- Author
- Miles, L. B.
- Title
- Burning Behavior of Borderline Fabrics.
- Coporate
- National Bureau of Standards, Gaithersburg, MD
- Book or Conf
- LeBlanc Research Corporation. Textile Flammability Symposium, 1977. 5th Symposium. April 20-21, 1977, New Orleans, LA, LeBlanc, R. B., Editors, 66-94 p., 1977
- Keywords
- flammability | textiles | fabrics | combustion | cotton fabrics | flame retardants | test methods | heat | ignition | extinguishment
- Identifiers
- Mushroom Apparel Flammability Tester (MAFT); Apparel Flammability Modeling Apparatus (AFMA)
- Abstract
- Under the proposed General Apparel Flammability Standard, the difference between class 1 fabrics, the "safest" class of fabrics, and the other classes is a maximum heat transfer rate (MAFT value) of less than 0.40 J.cm(-2).s(-1) at any time during the test. For the present study, as add-ons or phosphorus levels were increased on flame-retardant treated cottons and cotton blends, these fabrics exhibited bi-modal clustering of their MAFT values above and below the 0.40 value. Previous work has indicated that this behavior is the result of high sensitivity to small changes in phosphorus levels over a narrow range as indicated by the response curve for MAFT values with increasing % phosphorus. Any fabric which generated MAFT values on both sides of the 0.40 J level was defined as a "borderline" fabric.