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FR Cotton Nonwovens as Flame Barrier for Mattresses

D.V. Parikh and T.A. Calamari

ABSTRACT

The essential feature of California AB 603 (signed into law by Governor Gray Davis on August 12, 2001) is that every residential mattress sold in California after January 1, 2004, must resist open-flame ignition. One of the ways of achieving compliance of open-flame ignition is to use a fire blocking, barrier interliner in the manufacture of the mattresses. The fire blocker is designed to protect and prevent ignition of the major cushioning component materials of a mattress and to avert a self-propagating fire in the product. Limiting the fire involvement of the major cushioning component will significantly restrict the fire growth. Carded needlepunched nonwovens and/or carded perpendicular-laid highlofts made from FR cotton, developed at SRRC-USDA, will act as a fire barrier interliner. FR cotton should be more economical than the inherently FR textile fibers such as FR polyester, aramid and glass. The presentation will discuss:

(i) Evolution of an open-flame mattress standard,
(ii) Development of a FR greige cotton, and
(iii) Test evaluations of FR cotton nonwovens by the vertical method.





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Document last modified April 16, 2003