Fire Retardants on the Burning Rate of Cotton

PURPOSE

The purpose of this experiment was to determine which fire retardant product would most effectively prevented cotton from burning.

I became interested in this idea when I saw a news program that said a house burned down in less than 2 minutes because of draperies and cotton material that accidentally caught on fire.

The information gained from this experiment may be used by everybody (especially parents and people who operate hospitals, nursing homes or hotels) who would want to know which fire retardant product to use on cotton material to keep it from burning.

HYPOTHESIS

My hypotheses were that:

1. The No-Burn Fabric Fire Guard Fire Retardant Spray would more effectively prevent the cotton from burning than the Flamex Fire Retardant Spray and the Flametard Fire Retardant Spray.

2. The No-Burn Fabric Fire Guard Fire Retardant Spray would take the cotton longer to ignite than the Flamex Fire Retardant Spray and the Flametard Fire Retardant Spray.

3. The No-Burn Fabric Fire Guard Fire Retardant Spray would make the cotton faster to extinguish than Flamex Fire Retardant Spray and the Flametard Fire Retardant Spray.

I based all three of my hypotheses on the web page for Safety Think Incorporated which stated, “Not only does No-Burn Fabric Fire Guard slow down the fire, but in many cases will not allow interior furnishings to catch fire at all.”

EXPERIMENT DESIGN

The constants in this study were:

• The amount of fire retardant used on the cotton material
• The temperature in the room
• The type of material (cotton)
• Size of cotton material (10cm by 10cm)
• Candle
• Stopwatches

The manipulated variable was the flame retardant used on the cotton material.

The responding variables were:

To measure the responding variables I used stopwatches to determine the time taken for the cotton to ignite and the time taken for the cotton to extinguish. To measure the area of the cotton material that was left unburned, I placed a 10cm by 10cm plastic grid on the cotton material and counted the square centimeters of the area that was unburned.

MATERIALS

Does No-burn Fabric Fire Guard Retardent really protect your cotton clothes from burning? Find out when you continue reading the rest of the abstract.