- Author
-
Bureau of Home Furnishings and Thermal Insulation
- Title
- Flammability Test Procedure for Seating Furniture for Use in Public Occupancies.
- Coporate
- California Bureau of Home Furnishings and Thermal Insulation, North Highlands
- Report
-
Technical Bulletin 133
January 1991
29 p.
- Keywords
-
furniture
|
seats
|
flammability tests
|
public buildings
- Abstract
- This test procedure is designed to test seating furniture for use in occupancies that are identified as or considered to be public occupancies. Such facilities might include, but are not limited to, jails, prisons, nursing care homes, health care facilities, public auditoriums, hotels and motels. This test procedure is not intended to be used for the evaluation of residential furniture. It is the intent of the Bureau that furniture complying with Technical Bulletin 133 be safer furniture when subjected to the ignition source specified by this test. This type of ignition may be typical of arson or incendiary fires or common accidental fires in public buildings. This Bureau expects manufacturers attempting to comply with this standard will also seek to make safer furniture, and will not attempt to compromise the intent of the standard in any manner. The test burn room shall be 12 x 10 feet or a close approximation with an 8-foot ceiling height. The room shall have no openings other than a doorway opening approximately 38 x 81 inches, and such other small openings that may be necessary to make test measurements. The test room shall be constructed of wooden or metal studs and lined with fire rated gypsum wallboard. Tests may be conducted in rooms of different physical dimensions than those specified, for example, the proposed ASTM room, when equivalent test results can be demonstrated. In addition, if compliance is claimed using the heat release criteria, tests performed using a furniture calorimeter are acceptable. When using test rooms of different dimensions or a furniture calorimeter the ignition source must be as specified in Section V of this standard. The test burn room shall be instrumented to monitor temperature, carbon monoxide concentration, smoke opacity and sample weight loss. Other test room instrumentation may be added as required. In addition, the test facility may be instrumented to measure total heat release and heat release rate when compliance with the alternate heat release criteria is claimed. A typical system used to measure heat release, on the principle of oxygen consumption, is described in Appendix A. The test room shall be unfurnished except for the test sample.