Flame Retardant Cotton Based High Loft Nonwovens

High Loft Flame Retardant Nonwovens from Cotton-Based Compositions
Rohit Uppal, Hatice Mercemik and Gajanan Bhat
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996
And
Dharnidhar V. Parikh and Brian Condon
USDA-SRRC, New Orleans, LA
Abstract
Flame retardancy (FR) of high loft fabrics is poor and the basis weight of high loft fabrics must be increased in order to improve fire resistance, resulting in a product that does not have the soft feel desired for soft furnishings. FR is achieved in many cotton fiber blended nonwovens through chemical finishing containing suitable chemicals. Paradoxically, as the fabrics go through the chemical finishing treatment, it will be difficult to maintain the high loft desired for several products. Thus, there is a further need in the art for high loft fabrics that retains soft feel characteristics desirable of furnishings. Flame retardancy has been a serious bottleneck to develop cotton blended very high specific volume bulky high loft fabrics. Alternately, newer approach to produce flame retardant cotton blended high lofts was employed. Present investigation utilizes flame retardant cotton fibers that have been chemically treated with FR chemical developed at USDA-SRRC. Hence, there is no need for a coating and the product retains a soft feel. The objective of this research was to carry out blending of SRRC FR cotton or FR Rayon with a binder to form blended high lofts and evaluate them. In the vertical flame test, SRRC FR cotton with a binder yielded an LOI of up to 31.5, whereas FR Rayon with a binder yielded an LOI of up to 26. Results from this study will be presented.