On the Mechanism of Flame Retardancy and Characterization of Halogen-Free, Flame-Retardant Materials for Wires and Cables,

Abstract : During exploratory on mechanistic pathway of halogen-free, flame-retardant materials, containing metal hydroxide with other ingredients, there were revealed that the char formation at high temperatures should play an important role to enhance flame retardancy of resultant compositions, and some metallic compounds which were capable of increase catalytically the amount of char could further improve flame retardancy. It has also been revealed that a certain combination of alpha-polyolefins having peculiar MFR values and densities, or only certain crosslinked alpha-polyolefin copolymers having limited comonomer content gave excellent physical and electrical properties, especially with magnesium hydroxide as an inorganic flame retardant. Based on these results, the authors have developed halogen-free (HF), flame-retardant (FR) cables showing excellent flame retardancy, low smoke generation, physical, electrical and aging properties. (Author)