Project overview
Challenges and Needs
Fire safety is one of the most important issues that buildings’ engineering faces. Indeed, fires in buildings can lead to the loss of human lives and to construction damages that require significant repairing costs. These threats are mitigated by a series of actions, with passive fire protection being the main one, as it is considered the most efficient countermeasure for preventing the disastrous effects of fire incidents in constructions. Although there are some commercial products currently available for the passive fire protection of buildings, most of them have significant drawbacks, namely the high selling price (55-75 €/m2), the limited performance over time (usually the necessary integrity of 60 min) and non-desired properties, such as combustion. Very few among these materials are currently used as core material in fire resistant doors. Therefore, there is an urgent need to introduce into the market new fire resistant products, that will address the selling price concerns and meet, or even exceed, the performance requirements, arising thus, new business opportunities in such a fast-growing business sector, as the construction industry.
Objectives
IRMA project tackles the barriers related to the urgent need to introduce into the market new fire resistant products problems, by supporting the market entry of an innovative, competitive, sustainable and economically viable material, with advanced fire resistance properties, to be used as core material in fire resistant doors and as fire resistant material for building parts that require fire protection. This material will be produced and demonstrated in pilot-scale and tested according to European and international standards, offering a unique business opportunity in Cyprus for fire resistance applications in buildings sector initially, but also for a wider range of fire protection applications in other industrial sectors, such as petrochemical, marine, aerospace and tunnels construction. The strategic plan of IRMA project and the RECS company is to spread to all the above-mentioned sectors in the next years, starting from the building sector, which diachronically represents a major pylon of both the local and the regional economies.
Project Impacts
Industrial
- IRMA fire resistant material will be developed and produced totally in Cyprus, by Cypriot enterprise and personnel, with a view to be primarily used as core material in fire resistant doors
- Competitiveness and viability of IRMA material is expected to extend its applications in other sectors (marine, petrochemical).
Economic & Environment
- The final price of IRMA material is estimated to be at least 50% lower than of the existing commercial materials.
- Production is based on low cost raw materials (waste glass and natural
clays) and the opened-sourced geopolymerization technology, which has limited requirements for equipment, with low energy consumption and insignificant environmental footprint. - The IRMA material withstands more hours without undergoing
combustion or breaking down in full or in parts, thus significantly reducing of repairing costs.
Social
- IRMA fire resistant material can offer effective protection of buildings for the whole duration of a fire event, thus enhancing the safety of people and the overall sense of social security.
