No-Burn Fabric Fire Guard Fire Retardant Spray Experiment

PURPOSE

You will find out the fire retardants on the burning rate of cotton when you begin the abstract, fire retardants science fair projects from the beginning.

PROCEDURES

1. Prepare cotton fabric.
a. Wash and dry cotton fabric before cutting.
b. Cut fabric into twenty 10x10 cm squares.
2. Divide the 20 squares of fabric into 4 groups of 5 and label (Group 1, Group 2, Group 3 and Group 4).
3. Treat cotton fabric.
a. Spray Group 1 evenly with the Flamex fire retardant spray 20 times on both sides.
b. Spray Group 2 evenly with the Flametard fire retardant spray 20 times on both sides.
c. Spray Group 3 evenly with the No-Burn Fire Guard fire retardant spray 20 times on both sides.
d. Spray Group 4 with nothing.
4. Hang all squares on a string by two clothespins to dry for 24 hours.
5. Gather materials and do test over the non-flammable cookie sheet.
6. Light candle with lighter/match.
7. Once the groups have dried, take one square of the cotton fabric and clip it onto the ring stand.
8. Then, take the lighted candle and ignite the cotton fabric vertically so the fire would be directed onto the end of the cotton fabric.
9. Measure Responding Variables.
a. Start stopwatch 1 when the lighted candle is placed under the cloth.
b. Stop stopwatch 1 when the cotton ignites.
c. Start stopwatch 2 when the cotton ignites.
d. Stop stopwatch 2 when the cotton finishes burning.
e. Place the transparent 10cm by 10cm plastic grid on top of the burned cloth to determine how much material was left unburned. Count the square centimeters of the area that was left unburned.
f. Record readings from both stopwatches and the grid.
10. Repeat steps 7, 8 and 9 for the remaining samples in Groups 2, Group 3, Group 4 and Group 1.
11. Record all data for all groups.

RESULTS

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

The results of the experiment were that the Flametard Fire Retardant Spray effectively prevented the cotton from burning more than the Flamex Fire Retardant Spray and the No-Burn Fabric Fire Guard Fire Retardant Spray. The Flamex Fire Retardant Spray took the cotton longer to ignite than the Flametard Fire Retardant spray and the No-Burn Fabric Fire Guard Fire Retardant spray. The Flametard Retardant Spray made the cotton extinguish faster than No-Burn Fabric Fire Guard Fire Retardant spray and the Flamex Fire Retardant spray.

CONCLUSION

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.

The results indicate that this hypothesis should be rejected because the average percent of the fabric that was left unburned with the No-Burn Fabric Fire Guard Fire Retardant Spray was the smallest of the three products tested.

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.

The results indicate that this hypothesis should be rejected because the average time it took for the fabric sprayed with the No-Burn Fabric Fire Guard Fire Retardant Spray to ignite was shorter than the Flamex Fire Retardant Spray but not 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.

The results indicate that this hypothesis should be rejected because the average time it took for the fabric sprayed with the No-Burn Fabric Fire Guard Fire Retardant Spray to extinguish was 4.99 seconds, longer than either of the other products.

Because of the results of this experiment, I wonder if the Flametard Fire Retardant spray would still effectively prevent cotton from burning after the cotton has been washed 10, 20, or 30 times?

If I were to conduct this project again I would include more trials. I would also use more types of fabrics (linen, silk, etc.) to see if the Flametard Fire Retardant Spray would effectively prevent those fabrics from burning.
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