This book offers a survey of all facets of the fire performance examination and evaluation of flexible and rigid polyurethane foams in the various fields of building construction, furniture and furnishings, transportation, and electrical appliances. The basic information concerning the relevance of the different test procedures allows realistic requirements to be set, guaranteeing more safety in the case of fire. The legal requirements are based on laboratory test methods and the book describes their relevance in relation to real fire scenarios.

From the Introduction: “...The key question of every preventive fire-safety action should be whether laboratory test procedures are able to simulate the main/most important fire scenarios and to determine the relevance of the characteristic fire scenarios. The importance of this question increased all the more as large-scale investigations are evidence that laboratory tests do not deliver meaningful results. Based on the outcome of relevant fire-statistics data as well as on the findings of fire disasters, the most used fire-reaction tests including classification systems/criteria are discussed in detail...”

Target Audience: Producers and suppliers of polyurethanes and other combustible materials which must comply with fire performance criteria in a variety of application fields.

Table of Contents:

Introduction

Fire-Protection Problems: Definition of the Fire-Performance Criteria; Essential Fire Scenarios

Research of Causes of Fires

Preventive Fire Protection — National Requirement and Classification Systems: Building Section; Furniture and Furnishing; Transportation; Electrical Engineering

Material-Specific Fire-Performance Characteristics of PUR: Polyurethane Production; Risk of Ignition in the Production and Storage Area; Polyurethanes

Use and Interpretation of PUR-Test Results Determined Under End-Use Conditions: Relevance of Combustion Systems; Relevance of the Evaluation Criteria; Relevance of the Requirement Profiles

References

Index