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paint and coatings manufacturing: INTUMESCENT COATINGS
Blaze of Glory

Intumescent Coatings Offer High Growth Opportunities

INTUMESCENT COATINGS – typically paint on steel – act as ChemQuest report says.
a protective layer which works by chemical reaction gener- The increase in volume and subsequent decrease in
ated by heat, resulting in swelling and formation of an insu- density slows the heating of the substrate, increasing the
lating charred layer on the surface. They are a growing sub- time before the steel itself begins to melt, says US Coatings.
segment of industrial maintenance and protective coatings. “Intumescents typically swell to 25 times their original thick-
The Global Intumescent Coatings Market report by Mar- ness when engulfed in flames. This expansion allows them
ket Research valued the intumescent coatings market at to provide a barrier between the flames and the steel that
$852.35 million (US) in 2018. With projected growth at a is exponentially larger than a coating that does not swell.”
compound annual growth rate of 3.94 percent, the market Increasing the thickness of an intumescent coating ap-
will be worth an estimated $1.2 billion (US) by 2026. plication increases the amount of swelling that will occur
In addition, the Global Market Analysis for the Paint & in the case of a fire.
Coatings Industry (2015–2020) report released by the Inter- “For example, if a 350 mil coating of a given intumescent
national Paint and Printing Ink Council (IPPIC) and prepared has been determined to have a fire rating of 1.5 hours, 700
by ChemQuest Group, Inc., also looked at intumescent coat- mils would theoretically be necessary to achieve a fire rating
ings as a sub-segment of industrial maintenance and func- of three hours,” says US Coatings. “In reality, though, added
tional coatings which are formulated to provide protection thickness is sometimes specified in certain areas such as curves
for exterior and interior substrates against corrosion, abrasion, and crevices, so something like a thickness of 750 mils may
thermal, and chemical and ultraviolet (UV) degradation in be required in order to achieve a three-hour rating.”
both industrial and critical service environments. When intumescent coatings come in single-component
It says the demand for intumescent coatings is closely formulas, they are much simpler to apply than dense concrete
tied to construction spending. “The split between U.S. and lightweight cementitious coatings and are therefore ac-
residential and non-residential construction is 60/40,” the companied by far lower labor costs, US Coatings says.
ChemQuest report says. “Overall, the average growth in “Additionally, since they are applied directly to steel, no
total construction spending has been a robust 8.1 percent gap is created in which moisture can sit and incite corrosion.
over the last five years.” Intumescent coatings fight corrosion in much the same
There is also significant demand for intumescent coatings way as traditional protective coatings, the difference being
in specialty coatings sub-segments, such as marine, trans- their ability to swell and the much greater thicknesses at
portation, onshore/offshore oil and gas production, and which they are initially applied.”
new industrial and commercial construction, the report In new construction applications in the oil and gas in-
continues. The increased use of lightweight materials for dustry, a massive change moving toward OEM fireproofing
transportation, modular homes, and insulation applications was a trend noted by ChemQuest in 2015; whereas fire-
is a key driver. Intumescent paints are increasingly used to proofing in maintenance and repair applications, by com-
protect spherical structures containing natural gas, perox- parison, could be cost prohibitive. In older plants, installing
ides, and other chemicals. intumescent coatings sometimes requires removing cemen-
In new construction of commercial buildings, intumes- titious structures (otherwise “hidden” corrosion behind the
cent coatings incorporate flame-retardant chemicals to concrete, which, left untreated, can put the cementitious
achieve two distinct industry efficacy ratings. The first meas- structure at high risk of collapsing). Concrete removal is
ures flame spread, or how effectively the coating limits where the high cost emerges.
flammability (according to ASTM E84). The second rating In this hydrocarbon industry, intumescent coatings from
demonstrates coating efficacy for delaying and resisting Sherwin-Williams provide passive fire protection of up to
the effects of fire (expressed in hours). four hours on steel. Its Firetex intumescent coatings mitigate
With intumescent coatings, “the fire-retardancy prop- the effects of jet fires, pool fires, boiling liquid, expanding
erty is project-dependent but generally understood to vapor explosions, and blasts, the company says.
mean a coating can withstand temperatures in the range Typically, intumescent coatings technology includes vinyl
of 200 deg. C to 600 deg. C for a period of time,” the toluene acrylics, styrene acrylics, silicone acrylics, fluoropoly-

44 CAnADIAn FInISHInG & COATInGS MAnuFACTuRInG nOvEMbER/DECEMbER 2020