Hempel launches Hempafire Extreme 550, its new, market-leading epoxy Passive Fire Protection (PFP)
Certified for up to four hours of fire resistance, this epoxy PFP coating for cellulosic fires sets new benchmark for fire safety in commercial and industrial projects.
Key messages
- Fire protection: Certified for up to four hours of fire resistance, ensuring maximum safety for structural steel. Fully compliant with global standards, including EN 13381, BS 476 and AS 4100.
- Sustainable protection: Solvent-free and compatible with waterborne primers and topcoats, it delivers a complete PFP and anticorrosive system with ultra-low VOC, reducing CO2 emissions by up to 40% while enhancing safety and sustainability.
- Durability: Designed for toughness and resistance to mechanical damages and weather ageing, ensuring long-term performance over 25 years - even in C5 environments according to ISO 12944 standards.
- Efficiency: Lower dry film thicknesses (DFTs) required to protect the steel, up to 40%, thus reducing costs, application effort and environmental impact.
- Application: Ready for service and handling in 24 hours at 20°C. Smoother application and efficient handling with high build capacity, reducing the number of applications required.
Copenhagen, 17 March 2025: Hempel A/S, a leading global supplier of coatings and fire protection solutions, proudly announces the launch of its latest PFP solution, Hempafire Extreme 550. This state-of-the-art epoxy PFP coating provides up to four hours of fire protection while delivering exceptional durability and application efficiency. Formulated especially for cellulosic fires, this PFP coating sets new benchmarks for fire safety in commercial and industrial projects.
Certified with Environmental Declaration Program, Hempafire Extreme 550 reduces paint application by up to 40%, resulting in faster, more cost-effective execution, while also having a low embedded carbon value of the paint itself.
"The launch of Hempafire Extreme 550 represents a significant step forward in our mission to provide innovative and market-leading fire protection solutions. Its exceptional durability, loadings efficiency and greater coverage to protect lighter steel buildings for longer make it a game-changer for customers across industries,” Roger Soler, Group Product Manager Cellulosic PFP at Hempel A/S explains. “By addressing the needs of both specifiers and applicators, this product ensures outstanding results at every stage of a project.”
Hempafire Extreme 550 is suitable for most steel sections and allows building designers to use lighter steel types, reducing overall weight and costs in steel structures. Providing an architectural-grade finish while meeting aesthetic and functional requirements, it is fully compatible with a wide range of topcoats, offering design flexibility for colour and gloss.
Roger Soler adds, “With this latest innovation, we have combined the durability and mechanical strength of epoxy PFP technology with the paint efficiency and easiness-to-apply known from our previous Hempafire products. It underscores our commitment to enhancing both safety and productivity and reinforces our position as a leader in passive fire protection."
Additional information:
For Specifiers: Hempafire Extreme 550 exceeds fire regulations with third-party certification and additional rigorous fire testing, ensuring reliable performance even in harsh climate conditions. This gives specifiers peace of mind that safety standards will be maintained over time. Additionally, the simplicity of specification is a key advantage - this single product protects most steel sections, including lighter structures, offering engineers greater freedom in steel selection. To further streamline the design phase, Hempel’s HEET Dynamic estimation software provides powerful support in selecting the optimal fire protection solution, ensuring efficiency and accuracy from the start.
For Applicators: Hempafire Extreme 550 is designed to save applicators time, effort and costs. Its lower DFT requirements mean reduced paint consumption, leading to significant material savings. The product's forgiving nature minimises stoppages in the painting process, ensuring smoother applications and fewer disruptions. With faster process times, minimised transport and construction damage, and reduced touch-up needs, applicators can achieve a more efficient workflow. Additionally, its high build capacity protects steel with fewer coats in less time, while its 24-hour readiness at 20°C enables a faster project turnaround. As a solvent-free solution, it also promotes safer and more sustainable working conditions on-site.
Learn more about Hempafire Extreme 550 right here.
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Press contact:
Joanna Ashmead, Head of Media Relations
Email: communications@hempel.com
Tel: +45 3077 2816
About Hempel
As a world-leading supplier of trusted coating solutions, Hempel is a global company with strong values, working with customers in the decorative, marine, infrastructure and energy industries. Hempel factories, R&D centres and stock points are established in every region.
Across the globe, Hempel’s paints and coatings can be found in almost every country of the world. They protect and beautify buildings, infrastructure and other assets, and play an essential role in our customers’ businesses. They help minimise maintenance costs, improve aesthetics and increase energy efficiency.
At Hempel, our purpose is to shape a brighter future with sustainable coating solutions. We firmly believe that we will succeed as a business only if we place sustainability at our heart. Not only is it the right thing to do, it will strengthen our competitive position, make ourselves more resilient and reduce our risk.
Hempel was founded in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1915. It is majority owned by the Hempel Foundation, which ensures a solid economic base for the Hempel Group and supports cultural, social, humanitarian and scientific purposes around the world.
