Flame Retardants / Smoke Suppressants

A flame retardant (FR) is a chemical compound added to a plastic with an objective to inhibit/retard the ignition/burning of the plastic. To prevent combustion, it becomes necessary to design a thermally stable polymer that has a lesser probability of decomposing into combustible gases under heat stress. However, thermally stable polymers may exhibit performance limitations and are often too expensive and difficult to process. Therefore, manufacturers add various flame retardant chemicals that can be classified as inorganic, halogenated, nitrogen based and phosphorous based.