Concluding book chapter identifies new fire risk scenarios and today’s key challenges for flame retardants and for fire testing. Alex Morgan, editor of the 3rd Fire Retardancy of Polymer Materials handbook (see above) underlines electric transportation (batteries, increasing polymer use in vehicle structures), aviation, changing power systems (DC in renewable energies), wildland urban interface (with increasing wildfires) and additive manufacturing. Key challenges for flame retardant design are identified as the push towards reactive and polymeric FRs (to reduce possible losses from materials, and so reduce exposure and chemical risk), end-of-life compatibility (waste-to-energy and recycling) and cost-effectiveness. There is a need to develop small-scale test methods (rapid, economic) which show good correlation to large-scale fire tests, and so better reflect real fire scenarios. Testing needs to evolve to take into account the new fire safety challenges identified.
Infographic: Fire Adapted Communities, NFPA (US National Fire Protection Association), https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fire_Adapted_Communities_infographic.jpg
“The future of material fire protection – unmet needs, new fire risk scenarios, and new flame retardant approaches”, chapter 32 (28 pages) in Fire Retardancy of Polymeric Materials, 3rd edition, A. Morgan 2024 http://dx.doi.org/10.1201/9781003380689-32