Flame retardancy and curing characteristic determination for different flame retardant incorporated with unsaturated polyester composites

Abstract

This study was conducted to evaluate the performance of three different types of flame retardant (FR) incorporated with unsaturated polyester composites on flame retardancy effect and curing characteristic. Three different types of FR used are phosphate ester, tin oxide and melamine. Each sample with two different loadings of 2.5% and 5% of FR were prepared using hand lay-up method. The flame retardancy effect of composites was analysed according to ASTM D635 while gel time determination for the curing characteristic analysis. Results showed that the higher the amount of FR incorporated, the higher the flame resistance of the composites. Up to 5.0% of FR loadings, phosphate ester shows better performance of the flame retardancy effect as compared to tin oxide and melamine. The rate of burning had improved for phosphate ester, melamine and tin oxide with 0.067mm/sec, 0.116mm/sec and 0.129mm/sec respectively compared to composite without FR with 0.357mm/sec. Physical observation during the combustion process showed melamine produced the less smoke density and the least soot intensity compare to phosphate ester and tin oxide. For the curing characteristic, incorporation of FR had increased the gel time of the composites up to 39minutes as compared with composite without incorporation of FR about 13.78minutes.