FLAME-RETARDANT COMPOSITION FOR TEXTILE SUBSTRATE

Abstract

A flame-retardant composition endowed with intumescent properties which consists of an acrylic resin, a dehydrating compound, a blowing agent and, optionally, a fluorocarbon-based polymer.

Claims

1. A flame-retardant composition, the flame-retardant composition comprising: an acrylic resin, a dehydrating compound, a blowing agent, and optionally, a fluorocarbon-based polymer compound.

2. The composition as claimed in claim 1, wherein the acrylic resin consists of an acrylic or methacrylic acid homopolymer, or of a copolymer of acrylic and/or methacrylic acid and of an ethylenically unsaturated monomer.

3. The composition as claimed in claim 2, wherein the acrylic resin consists of an acrylic acid homopolymer.

4. The composition as claimed in claim 1, wherein the dehydrating compound is chosen from thermally degradable strong acids as selected from the group consisting of a phosphoric acid, sulfuric acid and boric acid, and the salts of these acids having a volatile cation.

5. The composition as claimed in claim 4, wherein the dehydrating compound is an ammonium polyphosphate.

6. The composition as claimed in claim 1, wherein the blowing agent is an amine or an amide.

7. The composition as claimed in claim 1, comprising (as % of solids): 10% to 60% of acrylic resin, 20% to 50% of dehydrating compound, 5% to 30% of blowing agent compound, 0% to 60% of fluorocarbon-based polymer.

8. A textile substrate containing mineral fibers and/or yarns composed of a plurality of mineral filaments, and optionally organic fibers and/or yarns, wherein the textile substrate is coated with the flame-retardant composition as claimed in claim 1.

9. The textile substrate as claimed in claim 8, wherein the mineral fibers and/or yarns consist of glass or of rock.

10. The textile substrate as claimed in claim 8, wherein the organic fibers and/or yarns are natural or synthetic.

11. The textile substrate as claimed in claim 8, wherein the mineral or organic fibers and/or yarns are continuous or cut,

12. The textile substrate as claimed in claim 8, wherein the textile substrate is in the form of a nonwoven, of a fabric, of a mesh, of a knit or of a braid.

13. The textile substrate as claimed in claim 8, wherein the textile substrate is a luminous fabric comprising optical fibers and binding yarns.

14. The textile substrate as claimed in claim 13, wherein the optical fibers are glass fibers or organic fibers.

15. The textile substrate as claimed in claim 13, comprising at least one part which is woven according to a twill weave or a plain weave,

16. The textile substrate as claimed in claim 13, wherein the glass yarns represent at least 20% of the weight of the luminous fabric.

17. The textile substrate as claimed in claim 13, further comprising a structuring coating applied to a face not used as lighting surface.

18. The composition as claimed in claim 6, wherein the blowing agent is urea, melamine or guanidine.

19. The composition as claimed in claim 7, comprising (as % of solids): 15% to 50% of acrylic resin, 30% to 40% of dehydrating compound, 10% to 20% of blowing agent compound, 10% to 30% of fluorocarbon-based polymer.

20. The textile substrate as claimed in claim 9, wherein the mineral fibers and/or yarns consist of basalt,

21. The textile substrate as claimed in claim 10, wherein the organic fibers and/or yarns are based on cellulose or based on a polymer.

22. The textile substrate as claimed in claim 13, wherein the textile substrate is a luminous fabric comprising optical fibers and binding yarns made of glass.

23. The textile substrate as claimed in claim 14, wherein the optical fibers are organic fibers.

24. The textile substrate as claimed in claim 15, wherein the at least one part is woven according to a 4-, 6-, 8-, 10- or 12-harness satin weave.

25. The textile substrate as claimed in claim 16, wherein the glass yarns represent at least 40% of the weight of the luminous fabric.

Description

EXAMPLE 1

[0069] a) Textile Substrate

[0070] The textile substrate used is a fabric with an 8-harness satin weave consisting:

[0071] of E-glass binding yarns [0072] in the warp: filament diameter 9 μm, linear mass density 68 tex, 20 turns/m Z direction (EC9 68 Z20), density 7.9 yarns/cm, [0073] in the weft: filament diameter 11 μm, linear mass density 136 tex, 28 turns/m Z direction (EC11 136 Z28), density 12 yarns/cm, and

[0074] of optical fibers composed of a poly(methyl methacrylate) core coated with polytetrafluoroethylene: diameter 500 μm, linear mass density 240 tex, density 12 yarns/cm.

[0075] The fabric has a basis weight equal to 524 g/m.sup.2 and contains 43% by weight of mineral materials.

[0076] A white structuring coating containing (as % by weight): 20% of a styrene-acrylic resin, 78% of calcium carbonate and 2% of titanium oxide is applied, by knife coating, to one of the faces of the luminous fabric (back face). The amount of structuring coating is equal to 181 g/m.sup.2 of luminous fabric.

[0077] b) Flame-retardant Composition

[0078] A flame-retardant composition is prepared by adding the following constituents (as % of solids) to a container containing water:

TABLE-US-00001 Acrylic resin (Aquaset ® TF 150; Dow Chemicals) 49.0 Ammonium polyphosphate (FR Cros ®484; Buddenheim) 36.0 Urea 15.0

[0079] The solids content in the flame-retardant composition is equal to 60%.

