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February 2014 – N° 38 ƒ Fire safety for aviation ................................................................................................................................ 1 ƒ PIN fire safety for bio-based green building materials ............................................................................... 2 ƒ PIN FR and recycled oyster shells for polymer performance ..................................................................... 2 ƒ US EPA Design for the Environment alternative FRs ................................................................................ 2 ƒ Train fire safety in India .............................................................................................................................. 3 ƒ Fire risks in cars ......................................................................................................................................... 3 ƒ Recovery of PIN FR from waste printed circuit boards .............................................................................. 3 ƒ Fire-proof thermoplastic railway electrical components ............................................................................. 4 ƒ Fire-safe furniture foam using non-migrating chemicals ............................................................................ 4 ƒ New aluminium-based mineral FRs for TPU .............................................................................................. 5 ƒ Green buildings and fire risk ....................................................................................................................... 5 ƒ NFPA looks for open flame fire standard for furniture ................................................................................ 5 ƒ Agenda ....................................................................................................................................................... 6 ƒ Publisher information .................................................................................................................................. 7 ƒ Abbreviations .............................................................................................................................................. 7 ƒ Fire safety for aviation The State of Washington Department of Ecology, SAMPE (Society for the Advancement of Materials and Process Engineering) and pinfa-na (pinfa North America) are co-organising a 2-day conference looking at advanced materials solutions and fire safety trends in aviation design and manufacturing, 2-3 April 2013, Seattle, USA. Speakers will include aircraft and aviation fittings and equipment manufacturers, and experts in environmental issues, fire safety regulatory and testing requirements and advanced manufacturing and materials technologies as applicable to the aviation industry. Meeting High Performance Flammability Requirements for Aviation, 2-3 April 2014, Seattle, USA http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07e8fzly4bd9c578b9&llr ƒ PIN fire safety for bio-based green building materials A paper from the India Institute of Technology assesses options and perspectives for PIN flame retardancy for cellulose-based, green building materials, in particular bamboo, which is economic, offers mechanical performance and climate change mitigation (CO2 fixing). However, bamboo is very flammable and the fire risk is accentuated because it is hollow. Boron salts applied by soaking, or pressure application, are traditionally used to improve both fire resistance and durability. Phosphorus-based compounds, intumescent coatings and particularly phosphorus-nitrogen combinations are presented as interesting PIN solutions. The development of reactive PIN chemicals is preferable to ensure durability of the treatment and avoid loss of the flame retardant. The authors conclude that application of PIN flame retardant technology to cellulosic materials will play a pivotal role in implementing sustainable and renewable bio-based building materials. “Eco-friendly flame-retardant treatments for cellulosic green building materials”, N. Sharma et al., Indoor and Built Environment http://ibe.sagepub.com/content/early/2013/12/27/1420326X13516655 ƒ PIN FR and recycled oyster shells for polymer performance A combination of ground oyster shells (a largely available secondary material in shellfish production regions) and a phosphorus-based PIN flame retardant (Clariant Exolit AP760) shows to be effective in producing a high-performance, fire resistant polypropylene composite. Oyster shells are ground to 30 or 160 microns, and replace standard calcium carbonate filler. Developed by Eurostar Engineering Plastics (France) and the University of Lille (UMET – Materials and Transformation), the product offers advantages of reduced environmental impact through 1) avoidance of mining of calcium phosphate and of landfilling of oyster production waste and 2) because of the low toxicity and degradability of the PIN flame retardant. http://www.plasticstoday.com/articles/oyster-shells-provide-reinforcement-non-halogenated-flame-retardant-compound- ABS-PP-140122a ƒ US EPA Design for the Environment alternative FRs The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has published the final report of the industry, stakeholder and science partnership (Design for the Environment DfE) assessment of alternatives to the brominated flame retardant DecaBDE (see pinfa Newsletter n° 22). The report assesses 32 substances used as flame retardants: 14 brominated, 11 organic phosphorus and/or nitrogen based and 7 minerals, looking at applications in a variety of polymers and applications: polyolefins, styrenics, engineering thermoplastics, thermosets, elastomers, or waterborne emulsions and coatings. Some of these have been used for a number of years whereas others are recent developments. The report indicates potential alternatives for different applications and polymers (table 3.2), and presents a chemical hazard comparison screening table for the alternatives (tables ES1 – ES3). Twelve of the substances assessed are considered as not of Very High Concern for any health or environmental endpoint: all of these 12 are PIN FRs. “An alternatives assessment for the flame retardant decabromodiphenyl ether (DecaBDE)”, United States Environmental Protection Agency / Design for the Environment, January 2014 http://epa.gov/dfe/pubs/projects/decaBDE/deca-report- complete.pdf N° 38 p. 2 / 7 ƒ Train fire safety in India Following the tragic fire in which 26 people were burned to death in a sleeper carriage on the Bangladore- Nanded Express on 28th December, India is accelerating work on flame retardant materials for train fire safety, installation of smoke alarms and exit safety measures. The cause of the fire is not yet clear, but a burnt-out laptop, mobile phone and electrical socket have been identified. One proposal is to switch off electrical charging sockets during the night. The alarm was raised by a passenger, and the guard pulled the emergency break stopping the train, and this probably prevented the fire spreading to other carriages. The fire spread through the whole carriage, its intensity incapacitating firefighters when they arrived on the scene, leading to recommendations to reduce the flammable materials in trains, including implementing fire retardant cables. The establishment of a fire test laboratory at the Research and Development Standards Organisation has been announced to enable development and testing of fire retardant materials for trains. Short-circuit may have caused Nanded Express blaze http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/andhra- pradesh/shortcircuit-may-have-caused-nanded-express-blaze/article5511286.ece Railways to safeguard coaches with fire-retardant material http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and- economy/logistics/railways-to-safeguard-coaches-with-fireretardant-material/article5541311.ece ƒ Fire risks in cars Fire tests carried out on minivan passenger cars demonstrate the inadequacy of fire safety in vehicles sold to the public. A 1990’s model vehicle was used, with 10 litres of fuel in its (metal) fuel tank. In two tests, fires started outside the passenger compartment (under rear wheel guard, under front bumper) spread to the passenger compartment after 10 and 13 minutes. In tests with the car windows closed, the passenger compartment fire (started in a seat, or having spread as above to the passenger compartment) developed slowly because of oxygen shortage (a situation which would be lethal for occupants). However, when a window was open or shattered during the fire, the fire rapidly engulfed the passenger compartment. When the fire was lit on a seat with the window 20cm open, flames reached the passenger compartment ceiling after 2 minutes and the car was filled with smoke after 3 minutes. “Burning behaviour of minivan passenger cars”, K. Okamoto et al., Fire Safety Journal 62 (2013) 272-280 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0379711213001537 ƒ Recovery of PIN FR from waste printed circuit boards Solvent extraction was tested to recover the organo-phosphorus flame retardant TPP (triphenyl ether phosphate) from waste printed circuit boards. TPP is used as a flame retardant in CEM types of printed circuit boards based on phenol formaldehyde resins. After removing components such as capacitors and relays, the circuit boards were ground then placed in methanol solvent for different times and temperatures. Two hours at 90°C in the solvent showed to be optimal, enabling recovery of nearly 85% of the flame retardant.
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