Product development and innovation

If you wish to develop and prepare your products for new markets, DBI can help target/focus the development. With our extensive knowledge of standards and legislation, we will find out which tests need to be performed so that you obtain the approval you need in different markets.
DBI is not characterised by conventional thinking. It is a combination of the latest knowledge combined with over 90 years’ experience; knowledge and experience that is passed down to new employees.

Grants can be obtained for fire tests. For example, a fire test of high strength concrete for an architectural firm was carried out with grants from The Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation.

We can help companies and their advisers bring their ideas to life. Through our development tests and our knowledge of fire requirements, we have helped:

The development of revolutionary elements for low energy construction, in cooperation with DBI
An architectural firm and 2 manufacturers have benefited greatly from DBI’s fire tests. They were working on the development of space and material saving building components of high strength concrete.

One of the major challenges of the project was concrete’s flammable characteristics. The development tests were carried out in DBI’s model furnace. We tested different concrete recipes and element structures in order to find the solution best suited to lessen the damaging effects of fire.

Only when there was a reasonable chance of success did we conduct a full scale classification test as a basis for the certification of the elements.

The project resulted in a concrete with a thickness of only 30cm, which is just as strong and insulates just as well as the traditional concrete of 50-60cm.

Project manager Karsten Bro of Arkitema says:
The cooperation with DBI was essential to us being able to develop a new type of fireproof high-strength concrete. They have served as good sparring partners in a long and complicated process with many serious challenges. We look forward to continuing our cooperation in the future when we will develop the system of fire certifications, which will allow us to export to many more countries.

New testing methods
The new and exceptional teaching, research and cultural centre Alsion in Sønderborg gambled on developer Danfoss Semco using water mist in its fire protection system instead of sprinklers. It was not immediately feasible as there were no European standards for approving water mist systems in such large spaces. But DBI succeeded in developing a test that demonstrated that water mist is just as effective as sprinklers in large spaces.

Documenting safety in complex constructions
For a new cultural centre in Holmbladsgade in Copenhagen, the architects wanted a facade of plastic, which could not be readily approved by the fire authorities. DBI performed the necessary fire tests on the facade the architects had chosen. The fire protection of the building was also organised in such a way that the fire safety could be documented in accordance with the function-based fire requirements. It was therefore possible to construct buildings with plastic exterior cladding in Denmark.