Notus Composites achieved a major manufacturing milestone when its one millionth m2 of fire retardant (FR) epoxy prepreg was shipped from its facility in UAE this month. Notus supplies FR materials for several infrastructure projects in the Middle East. The latest batch of material was supplied for the new composite Museum of the Future in Dubai.   

The one million m2 milestone was achieved during a recent production run of Notus’ Epfr-609 glass fibre reinforced epoxy prepreg - a user friendly, long out life, FR prepreg designed for low pressure/vacuum curing at temperatures from 85-120°C. Epfr-609 can also be supplied as a resin film or as Notus N1-preg, the company’s versatile single sided prepreg product format.

Having set up in 2015 but grown considerably in the past four years, Notus Composites has completed an extensive programme of testing at well-known fire research laboratories in the Middle East and Europe with particular focus on large scale tests to verify material behaviour as part of a complete wall or façade system. 

As a result, Notus Composites Epfr-609 prepreg and NE11-FR surface film is the only epoxy prepreg system to have passed the NFPA 285 exterior and curtain wall test and to have achieved an impressive b2,s1,d0 rating when testing to the European EN13501-1 standard. In addition, these materials have been approved by the UAE’s Dubai Civil Defense (one of the Middle East’s leaders in building fire safety coding) who completed a programme of factory inspections and production audits as well as witnessing fire tests themselves.

“It is a fantastic achievement to reach 1,000,000m2 of FR prepreg,” said Mihir Shah, managing director, Notus Composites. “We’ve come such a long way since 2015 and are now supplying into some of the largest and most complex composite construction projects in the Middle East. It’s great to see our investment in testing and development being successful, as our clients continue to deliver ever larger FR composite structures.”

Notus Composites manufactures next generation prepreg materials at their facilities in the UAE. Notus specialise in producing innovative, cost-effective and customised prepreg and resin film solutions for advance composite markets such as architectural composites, wind energy, automotive, rail, aerospace, marine, sporting goods and several other industrial applications.