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Abstract
For a variety of reasons, wood-plastic composite (WPC) products are widely available for some building applications. In applications such as outdoor decking, WPCs have gained a significant share of the market. As an option to improve the efficient use of wood fiber, the USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory (FPL), has an extensive research program on WPCs. Although often ignored in discussions of WPCs, the flammability of WPCs can be a significant factor in certain building applications. This paper reviews past, present, and planned cooperative FPL research projects on fire-retardant treatment of WPCs and related topics.
Keywords
Wood-plastic composites,
fire,
cone calorimeter,
flame,
retardants,
thermal properties,
fire testing,
composite materials,
fire risk assessment,
flame spread,
fire testing,
heat of combustion,
combustion,
fire prevention,
testing,
thermoplastic composites,
wood plastic composites,
wood flour,
forest products industry,
marketing,
forest products,
market surveys,
decks,
flammability,
fire hazard,
fire resistance,
thermal degradation,
ignition,
fire retardants,
review article,
cone calorimetry
Citation
White, Robert H.; Stark, Nicole M.; Ayrilmis, Nadir. 2011. Recent activities in flame retardancy of wood-plastic composites at the Forest Products Laboratory. In: 22nd annual Conference on Recent Advances in Flame Retardancy of Polymeric Materials 2011 : Stamford, Connecticut, USA, 23-25 May 2011. Wellesley, MA : BCC Research, c2011: 12 p.: ISBN: 9781618394699: 161839469X.
