Safety and compliance are critical aspects of conducting business as a global manufacturer of polymer products. When working with compounders and product designers to construct safe products, we utilize ammonium polyphosphate flame retardants. These flame retarding materials provide benefits to customers, allowing manufacturers to create products that meet rigorous safety requirements without sacrificing quality or sustainability.
Today’s fire protection requires more than just ignition delay; manufacturers also need to create materials that minimize smoke emissions, minimize heat release, and comply with environmental regulations. Halogen-free flame-retardant systems have become essential to manufacturing processes that include the following sectors: electronics, building materials, wire & cable, and automotive components.
Through our production and testing of ammonium polyphosphate flame retardants, these flame retardants achieve their purpose by providing a char layer that forms a barrier to slow the burning process and protect the underlying polymer from flame spread. This process results in dramatic increases in UL-94 performance ratings, while keeping the materials stable during extrusion or injection mold processing.
Adjacency to PE, PP, PA, EVA and hi-tech plastics
Consistency and stability of dispersion throughout processing operations
Minimum smoke generation and toxic by-products produced during combustion
Reliability of performance at multiple temperatures during production processing
Assistance in complying with current global safety and environmental standards
Experience with real projects (case example):
A cable manufacturer needed help complying with the fire resistance requirements for their cables but couldn’t compromise on flexibility. After evaluating their formulation, we proposed the use of ammonium polyphosphate flame retardants along with an optimized intumescent system. This improved the cable’s fire resistance and char strength without adversely impacting the extrusion rate. The customer was able to pass their internal tests performing equivalent to previous formulations, and realized substantial cost savings associated with future formulations.
Our technical approach consists of:
Evaluating the polymer and method of processing
Evaluating the amount of flame retardant needed to provide the best flame protection for the finished product
Achieving an appropriate balance between mechanical and fire resistance properties
Combining intumescent chemistry with a halogen-free fire retardant strategy
Providing application assistance and technical support
For those manufacturers that have emphasized safety and sustainability for the long run, we have suggested ammonium polyphosphate flame retardants to provide the reliable performance needed in an environmentally responsible manner.
Char layers formed by intumescent additives serve to be protective.
Materials that are compliant and also safer can utilize halogen-free options.
Achieving uniform dispersion of materials helps to ensure stable processing.
Utilizing experts for formulation reduces the time and cost associated with testing.
Additive BZ Technical Team
A team that specializes in material innovation will typically include polymer additives, flame-retardant technology and functional masterbatch solutions. We provide manufacturers with the ability to incorporate ammonium polyphosphate flame retardants as one way to advance the safety, efficiency and regulatory compliance of their products through development of new ideas, manufacturing expertise and real-world support for use in commercial applications.