JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #69 - November/December 2011 - 25

cing the toxicity and opacity of fumes and facilitating end-of-life solutions for composite parts. The use of halogens can also be avoided with composites that are heavily filled with alumina trihydrate (ATH), but the high density of ATH (2.4) makes the composite parts much heavier than with the intumescent technology. Intumescent coatings have been known for years, but all attempts to market intumescent resins and gelcoats failed in the past, since the products were very difficult to formulate and to apply. The composite’s fibre reinforcement hampered the formation of the carbon shield and the resin was too viscous to be easily used.

The innovation
Following several years of intensive research, Cray Valley, now CCP Composites, subsidiary of the Total Group, resulting from the merger of Cray Valley and Cook Composites & Polymers has developed stable and easily workable intumescent unsaturated polyester resins and gelcoats that are commercially available to FRP manufacturers. These products, sold under the Fireblock name, can be used to make all types of railway composite parts, either for rolling stock or infrastructure. They can be easily used in many composite processes (RTM, spray-up, pultrusion, etc.). The resins are moulded with fibreglass the same way as standard fireretardant resins, in order to produce railway composite parts with the same usage value. The new resins and gelcoat have been tested according to the new CEN TS 45545 railway standard for interior panel applications. Different sets of requirement apply, depending on the component and its location in the train. For interior components such as ceiling, wall covering and doors, the requirement set is R1. The CEN TS 45545 standard defines three “hazard levels” for the R1 category: HL3, HL2 and HL1 from

- CFE (kW/m²): Critical Flux at Extinguishment or lateral Tab.1: International standards Information Flame Spread, Standard Country Fireblock performance - MAHRE (kW/m²): Maximum Average Rate CEN TS 45545 HL 3 of Heat Emission, European Union LOI, ISO 4589 > 60 - Ds(4): specific optical EN 13501 B s2 d0 density of smoke, Class 0 BS 476, Part 6 - VOF4: Cumulative United Kingdom Class 1 BS 476, Part 7 value of specific optical Category 2 BS 6853 densities in the first 4 NF P 92-507 M1 minutes of the test, France F1 NF F 16-101 - CIT@8min: conventional index of toxicity. most to least severe. The required rating level (HL1, 2, 3) is defined according to the type of train (or metro or tramway) and its operation category. HL3 is now mandatory for mainline, regional and suburban trains, depending on European member states. The fire resistance rating level (HL1, 2, 3) was measured using the following five tests:
Spain UNE 23727 M1 F1

Fig. 1: Fireblock resin and gelcoat performance as per the CEN TS 45545 standard

of the CEN TS 45545 railway standard and with many national standards (Table 1). In addition to the remarkable safety characteristics of the new resin and gelcoat, the material is free of carcinogenic, mutagenic and reprotoxic substances (CMR). Even with the obvious benefits compared to other technologies (low density, no toxic chemicals), the manufacturer

The detailed results in Figure 1 show that the Fireblock resin with a gelcoat is HL3, the highest safety level in the railway sector. Fireblock complies with the highest requirements

No69 November - December 2011 / jec composites magazine
Germany DIN 5510 S4 SR2 ST2 USA ASTM E 84 ASTM E 662 ASTM E 162 SMP 800 UL 94 Class 1 compliant FSI = 10 compliant V-0

Feature land transportation

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #69 - November/December 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #69 - November/December 2011