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MDI slabstock foam – flammability performance with out added flame retardants

von Raymond Neff, Theodore Smiecinski, Victoria Manea

While flammability regulations are becoming more stringent, slabstock foam producers are coming under increasing pressure to eliminate halogenated flame retardants (FR) from their formulations. Although halogenated additives have been specifically targeted, any FR additive will contribute cost, and may degrade the performance of slabstock foam. In response to the emerging market need for slabstock foam free of FR, BASF recently developed an innovative solution.

Lupranate 280 Isocyanate is a versatile MDI product which can be formulated using typical ingredients to produce conventional, high resilience and visco elastic slabstock foam. This paper provides examples across all three applications. Excellent processing and properties were achieved, especially for conventional foam where processing difficulties have been encountered in past work. Remarkably, California 117 compliance was accomplished without using FR additives. Formulation of Lupranate 280 Isocyanate with Pluracol Balance 50 Polyol additionally offers a product containing renewable material. A thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) study comparing MDI and TDI conventional foam is also included to gain some understanding of the flammability performance.