Fire Testing of Floor Coverings. The New CEN Method Will Be More Severe Than NT FIRE 007

摘要

Fire testing of floor coverings shall, in the future in Europe, be performed according to a European Standard. The method that has been discussed determines the burning behavior and smoke production of floor coverings when they are exposed to a radiant heat energy source. To study the effects for the Nordic countries of the new classification test method a minor series of floor coverings was tested. The results of the study indicate that the CEN-method is more severe than the NT FIRE-method. The limit levels of the Nordic classification system of today are in fact tangent to the measuring range of the CEN-method. The classification range for smoke of the CEN-method can be extended by measuring the smoke with a higher resolution or increasing the air flow at the measuring point. However, the classification range for flame spread cannot easily be extended.