What Industries Should Invest in Fireproof Coatings?

In any facil­i­ty, safe­ty should be a top pri­or­i­ty. Indeed, tragedies and acci­dents in the past have led the U.S. to cre­ate new, stricter reg­u­la­tions regard­ing safe­ty pro­to­cols for build­ings across indus­tries. These codes may dif­fer slight­ly from one facil­i­ty to the next, depend­ing on its spe­cif­ic oper­a­tions. Still, all build­ings are sus­cep­ti­ble to catch­ing fire (espe­cial­ly those that reg­u­lar­ly deal with com­bustible chem­i­cals, high tem­per­a­tures, and open flames) and must fea­ture some kind of pro­tec­tion against this hazard.

Fire­proof coat­ings (also known as intu­mes­cent coat­ings) can be used to pre­vent or mit­i­gate the spread of fire inside a facil­i­ty. In the U.S. these spe­cial coat­ings are becom­ing more com­mon each year, and as safe­ty reg­u­la­tions tight­en, they’re bound to make their way into more and more facil­i­ties. But how do these coat­ings work? Does every indus­try or build­ing require fire­proof coat­ings? And which indus­tries should invest in these pro­tec­tive coat­ings the most?

What to Know About Fire­proof Intu­mes­cent Coatings

How Do Fire­proof Intu­mes­cent Coat­ings Work?

At first glance, intu­mes­cent coat­ings look like stan­dard indus­tri­al paint. How­ev­er, these coat­ings are com­posed of dif­fer­ent mate­ri­als. They con­sist of four main com­po­nents: an acid donor like ammo­ni­um polyphos­phate; a car­bon source such as pen­taery­thri­tol; a blow­ing agent like melamine; and a bind­ing poly­mer, such as vinyl acetate copoly­mer. When fire reach­es intu­mes­cent paint, the bind­ing agent begins to soft­en. Then, the chem­i­cals under­neath heat up and react into an insu­lat­ing foam (char) that pro­tects the under­ly­ing sur­face from dam­age and slows down the spread of fire.

Which Indus­tries Require Fire­proof Coatings?

In truth, every build­ing could ben­e­fit from fire­proof­ing ser­vices and intu­mes­cent coat­ings. That said, some indus­tries require this lev­el of fire­proof­ing for a num­ber of rea­sons, and some­times to com­ply with legal reg­u­la­tions. Here are just a hand­ful of indus­tries that should (or are oblig­ed to) invest in fire­proof coatings.

What Are the Top Indus­tries That Need Fireproofing?

Con­struc­tion

Those in the con­struc­tion busi­ness must be well aware of all rel­e­vant fire safe­ty codes. As such, they will com­mon­ly imple­ment fire­proof coat­ings and oth­er fire­proof­ing meth­ods. This not only pro­tects them on the job but also pro­tects those who will use the new­ly-built facil­i­ty while increas­ing its struc­tur­al integrity.

Oil and Gas (Petro­chem­i­cals)

Fuel refiner­ies nat­u­ral­ly han­dle loads of com­bustible chem­i­cals and endure high tem­per­a­tures. There can be no room for error in these fac­to­ries. Intu­mes­cent paint and oth­er intu­mes­cent coat­ings great­ly reduce the risk of fire and explo­sion in these facilities.

Man­u­fac­tur­ing

The man­u­fac­tur­ing sec­tor cov­ers a lot of dif­fer­ent indus­tries, such as auto­mo­tive, plas­tics, food, fur­ni­ture, etc. Fire­proof­ing is a must in all of these plants. After all, machin­ery can break down and over­heat, sparks can fly and catch fire, ovens can mal­func­tion, and the list goes on. Intu­mes­cent coat­ings should play a part in a manufacturer’s indus­tri­al paint­ing investment.

Edu­ca­tion

Schools house hun­dreds, if not thou­sands of stu­dents and teach­ers mul­ti­ple days a week. Main­tain­ing a safe edu­ca­tion­al envi­ron­ment is cru­cial for pro­tect­ing so many lives. Fire­proof coat­ings give stu­dents and staff peace of mind dur­ing the busy school day.

Oth­er indus­tries that should invest in fire­proof coat­ings include:

• Health­care

• Apartment/​Residential

• Restaurant/​Hospitality

• Pris­ons

• Reli­gious Centers

• Retail Stores

• And more

Invest­ing in fire­proof coat­ings for your facil­i­ty is a smart, safe move, and it might be nec­es­sary, depend­ing on the reg­u­la­tions to which you’re behold­en. These coat­ings make up just one of many safe­ty pro­to­cols you should incor­po­rate, such as safe­ty strip­ing, safe­ty edu­ca­tion, water­proof­ing, air qual­i­ty con­trol, dis­in­fect­ing pro­ce­dures, and more.

Kaloutas is New Eng­land’s pre­mier con­trac­tor for com­mer­cial & indus­tri­al paint­ing, floor­ing, and relat­ed ser­vices. Estab­lished in 1987, Kaloutas has become a trust­ed resource for gen­er­al con­trac­tors, facil­i­ties man­agers, and build­ing own­ers from Con­necti­cut to Maine. Our team prides itself on high qual­i­ty work­man­ship, jobs done on time & bud­get, and tack­ling com­plex projects that oth­er con­trac­tors don’t have the expe­ri­ence or resources to han­dle. Con­tact us today for a paint­ing or floor­ing esti­mate, or give us a call at 978−532−1414 to learn more.