[0080] A white-colored viscous solution is obtained.

[0081] c) Fireproofed Textile Substrate

[0082] La composition is applied to the front face of the luminous fabric described in a) by coating with a knife mounted on a roll, and then dried for 24 hours at ambient temperature (20-25° C.), in variable amounts.

[0083] The fabric of example 1e underwent a sandblasting treatment prior to the application of the flame-retardant composition.

[0084] The fire-resistance measurements of examples 1 a to 1e according to the invention are carried out compared with a luminous fabric which does not contain any structuring coating and flame-retardant composition (comparative example 1), a luminous fabric which does not contain any flame-retardant composition (comparative example 2) and a luminous fabric without structuring coating, in which the flame-retardant composition contains a melamine-formaldehyde resin (FX100; Flameseal) (comparative example 3).

[0085] The results are given in table 1.

[0086] The spread distance with application of the flame at the surface and to the edge of the luminous fabric is shorter (and therefore the fire resistance is better) for example 1d according to the invention compared with comparative example 3.

[0087] The luminous fabrics of examples 1a to 1e can undergo a manual bend up to a bend angle of 30° without visible damage to the layer of flame-retardant composition. Conversely, the luminous fabric of comparative example 3 cracks and disaggregates while releasing a pulverulent residue.

[0088] The luminance is measured on the luminous fabric of example 1e (fireproofed fabric) and it is compared to the luminance of this same fabric after sandblasting and before the application of the flame-retardant composition (non-fireproofed fabric). The results are the following:

TABLE-US-00002 Luminance (cd/m.sup.2) Fireproofed fabric 97.5 Non-fireproofed fabric 90.0

[0089] The transmission of light through the layer of flame-retardant composition is is slightly increased, thereby demonstrating the transparent nature of said layer.

EXAMPLES 2 AND 3

[0090] The process is carried out under the conditions of example 1 modified in that the flame-retardant composition contains (as % of solids):

TABLE-US-00003 Ex. 2 Ex. 3 Acrylic resin (Aquaset ® TF 150; Dow Chemicals) 44.0 39.0 Ammonium polyphosphate (FR Cros ®484; Buddenheim) 36.0 36.0 Urea 15.0 15.0 Fluorocarbon-based polymer (Kappahob NI6; 5.0 10.0 Kapp Chemie)

[0091] The results are given in table 1.

[0092] The luminous fabric of example 3 undergoes an accelerated aging test in a climatic chamber (temperature: 50° C., relative humidity: 80%) for 5 days.

[0093] The appearance of the layer of flame-retardant composition is comparable to that of the luminous fabric before accelerated aging treatment. This appearance is slightly better than that of a luminous fabric coated with a flame-retardant composition according to examples 1a and 1b.

[0094] The presence of the fluorocarbon-based polymer in the luminous fabric of example 3 makes it possible to have a good compromise between fire resistance and resistance to aging in a humid environment.

EXAMPLES 4 AND 5

[0095] These examples illustrate the application of the flame-retardant composition to textile substrates containing fibers or yarns of organic material. The flame-retardant composition of example 1 is used to coat the following textile substrate:

[0096] a complex comprising a net of glass fibers, reinforced in the warp direction with glass yarns and a net of polyester yarns (grammage of the complex: 235 g/m.sup.2) in a proportion of 150 g/m.sup.2 (example 4),

[0097] a fabric of flax yarns (grammage 250 g/m.sup.2) in a proportion of 144 g/m.sup.2 (example 5).

[0098] The fire resistance and the flexural stiffness are measured compared with the same textile substrate not coated with the flame-retardant composition (comparative examples 4 and 5).

[0099] The results are given in table 2.

[0100] The flame-retardant composition gives examples 4 and 5 an improved fire resistance compared with the respective comparative examples 4 and 5.

[0101] The flexural stiffness of examples 4 and 5 is comparable to that of the textile substrate without flame-retardant composition.

[0102] The flame-retardant composition coating the textile substrates is transparent to the naked eye.

TABLE-US-00004 TABLE 1 Flame-retardant Spread time Spread distance composition at 15 cm (s) (mm) (g solids/m.sup.2) Surface Edge Surface Edge Ex. 1a 112 48 40 Total Total Ex. 1b 155 71 49 Total Total Ex. 1c 160 n.d. 87 70 Total Ex. 1d 274 n.d. n.d. 70 60 Ex. 1e 285 n.d. n.d. 57 80 Comp. 0 20 12 Total Total ex. 1 Comp. 0 29 22 Total Total ex. 2 Comp. 272 n.d. n.d. 80 75 ex. 3 Ex. 2 132 n.d. 126  65 Total Ex. 3 135 n.d. 160  65 Total n.d.: not determined

TABLE-US-00005 TABLE 2 Flame- retardant Spread time Spread Flexural composition at 15 cm (s) distance (mm) stiffness (g solids/m.sup.2) Surface Edge Surface Edge (mN .Math. m) Ex. 4 144 n.d. n.d. 30 33 9.1 Comp. ex. 4 0 19 12 Total Total 8.2 Ex. 5 150 n.d. n.d. 55 65 1.8 Comp. ex. 5 0 19 10 Total Total 2.0