Imagine this situation, you stayed late tonight at work, it is almost 7:00 pm and ready to go when you hear the fire alarm.  There is no chance it could be a fire practice, this is for real and you have to get out of there right away.

You run throw the hall and in a couple of minutes smoke is everywhere, visibility is close to zero and there is not much air to breath.  You are about to panic when you see an exit sign.

Great! Salvation is almost there, you can see the emergency door and just when you open the door you notice you made a huge mistake.

When you opened the door a rush of oxygen rushed through the door and created an explosion.  What was the error?  Before opening any door you have to be sure the door is cold, that indicates the room you are getting into is safe.

If the door or handle is hot, it means you will be opening a room suffocated by fire, if you open the door air is going to increase the fury of the fire and you will be exactly in the middle of everything.

The problem is that most of the people are unaware of this, and even if you got the proper training it is impossible to be sure you will not forget it when you face a real incident.  Zafe is a termo-reactive film applied to doors which function is to create a visual indication of the state of the door.  If the door reaches certain temperature the film will react and mark a door that potentially has a room on fire at the other side.  Basically if you have to choose between two doors, Zafe will give you all the information you need without wasting seconds touching the door.

Finalist in the Product Design contest “Zero Boundaries” organized by Zink in 2009.  You can visit the website and learn more about the Zink technology and other finalists.