High-visibility, long-burning, illuminating candles are needed for marking locations for operations such as seek-and-destroy and rescue missions. The ability to control and extend burn times in illuminating candles over a wide range of time (more than 60 seconds) is typically limited by the balance of inert binder levels and low energy oxidizers used to slow burn time against increasing visible and/or infrared energy output overtime. Polyester-based compositions are limited by problems of off-gassing and swelling of the grain at binder levels of less than 10 percent by weight. By using a novel low-viscosity thermoset binder (LVTB), both ignitibility and grain integrity at high binder levels are attainable. Conversely, adequate coating at low binder levels also enables processing as a pressed material.
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