Abstract
The ever increasing amount of legislation on fire performance tests in many parts of the world indicates the decisive roll of FR-performance on the further development of the polyurethane-foam business in general. Because of this, the use of flame retardants is imperative for many applications but attempts were made to evaluate other factors which also influence the FR-performance of the polyurethane foam, as well.
The focusing point of our work was the question whether there are practical ways to implement results into actual production processes.
For example the influence of foam porosity on FR-performance is well known. Nevertheless, it may not be a factor to be changed under production conditions due to foam specifications.
In this paper research will be shown regarding the question in which way FR-performance and production safety can affect formulation changes without changing foam porosity.
Other topics of special interest to us are the melting performance and the influence of surface morphology on the burning of flexible slabstock foam. This also relates to the use of fillers in slabstock formulations and their effects on the flammability of foams.
Another important aspect that has been considered is the influence of the silicone surfactant structure, especially with regard to the ethylene oxide content of the utilized polyethers in the surfactant. The dependence among silicone surfactant structure, the amount of silicone surfactant within a foam and the resulting influence on FR-performance is another very important aspect to consider for optimum FR-properties. Differences between the use of conventional, universal and FR-surfactants will be shown and explained.
Based on the results of our work the parameters to design surfactants with enhanced FR-performance will be discussed.
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