Simone Gatti, Radici Italy, underlines the wide range of different requirements for flame retardants. Radici prefer to promote PIN flame retardants, because they consider them to be more sustainable and to open wider opportunities, but it is still difficult to substitute halogen FRs to meet some standards such as Glow Wire.
Strong growth for PIN FRs is expected in E&E applications in technical and engineering polymers. Equipment manufacturers increasingly want to justify that their products are safe for users, and so fire safe. There is increasing demand for low smoke toxicity and low smoke opacity solutions, which PIN can meet, already in European in new railway and construction standards, and anticipated in the US “yellow card” requirements. Flame retardants should also offer sustainability, but criteria need clarification, and should cover avoiding migration, skin contact safety in use and low toxicity. Sustainability labelling and auditing should be defined.
RadiciGroup www.radicigroup.com is an internationally orientatd, Italian chemicals group which fully controls its production chain, from adipic acid and PA6 and 6,6, to engineering plastics , including specialised performance polymer compounds for automotive and E&E.