walls, ceilings and surface. This paint is less common to use for steel structures as they don’t have the same insulating properties of intumescent paint. So, the fire retardant paint for metal is a topcoat on another anti fire paint.
Intumescent paint: This paint protects their steel substrate by providing an insulating layer between steel and the fire. Also, exposure to the best of a fire triggers a reaction and causes the paint to expand to up to 50 times it’s thickness and form a solid foam like char. And this char insulates the steel from the heat, thus prolonging the time before it reaches the temperature that would compromise it. This paint is the main coating used for steel fire protection. You can use these two paints together for most of the effective fireproof paint system. You can use fire retardant paint as a top coat over intumescent paint. Intumescent paint is the most commonly used costing to protect steel against fire and acts as an insulator and forming a solid char in response to heat. This paint can be applied on steel as a thin or a thick Film coating. Remember, thin film fireproof paint materials that can be used for steel are water or solved based as well as are typically applied to prevent fires in regular structures.
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