As featured in the new BBC Documentary (link here)
Owners of Starlite
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STARLITE is a polymer shown to have unrivaled properties in the industry of fire safety. In its more than 20 years of existence, it has been rigorously tested by independent companies and laboratories such as NASA, Boeing, the UK’s Atomic Weapons Establishment, NATO, The Royal Signal & Radar Establishment, BAE Military Aircraft and consistently resulted in fire protection and heat shielding levels never seen in other materials. Invented by the eccentric Englishman Maurice Ward, it has never been commercialized despite the material’s impressive credentials. Maurice proved too difficult to deal with for either governments or the many corporations that sought his technology. When he passed it was feared that all was lost. Thermashield, a chemical startup based in California, fully acquired the technology in 2013 and has since been able to replicate the inventor's most iconic tests with the same outstanding results. Our own samples have passed ASTM testing and high-powered laser tests at a renowned US institute of technology. We are currently developing the technology and seeking partners to turn this invention into real world applications. |
Wherever there is heat, there are applications. Rosendo Naranjo - NASA Program Manager
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We still don't yet know how the material works, but that it works it is absolutely the case. Sir Ronald Mason - UK Defense Ministry
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Demonstration on live TV
- All rights belong to the BBC -
Live demonstrations on Tomorrow's World and the BBC Radio 4 in 1990 showed that an egg coated in Starlite could remain raw, and cool enough to be picked up with a bare hand, even after five minutes under the flame of a blowtorch.
Live demonstrations on Tomorrow's World and the BBC Radio 4 in 1990 showed that an egg coated in Starlite could remain raw, and cool enough to be picked up with a bare hand, even after five minutes under the flame of a blowtorch.
White Sands Tests UK Ministry of Defense, 1991 Simulated nuclear explosion with 2,650 tonnes of TNT performed in White Sands, New Mexico under NATO auspices. Substrate unharmed, "merely blackened on the surface". |
Plastic that can withstand a Nuclear Blast? August 15, 1993 "...Starlite seems to promise coatings that could protect satellites from laser weapons, or shields on tanks that could fend off heat from a nuclear blast." “...couldn’t touch Starlite even with a plasma torch, which easily cuts through 18 inches of steel.” and “it took 9 seconds to heat a warhead to 900ºC. But a paper-thin layer of Starlite halted the temperature rise at 40ºC”. |
"Proof of concept" tests December, 1997 "The conclusion from this phase of testing is that Starlite has successfully demonstrated "proof of concept" for resisting high-energy lasers and as fire and thermal barrier". Overall, Starlite was three times more effective as a heat shield than any known material. |
Femtosec Laser Tests October 2015 Extreme power densities without observable damage to the surface of the material. |
ASTM D635 Burn Tests November 2017 No specimens burned to the 25mm mark. The specimens did not continue to flame after the flame application. |
