Horizontal Burn Test at Different Oxygen Levels: A Small Scale Screening Test for Flexible Polyurethane Foam with Excellent Correlation to the BS 5852 Part 2 Source 5

Abstract

A Horizontal Burn Test (HBT) has been successfully developed to evaluate the ignition resistance, flame propagation and heat release of a flexi ble polyurethane foam. The test was used to evaluate the combustion charac teristics of foams of different type and density, unfilled or filled with different types of combustion modification additives. The best differentiation between foam samples was found on the basis of relative heat release. On the basis of this measurement and the oxygen ignition index, a correlation between com bustion performance in the Horizontal Burn Test and in the BS 5852 Source 5 Test was established. In this way, the excellent BS 5852 Source 5 performance of melamine-filled high resilience slabstock foams was predicted on the basis of Horizontal Burn Test results. Furthermore, all-MDI foam formulations filled with melamine or other selected solid fillers were defined as alternatives to pass the BS 5852 Source 5 Test.