Fire Protection: Flammability and textile fibres: Fid-Bau Portal

Fire Protection: Flammability and textile fibres

Grover, T. / Khandual, A. / Luximon, A.

Fire hazards being reported every day, killing lives and destroying resources. According to fire hazard statistics, more than 12 million fires break out every year in the United States, Europe, Russia and China killing some 300,000 people and injuring several hundreds of thousands. Direct worldwide losses of life and costs are not reported but 500 million is an estimate based on some national data by Manor and Georlette in 2005. The Phenomenon evolved by combination of many factors, including; ignitability, ease of extinction, flammability of the volatile products generated, rate of heat released, flame spread, smoke obstruction and smoke toxicity etc. Therefore, in the pursuit of improved flame retarding polymers or finishes has been seeing an unprecedented field of researches for the development of low cost polymers with better performances. Though initially, flame resistant textiles developments started for defense personnel to protect them in various hostile environments, its application becoming widely diversified with the modem industrialization that demands typical performances with comfort to ensure safety not only for military but also for civilians.We are presenting series of articles to understand basics of fire propagation, inherent properties of various textile fibres and new fibres, flame retardants and their developments.