How does it apply to the construction industry and in particular to the manufacturing of passive fire materials?
The recycling of fire boards and other insulating materials is now common practice and just one way of improving the use of the earth’s resources. But is there a way of avoiding the need to recycle? After all it still takes the use of the earth’s resources to recycle the waste board.
Our team at Interact Structural Fire Protection has a solution as we have moved on with our own manufacturing techniques and here’s how…
In the past, we used to use cardboard tubes to manufacture fire protection to tension rods used in everyday construction. The practice was to set two cardboard tubes one inside the other using a pair of end stops for location. In one of the tubes a ‘one time use’ plastic sheet was placed inside the outer tube. Upon the cure of the material injected, the end caps were removed and the tubes cut longitudinally to release the casting. The tubes were then set to waste/recycling.
The total waste, by volume, including plastic sheets, cardboard tubes and material lost in manufacture was approximately 50%, some of which was not recyclable i.e. plastic waste and material loss.
To tackle this, we have now developed a method of manufacturing which does not use cardboard tubes or plastic sheeting at all. The manufacturing material waste remains the same at about 10% of inert non-biohazard resin.
The new system we use makes use of plastic moulds which are infinitely reusable, well… almost. The process includes extracting the casting from the mould without any damage to the mould surfaces leaving a pristine surface ready for the next cycle.
This was a great move from our team, as the paper industry is having ever-increasing price rises and levies for recycling as one of the earths most valuable and diverse resources becomes a contributor to deforestation and misuse of the earth’s finite resources.
