The investment will allow Jotun to enhance product innovations and technologies for intumescent coatings for the infrastructure and energy industries.
The international manufacturer of paints and coatings Jotun has recently announced the completion of a major expansion project regarding its Global Intumescent R&D Laboratory located in Flixborough (United Kingdom). The investment will allow the company to enhance its product innovations and technologies for intumescent fire protection coatings destined to the infrastructure and energy industries.
The expansion has doubled the size of the facility, originally built in 2016, which covers now an area of 2,900m2. The one-year expansion programme included the installation of new furnaces with associated application and conditioning facilities combined with new analytical, environment simulation and mechanical testing facilities. In addition, the site now hosts new laboratories for product development as well as fire testing capacity and capabilities, so it will allow Jotun to grow its market share in the sector by accelerating the development of new innovations and technologies and more advanced products, whilst providing additional certification support to the existing product range of the company.
In particular, the focus will be placed on the SteelMaster portfolio for steel structures within the infrastructure field and the Jotachar range for vital assets in the energy industry. The aim is to enter new markets through wider certifications and regional product customisations, in line with the rapidly changing requirements of the customers, thus ensuring that their assets are fire protected to latest regulatory requirements and that the materials could deliver the highest performances for their specific location.
“When we opened the Global Intumescent R&D Centre in 2016, our vision was for a facility that could evolve to support our customers across the globe as their structural fire protection requirements become more complex and regionalised. We are delighted with this major extension, more than doubling the size of our facility, we are now ready to further enable the development of fire protection coatings and technologies to meet these requirements,” has stated James Irving, the research and development manager for intumescent coatings of Jotun.
The enhanced global hub in Flixborough will also be supported by the headquarters of the company in Sandefjord (Norway). Moreover, Jotun is planning and has already completed several other investments in regional intumescent research, development and testing facilities in China, United Arab Emirates, Korea, United States of America and Malaysia.
“Our Intumescent R&D team is expanding rapidly. These new facilities will allow our scientists, technicians and industry specialists to reinforce our position as a global innovator in this safety-critical area of the coatings industry. This expansion is a key part of our ambitious strategy to increase market share and grow sales of intumescent coatings by developing a global network of intumescent R&D facilities with Flixborough as the hub,” has concluded Irving.