Abstract:
In this study, we report the development and characterization of fire-resistant non-intumescent polymeric resin for aluminized (E-glass-based) and non-aluminized (basofil/nomex/carbon-based) firefighting suit fabrics. The prospective coating resin is synthesized via two-step polymerization of polyimide using dimethylacetamide (DMAc) as a common solvent. 3-Aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) is used as a coupling agent and is added just before coating. All the coating samples are prepared by hand layup technique and are allowed to cure (known as imidization) under the oven with increasing the temperature step-by-step from 80 to 350 °C. The imidization of coating resin is confirmed by FT-IR spectra analysis. Furthermore, all the samples are characterized with flammability, adhesion, thermal protective index, heat char and ignition, and thermal shrinkage as per BS 3120, MIL-C-29143, BS 3791, D-5537, and NFPA 1976 standards, respectively. The observed results confirmed that the prospective resin could be a better choice as fire-resistant coating for carbon-blended aluminized and/ non-aluminized fabric.