Publisher's Synopsis
The objective of this study was to provide guidelines to quantify heat transfer characteristics of fire blocking barrier fabrics (BF) used in soft furnishings. Fundamental BF properties that influence the heat transfer characteristics as it relates to thermal protection of cushioning components in upholstered products are discussed. This is important to enable a priori selection of BFs such that a final upholstered product complies with full-scale, open-flame flammability regulations. The report provides a brief review of existing test methods which generally use char length and/or mass loss as "pass/fail" criteria for assessing performance of BFs to be used in finished products. Generally, in these test methods, BFs are tested in mock-up configuration as opposed to individual components as considered in this study.
