Pass/fail criteria

In an ideal situation the parameters used to define furniture should be ignition resistance and the rate of generation of heat, smoke and toxic gases. Tests to do this with actual or mock-up full sized furniture are not yet available as final specifications but the Nordtest (28) and NBS furniture calorimeters (29) represent scientific methods while room/ corridor rigs, typically UK DOE PSA FR5 and 6 of 1976 (5) (6) were originally used but are less satisfactory from a scientific point of view. The Californian (30) and Boston tests (31) for public area furniture are essentially simple room tests and are similar in principle to DOE, PSA, FR5 and 6 although the latter do not have pass/fail criteria. Bench scale rate of heat release tests include the NBS cone (29) which, with a code of practice represent a possible alternative but the rate of burning of... 

The pass/fail criteria of BS 5852 Part 2 have been altered for certain materials to exclude clauses limiting the extent of penetration of flaming or smouldering combustion. A maximum mass loss criteria is introduced for PU foam and is essentially a means of distinguishing between combustion modified and other types of PU foam. In practice, combustion modified PU foam is likely to improve the burning behaviour of upholstered furniture. Although it is arguable that the... 

All filling materials are specified by ignition tests to BS 5852 Part 2 and composite non-PU foam mattress fillings to BS 5852 Part 2 and BS 6807 for seating and mattress applications respectively with a flame retarded polyester fabric. Different ignition sources, constructions and pass/fail criteria are used to differentiate between "acceptable" and "unacceptable" materials. 

Describe the quality control procedures required, frequency of QC checks during batch analysis, pass/fail criteria, action to take in the event of a failure. Cross-reference to the relevant sections above. 

FTIR has shown the close similarity of most resins based on Bis-Phenol A and has helped narrow the focus of development on the curative as the principal contributor to successful formulation. For present applications oligomeric polyamide amines appear successful in meeting present criteria. However, the only objective analysis of cured resin to date exhibiting a correlation of measured value with success in creep resistance as well as adhesion is heat distortion temperature. The following presents a correlation of heat distortion temperatures and adhesion for several formulations tested. In most cases, pass/fail criteria was based on the majority of six samples tested. 

Test protocols including methodology and pass/fail criteria ... 

For emissions testing to be accepted as a meaningful and necessary part of product quality assessment, relevant test methods must ensure acceptable uncertainty. Any associated products standards, incorporating pass/fail criteria, must also take into account the actual uncertainty of the standard methods specified. A relatively detailed summary of some of the major potential causes of error in the multistep materials emissions testing process is presented later in this chapter (see Section 6.6.2). For an emissions test standard/protocol to be robust and useful, it must take into account all of these issues and include sufficient guidance to ensure that a competent laboratory can achieve results within the expected uncertainty limits. 

Test or Certification Protocols and/or Product Standards are similar to standard test methods but include additional criteria (requirements). Typical test protocols or product standards specify which emission test method should be used, when it should be carried out (for example 3 days, 12 days or 28 days after the sample has been placed in the test apparatus), a list of target compounds (i.e., which compounds or groups of compounds are to be measured) and pass/fail criteria (i.e., limit levels for emissions above which a product would fail the certification process because one or more compounds are being emitted from that product material at an unacceptably high rate.)... 

Attitudes to TVOC measurements vary widely. Some like the concept of a TVOC parameter because it is simple to understand as a pass/fail criteria. However, it is not a reliable indicator of product safety or acceptability unless it is specifically applied to comparisons of very similar products, for example, different batches of the same material or products within a range that are essentially the same, but may have a different color or patterned finish. 

If the additional variables of sample selection, transport and preparation and chamber/cell emissions testing are taken into account, overall uncertainty for emissions testing methods is likely to be in the range 30-50%, even with best practice. Pass/fail criteria in associated test protocols and product standards, must take this into account. 

Testing and laboratory controls pass/fail criteria and justification if released sampling methods reference standards ongoing evaluation defined retest conditions investigation and review SOPs training of analysts and supervisors. 

In the 1980s, New York incorporated into its code (New York State Uniform Fire Prevention and Building Code), in Article 15, Part 1120, a requirement for Combustion Toxicity Testing, 23 based on a smoke toxicity test developed at the University of Pittsburgh.24 The test method was never standardized by either ASTM or NFPA because of the several concerns about its scientific validity.25 28 The New York State regulation did not include pass/fail criteria and has since been rescinded. 

Requirements for upholstered furniture flammability exist in various states, including California, based on California Technical Bulletin 133 (CA TB 133),91 which was also made into a consensus standard by ASTM committee E05 as ASTM E 1537.92 The gas burner used as the ignition source in CA TB 133 is a square-shaped burner that applies propane gas for 80s at a flow rate of 13L/min. The test is severe enough that it can usually not be met, unless the foam contained in the upholstered furniture item is flame-retarded. The pass/fail criteria are a peak heat release rate of 80 kW and a total heat released that does not exceed 25 MJ over the first 10 min of the test. In California, moreover, all foam contained within upholstered furniture must be flame-retarded to comply with CA TB 117. Moreover, the IFC and NFPA 101 both have parallel requirements to those discussed earlier for mattresses. In other words, the 2006 editions of both the codes contain requirements that upholstered furniture items in health care occupancies as well as detention and correctional occupancies that are not sprinklered must comply with a peak heat release rate of 250kW and a total heat release of no more than 40 MJ in the first 5 min of the test, when tested to ASTM E 1537 (or CA TB 133). However, the 2007 edition of the IFC and the 2009 edition of NFPA 101 lowered these values to 80 kW and 25 MJ over 10 min. Finally, the IFC 2007 added college and university dormitories to the list and eliminated the sprinkler exception for detention occupancies. 

