Furniture upholstered

CAL 133. California Technical Bulletin 133 is a test of the fire hazard associated with upholstered furniture (22). The test is carried out by igniting a standard fire source directiy on the piece of furniture being tested. In the most recent version of the test, the fire source is a gas flame. Smoke, heat, and toxic gas emissions are measured dufing the test. A related test, BS 5852, uses various wooden cribs as the fire source (23). 

O. M. Grace and co-workers, "Improvement in Cigarette Smoldering Resistance of Upholstered Furniture," Proc. Polyurethanes World Congress, Sept. 29—Oct. 2, 1987, Aachen, Germany. 

Even a small room will benefit from acoustical ceiling treatment. A veterinarian s examining room was only about 7x7 feet, but with its hard walls and ceiling and no upholstered furniture to break up the sound weaves, conversation w as uncomfortable. Proper ceiling treatment would have made a great deal of difference. 

The C02 thus acts as a substitute for the petroleum production of plastics. Polyurethanes are used to produce a wide range of everyday applications. When they are used for the insulation of buildings, the polyurethane saves about 80% more energy than it consumes during production. Light weight polymers are used in the automotive industry, upholstered furniture... 

Fire risk assessment is made in order to determine the overall value of decreasing fire hazard in a particular scenario. The level of fire risk that is acceptable for a situation is, normally, a societal, and not a technical, decision. Therefore, fire hazard assessments are generally more common than fire risk assessments. The NFPA Research Foundation has undertaken a project to develop a methodology for fire risk assessment. It has done this by studying four cases in detail upholstered furniture in residential environments, wire and cable in concealed spaces in hotels and motels, floor coverings in offices and wall coverings in restaurants. 

In 1988, the UK introduced Safety Regulations which ultimately will require that domestic upholstered furniture and mattresses will meet and resist a cigarette test and that fabrics and fillings will resist specified flaming ignition sources. 

It is nearly 20 years ago that the unacceptable fire behaviour of "modern" upholstered furniture became highlighted in the UK by Fire Brigade reports of domestic fires. This poor performance was blamed on the use of flexible polyurethane (PU) foam upholstery and demands were made to ban PU foam or at least to insist on the use of flame retarded PU foam. 

The response to this situation in the early 1970 s was to set-up three major research programmes to investigate the fire performance of furniture and furnishings. These programmes, (2), (3), (4), not surprisingly, produced similar conclusions that the adverse fire behaviour of upholstered furniture and made-up beds... 

Various UK government authorities and especially The Crown Suppliers were already "fire conscious" and further extended the use of fabrics of reduced flammability, barrier fabrics and barrier foams, with high resilience PU foams in their purchase specifications for upholstered furniture and bed assemblies for use in the Crown Estate, public buildings, hospitals etc. Typically, products were required to meet cigarette and No. 5 wooden crib sources see Table I when tested to Crown Suppliers Tests (5), (6). ... 

The UK public area situation contrasted markedly with the UK domestic situation. In spite of the recommendations of the early research programmes, full scale tests with domestic furniture in the late 1970 s showed, regrettably, that not only had domestic upholstered furniture design and construction not followed the recommendations of early research, but that the fire performance of such furniture had arguably deteriorated. 

The 1988 Consumer Safety Regulations relate to both upholstered furniture and mattresses(19). 

This is a very important factor because the primary function of upholstered furniture, mattresses and bed assemblies is to provide comfortable seating and support which is hardwearing and durable as well as aesthetically acceptable. The development of suitable fabrics, foams and other materials is therefore of great importance and is a factor that can be overlooked in the pursuit of improved fire performance. 

Upholstered furniture Platform composite Mattresses BS 5852/1 BS 9852/1 BS 6807 Cigarette Cigarette Cigarette (0) and Cigarette with non-combustible insulation (O/NS) D... 

CIGARETTE RESISTANCE. Trims, rouchings, and pipings (which are frequently cellulosic) are specifically excluded from the cigarette test regulations for upholstered furniture. Because of this, it is unlikely that the cigarette test requirement can ever result in upholstered furniture which is completely cigarette resistant. 

The match test (No.l gas flame) is currently only applied to upholstered furniture but will be applied to mattress in the future by the same mechanism as the cigarette test. 

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... 

Although the ignition resistance of upholstered furniture, mattresses and bed assemblies are specified by tests on the final composite specimen, filling materials and foams are additionally required to conform to the 1988 regulations (Table IX). 

Table IX. Ignition Test Requirements for Upholstered Furniture and Mattresses for UK...

The match (No.l gas flame) source of BS 5852 Part 1 is only applied to upholstered furniture fabrics over a standard PU foam although exceptions are made for certain fabrics, when used with FR interliners. It may also be applied to mattresses to BS 6807. 

The 1988 UK Regulations will probably be effective for upholstered furniture and mattresses comprising a high proportion of PU foam. 

Combining ignition resistant fabrics with combustion modified PU foam will significantly improve the fire performance of upholstered furniture and mattresses. 

BS 7176 Method of Test for the Resistance to Ignition of Upholstered Furniture. To be published. BSI, London. 

Consumer Protection, The Upholstered Furniture (Safety) Regulation 1980, HMSO, London. 

Nordtest No. 410-83, Upholstered Furniture Burning Behaviour - full Scale Test... 

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