Changing the colour of an A2-s1d0 rated product

It is usual in the construction industry to match the colour of the adhesive or coating to masonry in applications such as cut and bond bricks and cladding.  In the past this has never been a problem. Here at Structural Adhesives Ltd we have always been happy to supply coloured products or provide colours for customers to tint the products themselves. We even offer a colour matching service for several of our products.

However, in some cases this is not an option due to strict regulations. For example, for residential buildings, any materials used above 18 m must be A1 or A2-s1d0 fire rated. To obtain this fire rating a number of fire tests must be carried out on the material. Any change to the formulation of the product, even a very small change such as the addition of a minute amount of pigment, would render the testing invalid. Therefore, it is not possible to change the colour of an A2-s1d0 rated product such as our S-2825FRE adhesive, without re-doing all of the fire tests, the cost of which is multiple thousands of pounds.

When developing S-2825FRE Structural Adhesives Ltd chose the buff colour due to the large number of customers using buff and light-coloured brick slips. We also wanted to make the colours of the part 1 and part 2 of the product obviously different to provide easy identification of thorough mixing. However, if a customer had a real need for an A2-s1d0 adhesive in a different colour, Structural Adhesives Ltd are very confident they would be able to supply this providing the customer were willing to organise and finance the required retesting.