A New Approach for Improving Flame Retardancy of Automotive Interior Upholstery

This study presents the flame retardant (FR) performance of chemically treated automotive upholstery fabrics using two different impregnation methods of Resin Transfer Molding (RTM) and supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2). Referring to the related standards, untreated seat fabric obtained from seat upholstery of a bus (neat fabric, NF) and treated fabric samples underwent burning rate (BR) and limiting oxygen index (LOI) tests to compare effect of treatment and impregnation methods on FR performance. Thermal analysis was also conducted on the samples considering onset degradation temperatures and char yields. The results showed that BR and LOI of all samples were in acceptable range and treatment provided enhancement in FR performance of NF. The treated sample using scCO2 method gave the highest LOI value of 32% and the lowest BR of 21 mm/min subtending to 18.5% increase in LOI and 30% reduction in BR compared to those of NF. The performance of treatment in RTM was worse than that of scCO2 and better than that of NF. The results confirm that both treatment and methods used in this study give promising results for safety against fire in transportation vehicles.