I just watched a segment on the Discovery Science Channle on a new invention called "Fire Paste".
So far, scientists have not completed full testing on this material. However, if what I saw in the segment is real, this is some REALLY amazing stuff that could seriously reduce the threat of fires to the home, and explosions in the space shuttle, along with a lot of other applications. I watched the guy take a torch to two miniature houses, and the regular one burnt to a crisp, while the coated one was perfectly fine. The paste appears to diffuse heat extremely well, is much lighter than alluminum, is very puncture resistant, is somewhat edible (though apparently tastes bad), and can be washed off with simple water (which turns it from a solid back into a paste again). It is not flexible, however, so it wouldn't work well for body armor (though apparently can be mixed with Kevlar to enhance the protective qualities of Kevlar).
Here is an article on the subject (linked from slashdot):
http://www.baytoday.ca/content/news/details.asp?c=63Inventor spurns burns with red-hot invention
By Phil Novak
BayToday.ca
Saturday, October 04, 2003
Troy Hurtubise says he doesn’t feel the heat, even with a 2000° C blowtorch flame blazing at his head.
The North Bay inventor has developed a physics-defying substance called fire paste, which he claims eliminates the cross-transfer of heat and prevents anything coated in the substance from burning up.
Not only does the paste stop heat from getting through, it cools to the touch within 20 seconds of the fire source being removed.
When dry, the paste is non-toxic four times lighter than aluminum, more heat resistant than titanium, and costs only pennies to make, Hurtubise said.
Don’t take his word for it though, because proof is available on national television.
"I should be dead by now"
Known as ‘the bear guy’ because of the Ursus bear suits he also invented, Hurtubise demonstrated the heat resistant properties of fire paste on a segment produced by and aired Sept. 2 on the Discovery Channel program Daily Planet.
In the spot, Hurtubise puts on a hockey helmet covered with a thin layer of cured fire paste and then chats casually while the live torch is held against his noggin.
“The scientists say I should be dead by now,” Hurtubise says at one point.
There’s no trickery involved, Hurtubise said, because the Discovery Channel controlled the entire sequence, even bringing the torches to North Bay in August to film the piece.
“The producer told me it was the most amazing thing he’d ever seen, that I could sit there for 10 minutes without getting my brain fried,” Hurtubise, 39, said.
Made with household ingredients
Hurtubise provided baytoday.ca with a demonstration, holding a hardened fire paste tile in his hand, while waving a blowtorch to and fro over it. He then took the tile and placed it against his face.
“Didn’t feel a thing, in fact you can touch it and see it’s cool to the touch,” Hurtubise said.
“It dissipates heat at an exponential rate, it’s beyond belief, and I have no idea why it does, all I know is that it does.”
Fire paste, Hurtubise said, is biodegradable and made with common ingredients.
“If you knew what it was made out of you’d laugh your head off for a year,” Hurtubise said during an interview in his home lab.
And the ingredients are cheap too.
Two major markets
“I can buy a 45-gallon drum of one of the main ingredients,” Hurtubise said, “for five bucks.”
Hurtubise sees two major markets for fire paste, the formula for which is locked in a safe somewhere in the United States, he said.
“I could coat the belly of the NASA space shuttle with fire paste for $25,000 (US), instead of the $60 million it costs for them to put tiles on it,” Hurtubise said.
“It can stand up to the heat of re-entry to the earth’s atmosphere, and then they can simply wash it off.”
In fact it was just three months after the space shuttle Columbia explosion that Hurtubise perfected fire paste.
Fire insurance industry interested
He said it took him 17 years of work "and 3,600 pours of the stuff," before finding the right combination.
The fire insurance industry is also interested, Hurtubise said, and has asked him to demonstrate.
He’s going to build two small-scale houses, coat one with fire paste and leave the other as is. Then they’re both going to be set on fire. When the fire paste is sprayed off, Hurtubise said, the house will be there intact.
“It will save the insurance industry billions,” Hurtubise said.
He adds that fire paste can handle such high temperatures, that had the steel skeleton holding up the World Trade Towers been sprayed with it, the buildings wouldn’t have imploded after being hit by two airliners Sept. 11.
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