Flammability Standards

To reduce the toll of deaths and injuries, and the huge cost to society, fire safety standards are essential in all areas of modern life and in particular for buildings and interior decoration, furniture, consumer equipment and transport vehicles. Different geographical regions may have different flammability standards, if any. These standards are based upon the function of the polymer. For example, the housings of TV sets and computers are typically required to meet flammability standards.

Fire safety standards

• Laws and regulations define the necessary minimum levels of fire safety
• Technical standards for products define which fire test has to be applied and what the criteria are
• Fire test standards define the method of testing for reaction to fire and the measured parameters (e.g. time to ignition, heat release...)
• Flame retardants can be added so some materials in order to achieve the necessary safety level (i.e., pass the relevant fire test) thus enabling their use to be conform to regulations and to offer the required level of fire safety to the public.

Flame retardant products have to prove their effectiveness by fulfilling the requirements of standardized fire tests. The fact that a flame retardant works on one substrate can NOT be taken as proof that it will do so for other materials. This is especially true for flame retardant products which are applied by the end user, e.g. spray-on treatments for textiles and decorations.

When are flame retardants used?

For the consumer, fire safety standards ensure that products offer a minimal standard of safety in use. In some cases, manufacturers also offer products with higher levels of fire safety as an element of consumer choice.

For authorities, fire safety standards reduce the number of fires occurring and their gravity, thus reducing the costs to fire services and to society.

For industry, fire safety standards ensure a level playing field between competitors, and provide a tool for showing that products are consumer safe.

Fire safety standards can address the fire behavior (resistance to ignition, burning behavior once on fire…) both of materials used in products and of the final product, as well as safety features of product design, fire alarms and extinguishers, emergency exits in buildings … There is an increasing tendency to develop fire performance engineering approaches4 to building and product fire safety standardization: this requires the overall system (building or product) to offer a given level of fire safety, allowing designers to achieve this by optimal combinations of fire prevention (use-design, flame resistant materials …), fire spread limitation (design, flame retardant materials, extinguishing …) and user safety through escape and safety specifications.

Fire safety standards are defined by standardization organizations, industrial associations, authorities or fire organizations. Conformity to standards can be obligatory (required by law or by, for example, building regulations), may be required by insurers, or can offer producers a marketing advantage. Conformity to fire safety standards can enable manufacturers to demonstrate that products fulfill the requirements of the EU General Product Safety Directive (2001/95/EEC) of being safe to be put on the market.

Conformity to fire safety regulations is tested by product manufacturers, officially recognized testing institutes and independent experts according to methods outlined in the standard for each particular fire test. Certain standards specify different fire safety labels (classes) for products as a function of the results achieved in fire tests.

Harmonization of fire safety standards is a continuing process throughout the world.
In the European Union standards are now issued by the European Committee for Standardization ( CEN ) and the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization ( CENELEC ). On a global scale, harmonization of standards and recognition of test results is being undertaken by the IEC ( International Electrical Commission ) for electrical equipment and by ISO ( International Organization for Standardization ) for all other technical fields.

In addition to these international authorities, there are fire safety standards issued by national bodies (e.g. Building Regulations, UK and ASTM in the USA ), industry bodies (e.g. FAA , SOLAS, UIC) and fire safety organizations (e.g., NFPA ).

As part of large and small scale fire tests, which are designed to provide data on combustibility, ignitability, flame spread, heat release and smoke and gas generation both flame retarded and non-flame retarded products and components are included. Without fail, these tests demonstrate that the use of flame retardants inhibits ignition and reduces combustibility - particularly in the early stages of a fire, thus lengthening the potential escape time and providing additional time for corrective action to be taken.

Depending on the test methods specified in standards, conformity to fire safety standards can often be demonstrated by testing the complete final product, but this can involve large-scale and expensive testing, and compliance can often be achieved by instead using fire-safe materials and flame retardants (with conformity being demonstrated using small-scale tests of material samples).