Progress in safety, flame retardant textiles and flexible fire barriers for seats in transportation

The purpose of this study is to provide flame retardancy properties to textile materials used in public transportation, particularly in buses. The aim is to use natural fibres as much as possible in order to preserve good handle of the fabric, its dyeability and for ecological aspects. Two approaches are proposed. The first one is to use composites based on linen fire barrier nonwoven and standard coverings. The second one is to use blends of wool with high performance fibres (p-aramid) in order to investigate eventual synergistic effect. Knitted textiles, obtained by intimate mixing with wool and high performance fibres (poly-p-phenylenediamine-terephthalamide (PPTA)), allow improving FR performance and thermal stability by synergistic effects. Blends of wool with PPTA fibres in core yarns are studied in order to investigate good FR behaviour with a wool aspect of the textile.