ANWIL has received EU funding to prepare a solution increasing resistance of polyvinyl chloride recipe to fire. If research works – carried out in cooperation with the Central Mining Institute (GIG) and Lodz University of Technology – end successfully, then the company from Włocławek will start implementing the innovative technology for production of ceramizing composites based on PVC. Their application in the building industry will contribute e.g. to an increase in resistance of cable and wire coatings to fire.
ANWIL is a leading manufacturer of nitrogenous fertilizers in the country and the only producer of polyvinyl chloride in Poland. This raw material is used, inter alia, for production of insulations and covers of electric cables and wires. Standard cable coatings, made on the basis of this raw material, are quickly burnt during fire. Therefore, experts from the company in Włocławek made efforts to increase their resistance to fire. Generation of a ceramic film around polyvinyl chloride would make flame retardancy possible. Since such a protective layer is characterized by high hardness and resistance to temperature of even 1000 degrees Celsius.
ANWIL received EU funding to execute the research and implementation project, lasting 36 months, titled: Preparation of the technology for production of ceramizing composites based on PVC in the amount of nearly PLN 825 thousand within the Smart Development Operational Programme for the years 2014-2020.
The company invited scientists from the Central Mining Institute (GIG) and Lodz University of Technology to cooperation. Such a selection of project participants will make it possible to benefit from knowledge of the scientific staff from the higher education school in Łódź, which holds patents on ceramization of other polymers, specialists from Katowice conducting research into combustibility and experts employed in ANWIL.
Bartłomiej Samardakiewicz, Development Director in ANWIL S.A., while commenting on commencement of the research works, emphasized: – The project team consists of outstanding specialists who, both with the use of the latest technologies not only from the plastics processing sector and in consideration of current trends concerning creation of recipes based on PVC, will search for a solution making the flame retardancy of recipes based on polyvinyl chloride possible. Each innovation is a result of creative work, aimed at transforming an idea into reality. Therefore, we will apply out of box thinking, taking into account even the most abstract ideas, which can contribute to achievement of the objective of our project. We are determined and hope that our undertaking will be successful.
If this aim is achieved, ANWIL will become an owner of the first, unique on the European scale, technology for production of ceramizing composites based on PVC. Thanks to this, the company would enormously contribute to further increase in resistance of products made of this raw material to high temperatures.
