ISO 4589-2 Plastics – Determination of burning behaviour by oxygen index – Part 2: Ambient-temperature
1.Scope
This part ISO 4589 specifies methods for determining the minimum concentration of oxygen, in admixture with nitrogen, that will support combustion of small vertical test specimens under specified test conditions. The results are defined as oxygen index values.
Methods are provided for testing materials that are self-supporting in the form of vertical bars or sheet up to 10.5mm thick. The results are defined as oxygen index values.
Methods are provided for testing materials that are self-supporting in the form of vertical bars or sheet up to 10.5mm thick. These methods are suitable for solid, laminated or celluar materials characterized by an apparent density of less than 100kg/m3.A method is provided for testing flexible sheet or film materials while supported vertically.
For comparative purposes, a procedure is provided for determining whether or not the oxygen index of a material lies above some specified minimum value.
Oxygen index results obtained using the methods described in this part of ISO 4589 can provide a
sensitive measure of the burning characteristics of materials under certain controlled laboratory
conditions, and hence may be useful for quality control purposes. The results obtained are
dependent upon the shape, orientation and isolation of the test specimen and the conditions of ignition. For particular materials or applications, it may be necessary or appropriate to specify different test conditions. Results obtained from test specimens of differing thickness or by using different ignition procedures may not be comparable and no correlation with flammability behaviour under other fire conditions is implied.
Results obtained in accordance with this part of ISO 4589-2 must not be used to describe or appraise the fire hazard presented by a particular material or shape under actual fire conditions, unless used as one element of a fire risk assessment that takes into account all of the factors pertinent to the assessment of the fire hazard of a particular application for the material.
NOTE 1 It may not be possible to apply these methods satisfactorily to materials that exhibit high levels of shrinkage when heated, e.g. highly oriented thin film.
NOTE 2 For assessing the flame propagination properties of celluar materials of density < 100 kg/m3, attention is drawn to the method of !ISO 3582:2000, Flexible cellular polymeric materials — Laboratory assessment of horizontal burning characteristics of small specimens subjected to a small flame.”
2 Normative references
The following standards contain provisions which, through reference in this text, constitute provisions of this part of ISO 4589. At the time of publication, the editions indicated were valid. All standards are subject to revision, and parties to agreements based on this part of ISO 4589 are encouraged to investigate the possibility of applying the most recent editions of the standards indicated below.
Members of IEC and ISO maintain registers of currently valid International Standards.
ISO 293:2004,Plastics – Compression moulding test specimens of thermoplastic materials.
ISO 294 (all parts);Plastics – Injection moulding of test specimens of thermoplastic materials.
ISO 295:2004,Plastics – Compression moulding of test specimens of thermosetting materials.
ISO 2818:1994, Plastics – Preparation of test specimens by machining.
ISO 2859-1:1989, Sampling procedures for inspection by attributes – Part 1: Sampling plans indexed by acceptable quality level (AQL) for lot-by-lot inspection.
ISO 2859-2:1985, Sampling procedures for inspection by attributes – Part 2: Sampling plans indexed by limiting quality (LQ) for isolated lot inspection.
ISO 3167:2002,Plastics -Multipurpose test specimens