Wednesday, 18 February 2015

A Discussion on Steel Protection Spray NSW andIts Benefits

Fire in many forms plays a strong role in development, but in its natural, raw and uncontrolled form, it can wreak havoc. Modern technology has invented Intumescent paint NSW as one of the protection methods against fire. Man has found that it is prudent to prevent the occurrence of fire rather than stay vulnerable and then try to extinguish it with all types of innovative materials!

How steel protection spray NSW Protects Buildings

Steel as a metal does not need any introduction in modern society. You can see it everywhere from the structural support in buildings to the smallest gadget in your hand. The steel protection spray NSW becomes important because as strong as the metal is; it too has a limited power to withstand heat. At very high temperatures, around 550 degrees centigrade, the metal begins to weaken and as a result can be dangerous for the building which it supports!

Application of Intumescent or fire retardant protection is preferred because:


•    Once applied, it gives a neat and smooth appearance, thus not interfering with the aesthetics in any way
•    It delays the spread of fire and prevents it from taking on a cataclysmic form
•    This delay gives the people inside the building enough time to come out
•    The paint also provides enough time for the fire-fighter to reach thescene
•    Once fire-fighters reach the scene, they can safely carry out evacuation procedures too in the window given by the fire retardant paint

How Does Intumescent paint NSW Work?

This paint is almost as a rule applied to all new structures and has been in use for many years in buildings that have developed by reputedconstruction companies and good engineers
•    When exposed to heat, the paint expands and undergoes an almost miraculoustransformation. It protects and delays fire by forming a blanket of char.
•    This protective layer can be 50 times thicker than the original fire retardant paint that was applied, thus saving numerous lives and perhaps the structure itself if help reaches in time
•    It is a type of passive fire protection method when compared to the active methods such as sprinklers. However, it is due to this passive method that sprinklers also get time to come into action and start spraying water so that the heated surface is cooled and any small fires that might have broken out somewhere in the building gets extinguished
The function of this fire retardant paint can be better understood by a look at the whole process of flammability which happens in four steps:
•    Preheating
•    Decomposition
•    Ignition
•    combustion

In preheating process an external source heats up the surface or the material under discussion and the temperature begins to rise. Now the rate or speed at which the temperature rises is also dependent on two other factors such as the:

1.    how well the material which has been subjected to high temperatures conducts heat
2.    its specific heat
3.    vaporization of the material
4.    latent heat of fusion and
5.    the thermal intensity of the source of ignition

The moment a material reaches the maximum temperature that it can withstand, it starts decomposing which means it loses its original properties that held the material. Next gaseous combustion occurs and the flames are propagated to other nearby material as well by subsequent heat generations and radiating back which continues the decomposition process. Hence, it is logical that if any of the factors of flammability are interfered with, fire can be prevented and it is in this way that passive fire projection methods work.

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