Fire retardant epoxy for infusion

I donT want to go into great detail just yet as the prototype is in development, but i am producing a part that ideally would be fire retardant like the origanal.

The origanal is made from plastic and is fia aproved. Is made from plastic but is fire retardant, my question is…

Is there an epoxy that is clear suitable to for infusion that is flame retardant or an aditive that can be added to a infusion resin to make it fire retardant? :smiley:

Look into Aluminum trihydrate. As the filler burns it produces water and becomes a fire suppressant

Here’s a fire retardant additive from ECF
http://www.ecfibreglasssupplies.co.uk/p-624-west-system-421-fire-retardant-additive-1kg.aspx

That additive can not be used in infusion. The viscosity of the resin after mixing will not allow to infuse.
Normal an epoxy will not burn, if it is not fireproof enough you can try a phenol resin.

resin additive like ATH would get strained out though the laminate during infusion. And like DD said, the viscosity would increase too much to be suitable for proper infusion. There are coatings you can put on after to make the part flame retardant.

Would these coatings be clear???

You can modify an epoxy with tetrabrombisphenol a what will be fire retardant. But normal an epoxy composite is fire retardant enough for a fia approval.


I wouldnt know i guess i will have to set fire to the ites and compare ha

With ATH 3 things happen:

-the encapsulated water (crystal water) turns into steam, thereby cooling the burning laminate
-the steam replaces the air surrounding the burning laminate, thereby choking the fire.
-the remaining crust on the surface is quite fire resistant, and will protect underlying laminate.

Depending on your fibers you can infuse ATH filled epoxy or polyester, but the fibers should be very open in structure. (Scott&Fyfe Polymat High Flow for instance)

The (intumescant) fire retardant epoxy (halogen free) that I have has a viscosity of 1500 cps, so a tad much for infusion. FAR25.853 approved, though…

The details are fine and you can visit the nearest showroom for more informations regarding the same. They act as a flame retardant or as an additive for infusion resin. You can also use the Aluminum trihydrate for similar purposes. These additive can not be used for infusions or similar stuffs.


flame retardants

Find out what the requirements are for the fire resistance tests. In mining the test is hold a blowtorch on it for 30 second then there must be no flame or afterglow after another 30 seconds. The a CAA test that we did was a flame for 2 minutes and then 1 a minute for it to go out.

The funny thing was after 1 minute all the resin had burnt away and there was only carbon fibre left so there was nothing to support the flame. So you might find that you can meet the test without much effort.