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A Fire-Barrier Fabric of Predominantly-Cotton Content

Paul S. Sawhney, W. Tao, G.F. Ruppenicker, T.A. Calamari and R. Parachuru


 
ABSTRACT

The traditional flame-retardant cotton fabrics often do not provide an effective fire barrier, which is an important and perhaps critical consideration today for many enduse applications. Furthermore, cotton fabrics that are chemically treated for flame retardancy are generally weaker, less tear resistant, and, hence, relatively less durable than their original greige versions. In fact, if the conditions of fabric preparation and FR finishing are less than perfect, the fabric could lose its tear strength substantially (up to 50%), mainly due to its high (~30%) FR-finish add-on. Scientists at SRRC have developed a predominantly-cotton fabric containing approximately 20% glass fiber which provides an excellent fire barrier and a high strength. The fabric is made with the improved glass-core yarns produced by a new, USDA-patentedcore-spinning process and is FR treated to impart fire retardancy to its cotton component. When exposed to a flame for 20 seconds in a flammability test, the finished fabric leaves a woven glass structure intact, providing an effective and economical fire barrier. The fabric also shows satisfactory levels of tensile and tear strengths, abrasion resistance, and laundering performance, suggesting that the fabric in its present stage of development may be suitable for certain firesafe applications such as institutional drapes and curtains, protective overalls and coverings, and some seat covers and upholstery, where the fabric's functional performance, in terms of durability and fire barrier characteristics, is much more critical than the fabric's mere appearance and other physical aesthetics. Although the core coverage and strip resistance of the yarns used are excellent and the best available anywhere, the fabric after it is dyed and FR finished still shows some core exposure - commonly known as the "grin-through" - which remains commercially unacceptable for certain appearance-stringent applications. Preliminary investigations with the so-called coupling agents to permanently dye, tint, or at least hide the exposed glass have not been fully successful.



Reprinted from Proceedings of the 1999 Beltwide Cotton Conferences pp. 1365 - 1369
©National Cotton Council, Memphis TN

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Document last modified Monday, Jun 21 1999