These same committees have also developed some specifications and practices which reference fire tests (and pass/fail criteria), and also occasionally contain some new fire tests. The NFPA Technical Committee on Fire Tests is the developer of all fire tests for NFPA. Two other international organizations are systematic developers of fire tests, most of which are primarily used in Europe International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and IEC. Within ISO and IEC, the key technical committees are ... 

The majority of the materials with low flame spread (or low heat release) also exhibit low smoke release. However, it has been shown in several series of room-corner test projects (with the tested material lining either the walls or the walls and the ceiling), that -10% of the materials tested (8 out of 84) exhibited adequate heat-release (or fire growth) characteristics, but have very high smoke release (Table 21.17 and Figure 21.16).189190 These materials would cause severe obscuration problems if used in buildings. A combination of this work, and the concept that a visibility of 4 m is reasonable for people familiar with their environment,191 has led all the U.S. codes to include smoke pass/fail criteria when room-corner tests are used as alternatives to the ASTM E 84 Steiner tunnel test. 

All clean-facility construction, while employing standard construction techniques, should be accomplished in a manner that does not create excessive particulate contamination. A temporary lay-down area within the building adjacent to the clean area should be set aside for storage of clean construction components. All tools used for clean construction should be in an as-new condition and be cleaned and inspected prior to use. The pass-fail criteria for tool and material inspection is no visible dirt. ... 

Written in advance, the test plan defines all test procedures with their pass/fail criteria, expected test results, test tasks, test environment for equipment and computers, criteria for acceptance and release to manufacturing, and the persons responsible for conducting these tests. The test plan also specifies those functions excluded from testing, if any. Individual tasks cover functional testing, simulation of incomplete functions as integration proceeds, mathematical proof of results, records of discrepancies, classification of defects and corrective actions. 

Operational qualihcation is based on the intended use of the system and the training of system users. This process ensures that the system functions as required through the use of documented test cases and procedures exercising signihcant system functionality. The tests during this phase are documented in detailed pass-fail criteria addressing the functionality of the system based of the functional or system specihcation. The customer s... 

In general, ATF performance is defined by the service-fill specifications of passenger car and commercial vehicle transmission manufacturers. These specifications establish both testing procedures and the pass/fail criteria for the performance parameters. 

There are alternative interpretations of pass/fail criteria for filling trial results. 

A similar set of tests and requirements was designed in the UK [19]. A range of products was tested and pass/fail criteria were drawn up. Generally, a good agreement exists with the results mentioned above. 

Test Plan - Summarises the planned phases of testing, testing scope, timelines, deliverables, pass/fail criteria and the test environments required. The test plan would typically be produced early in the development lifecycle around the time of requirements gathering and specification. 

The limitation of the LC/CLND detector and the reason for its slow acceptance in the industry is that it is not as trivial to use as is a UV or ELSD detector it is still a specialist s instrument. We have introduced an alternative, direct inject CLND (DI-CLND), that is easy to use. This detector measures the combustible nitrogen in a sample with two limitations relative to the LC/CLND the samples are not chromatographicafly separated and on-column concentration is not possible, so sensitivity is compromised. We find these limitations are more than balanced by the ease of use for certain applications. Following the synthesis of a small molecule library, compounds analyzed using this technique were characterized by mass spectrometry, and an accurate concentration of the compound was assessed by CLND. Characterization of one compound is completed in 60s, allowing for up to 1000 compounds to be analyzed in a single day. The data are summarized using pass/fail criteria in internally developed software. Therefore very fast 100% quantitation of parallel synthesis libraries is achievable. ... 

However, these test methods have no pass / fail criteria, and so should not be used to claim biodegradabiUty in any environment. Strict adherence to the test method s reporting... 

For the composting environment, specification standards with definite pass / fail criteria requirements are available as ASTM, ISO, and EN standards. All the standards are harmonized and have very minor differences but the basic principles and requirements are the same. EN 13432 and ISO 18606 are specification standards for packaging. The specification standards are as follows ... 

Refer to the standards for performing the tests and the pass/fail criteria. 

The list assumes that all critical and safety components comply with then-individual component safety standards and are acceptable for use in the end equipment. Additional tests may be necessary depending on the complexity of the equipment or components (i.e., specials, lasers, UV/microwave radiation, noise) and the environment where the equipment will be used (residential, industrial, hazardous locations). For test conditions and pass/fail criteria and other tests, refer to the relevant product/machine safety standard(s). 

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