The Working Group „Flame Retardants“ brings together many participants from the flame retardants value chain and celebrates Prof. Manfred Döring’s well-deserved retirement
Finally, the meeting of the working group “Flame Retardants” (link here), organized by the Research Association for Plastics (Forschungsgesellschaft Kunststoffe e. V.), could again take place on site in Darmstadt.
Within the framework of this working group, a regular exchange takes place on all issues relating to flame retardancy on polymer materials. This includes questions on formulation, testing, characterization and application of flame retardant plastics. On the research side, the focus is primarily on halogen-free flame-retardant plastics and also on questions relating to the recycling of plastics containing flame-retardant.
This event not only featured three lectures by highly renowned scientists in the field of flame retardancy, but also gave a farewell to Prof. Manfred Döring into his well-deserved retirement from Fraunhofer Institute LBF.
The first lecture held by Dr. Jürgen Troitzsch, FEPS, Switzerland, covered the big fire safety trends in industry and the essential role of flame retardants. He highlighted the advanced flame retardant systems developed over the last few years through research and development in science and industry.
Prof. Serge Bourbigot, IUF / UMET, France, reported on intumescent polymers for fire protection like intumescent polypropylene, multi-wall carbon nanotubes as synergists in intumescent TPU, synergy in intumescent polyurethane and intumescent polymer metal laminates as fire barriers.
Prof. Jamie Grunlan, Texas A&M University, USA, introduced recent developments from his group on layer-by-layer (LbL) assembly and coatings based on polyelectrolyte complexation. By placing the flame retardants exclusively at the surface, a loss of bulk properties is prevented and only a lower amount for self-extinguishing behavior is needed.
Overall, this live event provided a good overview of new developments, needs and trends in flame retardant developments.
It was also a good opportunity to congratulate Manfred Döring, who has been highly respected and well-known in the flame retardant community for many years, on his retirement from the Fraunhofer LBF.
Pictures: Shutterstock, other pictures taken during meeting.