The Effects of Upholstery Fabric Properties on Fabric Ignitabilities by Smoldering Cigarettes

Five-hundred popular upholstery fabrics were obtained from commercial fabric shops in North Carolina. The ignitability of each upholstery fabric was characterized using a particular smoldering cigarette in a specified protocol with six replications. If one or more of the smoldering cigarettes result...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of fire sciences 1994-05, Vol.12 (3), p.268-283
Main Authors: Dwyer, R.W., Fournier, Linda G., Lewis, Leslie S., Furin, Dawn, Ihrig, Arthur M., Smith, Shirley, Hudson, William Z., Honeycutt, Rufus H., Bunch, John E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Fires
Smoking
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Summary:Five-hundred popular upholstery fabrics were obtained from commercial fabric shops in North Carolina. The ignitability of each upholstery fabric was characterized using a particular smoldering cigarette in a specified protocol with six replications. If one or more of the smoldering cigarettes resulted in smoldering of the fabric, the fabric was classified as ignitable. Of the 500 fabrics, 355 were found to be non-ignitable and 145 were classified as ignitable. The differences between the properties of ignitable and non-ignitable fabrics were examined. The results show that the upholstery fabrics' contents of sodium and potassium salts, their concentrations of cellulosics, and their basis weights (areal densities) correlate with ignitability. An aqueous rinse of upholstery fabrics rendered them substantially non-ignitable by the smoldering-cigarette used in this study.
ISSN:0734-9041
1530-8049
DOI:10.1177/073490419401200304