Office Chair Smoldering
The smoldering performance of office chairs is primarily related to relevant flame-retardant standards, with different countries and regions adopting different standards for testing and regulation.
In China, the flame retardancy of office chairs mainly refers to the two soft furniture flame-retardant standards, GB 17927.1 - 2011 and GB 17927.2 - 2011. GB 17927.1 - 2011 tests for ignition by smoldering cigarettes, simulating scenarios where office chairs may come into contact with smoldering cigarettes during daily use. Through specific testing methods and conditions, it evaluates the resistance of office chair materials to smoldering cigarettes to determine whether their smoldering performance meets the standards. GB 17927.2 - 2011 tests for ignition by simulated match flames, further comprehensively considering the flame-retardant characteristics of office chairs under different fire sources, ensuring that office chairs possess a certain level of safety performance under various conditions that may trigger smoldering.
The EN 1021 standard is a commonly used testing method standard in Europe for evaluating the flame retardancy of upholstered seat materials against smoldering cigarettes. It emphasizes that this test is not suitable for the overall assessment of the fire resistance of finished products but focuses more on the flame-retardant performance testing at the material level. Part EN1021 - 1 involves testing the overall material combination using smoldering cigarettes. For outer coverings that have been flame-retardant treated or whose flame-retardant performance is uncertain, washing treatment is required before testing. This takes into account that in actual use, outer coverings may undergo washing due to cleaning and other reasons, which may affect their flame-retardant performance. Through such testing methods, the smoldering performance of materials in actual use can be more truly reflected.
The US market requires office chairs to meet the smoldering resistance requirements in the CA TB 117 - 2013 (16CFR1640) standard. This standard sets strict smoldering resistance indicators for office chair products in the US market to ensure that office chairs entering the US market reach the corresponding safety level in terms of smoldering performance and safeguard consumer safety during use.
