Combustion Characteristics of Flat Panel Televisions With and Without Fire Retardants in the Casing

摘要

A series of flat panel television burns were performed with incrementally increasing ignition sources in a single burning item apparatus. A comparison study was performed of like model televisions for the United States, Mexican and Brazilian markets. Heat release rate, smoke, combustion gas, TO-15 vapor, and halo-dioxin and furan generation were measured. A total of 18 televisions were ignited and their burning behavior studied to examine the impact of materials of construction and the presence of fire retardants in the casing of the televisions on fire growth. US market televisions required more than 500 W with greater than 180 s exposure to ignite and in four out of the 6 trials these televisions did not achieve sustained ignition. In the two cases where sustained ignition for the US market televisions occurred, it was not the flat panel display television itself which ignited, but the stand and mounting bracket which lead to fire growth. Mexican and Brazilian market televisions ignited easily with 60 s exposure to a 50 W flame. US market televisions did produce bromi-nated dioxins or furans but the mass loss of these televisions was much lower.