AMIs „Fire Resistance in Plastics“, 2017

The 12th international Fire Resistance in Plastics conference, held by AMI, took place as usual at the Maritim Hotel in Cologne. At this event, different companies along the entire value chain participate, leading to a broad portfolio of information on new developments and commercially available products. Due to this fact, the Fire Resistance in Plastics conference enjoys an increasing popularity. This year there were already 170 participants from all over the world.

Different lectures were held by international companies and academics about the latest developments regarding flame retardancy of various polymers. Furthermore, companies were represented with booths, giving the possibility of gaining comprehensive information about their products and services.

On the first day subjects like the future of flame retardants and the improvement of our understanding of flame retardant mechanisms and performance were in the focus. With regard to this range of topics, Elke Metzsch-Zilligen, Fraunhofer LBF, gave an update on a project with the focus on the recyclability of halogen free flame retardant plastics, supported by Pinfa.

In another presentation given by Guillaume Capon, Crepim, the literature on impact of non-halogenated fire retardants on smoke toxicity was reviewed, which was also supported by Pinfa. Here phosphorus, inorganic and nitrogen containing flame retardants (PIN FR), also combined with synergists, show no big influence of smoke toxicity. However, more detailed, broad and comparable studies still have to be done.

As culmination of the second day, a dinner was held at “Wartesaal am Dom” near Cologne Cathedral, where the participants again had the possibility of networking and exchanging ideas.

The final day of Fire Resistance in Plastics conference focused on other topics like examining the effectiveness and applications of mineral fire retardants or developing new fire retardant systems for specific applications. Klaus Rathberger of Georg H. Luh GmbH explained the behavior in the case of fire, the possibilities and advances in the use of expandable graphite as a mineral halogen-free flame retardant for plastic applications.

From Clariant, Christian Schmidt, discussed the latest standards and requirements for selected transport applications. Furthermore he gave an update on the latest developed formulations containing Clariant’s broad flame retardant portfolio, to pass high demanding requirements for different transport applications.

Besides these highlighted lectures also other well-known companies were represented. DOW, Huber and Paxymer focused on synergists and synergistic effects and Evonik on using organomodified siloxanes to enhance flame retardant properties of engineering plastics. Also Budenheim and BASF with their focus on thermoplastic applications and polyolefin films should not be forgotten. 

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