When you sit on a chair, walk on a carpet, or sleep on a mattress, chances are that NIST
has helped the manufacturers reduce the hazards that their products might pose in a fire. |
Before a manufacturer can sell
mattresses, carpets or upholstered furniture like sofas and easy chairs, their products
have to pass stringent fire tests that measure flammability, heat release and other
fire-related behavior. The National Institute of Standards
and Technology NIST has many hidden roles in this public-safety endeavor. For one
thing, researchers at NIST's Building and Fire Research
Laboratory perform full scale burn tests on manufactured items like an upholstered
chair. These yield data crucial for validating or modifying smaller-scale test procedures
and models developed to predict the behavior of manufactured products for heat release
rates and other data important for minimizing fire hazards. BFRL also has developed
carefully characterized Standard
Reference Materials (SRMs) such as fiber glass heat-blocking blankets for calibrating
industry fire and heat testing equipment. In addition, BFRL continues to develop methods
for reducing the flammability of materials. In one set of projects, researchers use
computer models that can reveal the molecular transformations that polymers undergo as a
result of exposure to heat or fire. These models and the resulting data are used by
manufacturers to make polymers, such as those used to make carpet and furniture, more
stable and fire resistant. |
