Evaluating the Flammability of Upholstered Furniture Intended for Public Occupancies

Abstract

Government agencies and fire authorities with jurisdiction over public occupancies have been concerned over the flammability of upholstered furnishings in certain types of public assembly occupancies. Examples of re sponses to this concern have come from a country (England), a state (California) and city (Boston, Mass). From these three evolved performance standards that addressed the risk and hazard of furniture fires in public occupancies using composite testing in chair configurations namely the city of Boston Chair Test-BFD IX-10, the California Bureau of Home Furnishings TB 133 and the British Standard BS-5852 Part 2. It is these three tests that will be discussed. Although the test methods share some similar characteristics, they do differ in their concepts of acceptability. The three jurisdictions have several common criteria but not a common rating for furniture acceptability in public occupancies. This paper will cover these three test methods and their criteria for acceptability of upholstered fur niture and will demonstrate the range of performances in these 3 composite tests when the fabric is the composite variable with a constant, highly-rated foam cushion filler. Companies involved that are accustomed only to component tests face ap provals that include the actual composite performances. Although minimum individual component tests may be required, it is necessary to evaluate the burn performance of the end use composite structure. The necessity of composite testing is demonstrated by the influence of the fabric covering the chair. While each component may be shown to perform well in individual small scale flame tests, it is the experience thru chair burn tests that illustrates sig nificant differences when foam and fabric are together.