New Sustainable all-MDI Flexible Molded Foam Technology Meeting Flammability Requirements for the Furniture Industry

摘要

The Dow Chemical Company has recently made significant advances in the development of new technology that gives molded flexible foam producers a sustainable solution to meet flammability requirements such as the California Technical Bulletin 117 [1] and FMVSS 302 standards. Dow has developed a family of all-MDI formulated systems, including a system with a high renewable content, which are easy to process and with a wide working window allowing producers to minimize inventory while still being able to meet a demanding range of final properties. These systems have been developed utilizing new polyurethane technology together with Dow's proprietary lab modeling and simulation process specifically developed to improve the foam processing characteristics and part aesthetics giving a high degree of design flexibility. The main objective of this work was to develop molded foam systems, primarily for the furniture industry, able to meet flammability requirements without the use of conventional flame retardants while retaining excellent processing characteristics and final property requirements.