The Best Fire Resistant Material Available
The best fire resistant material is used in firefighter suits, bicycle tires, ballistic rated body armor, aerospace applications and even as an asbestos substitute in construction insulation. Produced by the DuPont company, aramid is a synthetic material composed of polyamides. Aramid does not ignite, melt or separate upon exposure to fire. Does this Spark an idea?
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Worldwide Use
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United States-based DuPont company chemists first linked polyamides in the 1960s to create a fiber known as meta-aramid under the trade name Nomex. Thereafter, Teijin, a Japanese company, made the material available in Japan and the Netherlands under the trade name Teijinconex. The Yantai company and the SRO Group in China made the material available under the trade name X-Fiper. The Kermel company in France followed suit with a variant of meta-aramid under the trade name Kermel.
Product Evolution
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DuPont introduced aramid in the 1960s as a meta-aramid and has continued to improve upon the product since the initial development. During the 1960s and 1970s, DuPont collaborated with Dutch chemical company Akzo Nobel to blend meta-aramid polyamides with the synthetic fibers rayon, polyester and nylon to create a fortified material that had more elasticity and durability. DuPont trademarked the new development, para-aramid, as Kevlar and marketed it in 1973. Akzo also trademarked para-aramid in the late 1970s as Twaron.
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Clinical Testing
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When flash fire tested at the University of Alberta, fire suits made from pure aramid material demonstrated nearly 100 percent burn resistance. Total burns sustained equaled 7.15 percent, with less than 1 percent second-degree burns and 6.5 percent third-degree burns over the entire surface area. The outer shell showed a 3.2 percent inseam shrinkage (IS), a 1.7 percent center back (CB) shrinkage and a 5 percent underarm (UA) shrinkage. The inner material of the suit showed a 1.4 percent IS shrinkage, no CB shrinkage and a 1.7 percent UA shrinkage. When treated with flame retardant, the same material did not burn less, but shrinkage was almost eliminated with only a 0.4 percent inseam shrinkage of the inner lining.
Characteristics
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In addition to low flammability demonstrated in clinical testing, aramid also resists abrasion and organic solvents. It does corrode after exposure to acids and salts. The material degrades upon exposure to ultraviolet radiation and temperatures of 500 degrees Centigrade and higher. Aramid does not conduct electricity.
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References
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