THE SMOLDERING POTENTIAL OF USED UPHOLSTERY FABRICS - UNSOILED VS SOILED

The objective of this research was to determine the effect of soiling, through wear, on the smoldering potential of upholstery fabrics. This research was done to test the supposition that smolder resistant fabr ics on new furniture will become more susceptible to smoldering with s oiling and age. This is shown not to be the case. Sixty used upholster y fabrics were collected from eight upholstery shops, and areas of eac h fabric were determined to be either ''soiled'' or ''unsoiled'' A soi led area is an exposed surface of the upholstery fabric, whereas an un soiled area is not exposed. Each fabric's composition, e.g., cellulose or synthetic, was determined, and soiled and unsoiled samples from ea ch fabric were analyzed for pertinent chemical and physical characteri stics. For the majority of fabrics, the smoldering potential of the so iled areas did not increase with respect to the unsoiled areas. In fac t, more fabrics exhibited a reduced (versus increased) tendency to smo lder upon soiling. Of the 27 cellulosic fabrics, only 2 fabrics change d from non-smoldering in the unsoiled area to smoldering in the soiled area. But, 6 fabrics that smoldered in the unsoiled area did not smol der in the soiled area. Two ions that play a major catalytic role in s moldering ignitions, sodium and potassium, showed increased levels in soiled areas by approximately 800 ppm and 480 ppm, respectively. These increases did not account for the observed changes in smolder potenti al. The increase in sodium and potassium ion levels for the synthetic fabrics was equivalent to those of the cellulosic fabrics. Calcium and magnesium did not increase between soiled and unsoiled fabric areas. Of the six anions analyzed for unsoiled and soiled areas of the 60 fab rics, levels of chloride and sulfate anions increased in the soiled sa mples compared to the unsoiled.