Scott Bader exhibiting high performance fire retardant composite materials at Middle East Rail 2017
Scott Bader (stand H32), is exhibiting for the first time at Middle East Rail 2017, which takes place on 8-9 March at the Dubai World Trade Centre. Middle East Rail, now in its 10th successive year, is the region’s longest running and most successful railway event, which has helped shape the rail market in UAE and the wider Middle Eastern region. On the Scott Bader stand, will be its range of high performance composite resins and gelcoats, developed to meet the demanding mechanical and fire performance test standards for composite materials used in the rail industry for rolling stock and infrastructure applications. Scott Bader has invested heavily in R & D to develop high performance fire retardant FRP laminate systems and is now an established global composite materials provider to the rail industry.
The Middle East is a key market for Scott Bader, which it has served for over 20 years from its locally based Scott Bader Middle East (SBME) production plant and offices in the Jebel Ali Free Zone, Dubai, UAE The plant is ideally positioned to manufacture and distribute Scott Bader’s wide range of polyester resins, vinyl esters, gelcoats, bonding pastes and structural adhesives throughout the Middle East, Africa, India and the Far East. Along with building & construction, chemical, transportation and marine, the rail sector has becoming an increasingly important part of its business in the Middle East, with a growing customer base. Neil Gray, Global Market Manager, Fire, Smoke & Toxic fume (FST) Performance products explains: “Scott Bader sees the growing rail industry in the Middle East as a major new business opportunity, following the success of our expanding rail business globally. The Middle East Rail Show is a key event, allowing us to showcase our technical products and successes in the rail industry from other territories”.
Advanced FST Performance FRP Systems
Scott Bader has developed and supplied fire retardant (FR) thermoset resins and gelcoats for composites applications to the rail sector for over 35 years. Using latest technology high performance materials, both glass and carbon-fibre gelcoated and colour matched FRP composite parts can be cost effectively fabricated using an ATH filled Crestapol® resin grade with one of the Crystic® Fireguard FR gelcoats, including new ‘halogen free’ grades. The Crestapol 1212, 1214, 1216 and 1250LV resin grade options available can be heavily filled with ATH depending on the FR specification required for a specific application.
For interior applications needing a fire spread delay barrier, such as electrical enclosures, floor sections and roof panels, Scott Bader’s R & D team developed Crystic® Fireguard 75PA ‘Excel’, an intumescent topcoat which is applied to the internal side of an FRP laminate. This intumescent FR topcoat can withstand a direct flame at a temperature of 700 degrees C (1292 degrees F) for over 60 minutes without the laminate catching fire; and when used behind Crestapol 1212 the laminate system passes BS 476 Part 7 Class 1, Part 6, Class 0, and M1 F1.
Matched laminate systems can be specified for a wide variety of both interior and exterior rolling stock and infrastructure applications that must pass stringent fire, smoke and toxicity (FST) standards, including the latest EN 45545 rail standard. Independent test results have given an EN 45545 HL2 pass rating to various glass fibre laminate matched systems using both hand lay-up and infusion ATH-filled Crestapol resin grades in combination with Crystic® Fireguard 70PA high performance FR gelcoat. Prior to the EN 45545 regulation, Crestapol-based FRP rail parts met various international FST rail approvals for station buildings, rolling stock and underground trains including: DIN 5510 S4/SR2/ST2; French Epiradeateur NFP 92-501-M1 and NFF 16-101-F0; and the Spanish M1/F0 fire resistance test for interior rail applications.
Global Rail Applications
Crestapol resins have established a global reputation with many leading manufacturers in the rail sector as a viable alternative to more traditional phenolic resins, providing more dimensionally stable parts with an excellent surface finish, plus superior mechanical performance in terms of shear strength, toughness and fatigue resistance. Many convertors and OEMs have found Crestapol resins to be much easier to process, offering improved productivity cost benefits, as well as being preferable to use on the shop floor, with its safer, more environmentally friendly resin chemistry compared to other FR thermoset resin systems.
Scott Bader has significantly expanded its worldwide customer base over the last ten years, which now includes international train manufacturing companies such as: Alstom, Siemens and Bombardier. New rolling stock and rail infrastructure applications, both above ground and subterranean, using different grades of Crestapol resins and FR gelcoats, have been developed in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, North America and key Asian markets, particularly in China.