Flame Resistance Testing - TCA Lab / Alfa Chemistry

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Flame Resistance Testing

The flame retardancy test is a method to detect the ability of the test object to delay the flame continuation and spread. The flame retardancy test has formed a variety of standards and has become a very important test item in the relevant industry. There are many products that need to be tested for flame retardancy, such as fire/refractory material products, building material products, plastic material products, coating products, etc. These products have high requirements for flame retardancy. As a professional reliability third-party testing organization, T,C&A Lab can perform Flame Resistance Testing on building materials, textiles, electronics and electrical appliances according to ISO, ASTM and other standards. Welcome to contact our experts for consultation.

Parameters of flame retardant testing include:

Ignitability and flammability: The difficulty of being ignited
Flame spread speed: The spread speed of the flame along the surface of the material
Fire resistance: The speed at which fire penetrates the material component
Release rate: The heat and rate of release when the material burns
Degree of difficulty of self-extinguishing
Smoke generation: Including the amount of smoke, the rate of smoke release and the composition of smoke
The generation of toxic gases: Including gas volume, release rate and composition

Materials that need to be tested for flame retardancy

Building materials
Plastic and rubber
Rail transit
Wire and cable
Automotive interiors
Textiles
Furniture decoration
Electronic and electrical

Flame resistance testing methods

There are many test methods for flame retardancy. Common test methods include horizontal burning test method, vertical burning test method and oxygen index method.

Horizontal burning test

The horizontal combustion method refers to the test method in which one end of the material sample is held horizontally and the free end is exposed to the flame of the prescribed gas, and the combustion performance is evaluated by measuring the linear combustion speed. It is suitable for evaluating the combustion performance of solid materials and foam materials with apparent density greater than 250kg/m³. The results can be used to evaluate the combustion characteristics of different materials.

Vertical burning test

Vertical combustion is to evaluate the combustion performance of materials when ignited vertically to the bottom, and it is suitable for the determination of flame retardancy of clothing fabrics, decorative fabrics, tent fabrics and so on.

Oxygen index method

The oxygen index (OI) refers to the minimum oxygen concentration required for flaming combustion of a material in an oxygen-nitrogen mixed gas flow under specified conditions. It is expressed as the value of the volume percentage occupied by oxygen. The higher the oxygen index, the better the flame retardant performance. This method is used to evaluate the relative flammability of plastics and other polymer materials to determine how easy it is to burn when the material is in contact with flame in the air.

Standards we test to

ASTM F1939, ASTM F1358, ASTM D6413, ASTM F2302, ASTM F1506, ASTM E2032, ASTM D2155, ASTM D5048, ASTM E1353
ISO 15383, ISO 16900, ISO 17074, ISO 1776, ISO 23935

In addition, the experts in our Flame Resistance Testing Laboratory also provide a variety of custom tests as you need. Let's discuss the customized service with our experts for free.

Instruments and data

T,C&A Lab's services include, but are not limited to

Flame Resistance Testing Electrical Properties Testing Optical Properties Testing Testing of Magnetic Materials

Note: this service is for Research Use Only and Not intended for clinical use.

Related testing services

Material Testing

T,C & A LAB is an independent lab providing quality or custom testing, characterization and analysis of a variety of materials. Our engaged experts are ready to help you.

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