Panel discussions : Sustainability is the key regulatory driver

This year’s AMI FriP conference included an interactive panel discussion session and a session with round table discussions in small groups of participants on six questions on FR development perspectives.

The panel discussion brought together Adrian Beard, pinfa President (Clariant), Michael Großhauser, Fraunhofer LBF, Daniel De Schryver, Albemarle, Masayuki Okoshi, Japan Society of Flame Retardants, Aditya Ramgobin, Safran Seats.

Questions to the panel included:

How to meet stringent fire safety standards while adhering to environmental regulations ?
Strategies for balancing performance and sustainability in flame retardant solutions.
Predicting the next generation of fire-resistant materials and their potential impact on the plastics industry.

The panel discussions noted that:

Regulation has a positive impact by restricting problematic chemicals and driving innovation, but that policy support for innovative and greener FR solutions is inadequate. Regulatory action is slow (the brominated FR DecaBDE was questioned for some time before being restricted), but this allows industry time to adapt.
‘Grouping’: Examining chemicals one-by-one risks leading to regrettable substitution by similar molecules. Industry needs to work closely with ECHA to ensure that the new “grouping” regulatory approach distinguishes between families of molecule with different characteristics and different breakdown metabolites (see study on scientific grouping of phosphorus PIN FRs commissioned by pinfa, pinfa Newsletter n°142). The work currently ongoing under the ECHA Flame Retardants Strategy (see pinfa Newsletter n°147) may lead in Spring 2025 to a proposed EU regulation to possibly group and restrict all aromatic brominated FRs.
Tests and standards: Standardised fire tests are essential for verification of material fire safety and they are designed to simulate real life fire scenarios (such as risk of ignition by overheated electrical component = glow wire ignition test, or risk of fire spread = UL 94 flaming drip) but development of new tests is very slow and does not respond to new applications and materials.
SSbD: The push for “Safe and Sustainable by Design” FRs is complex as sustainability is difficult to define, requiring specific considerations for each chemical and each application, covering chemical hazard, materials supply and Critical Raw Materials, bio-sourced materials, recycling, carbon footprint. Assessment of carbon footprint should take into account not only chemical production for the whole FR package (both the FR and necessary synergists) but also carbon benefits in application, such as reduced fuel consumption from lightweighting in transport applications or material consumption gains from miniaturisation.
Innovation: There is a need for ongoing innovation in flame retardants to respond to sustainability, demanding applications (such as thin wall, electrical CTI performance), developments in recycling processes, use of bio-based materials.

Visions from compounders and distributors

Interview: Teknor Apex

Lisa Mailänder. Teknor Apex was started a century ago working with rubber and tyres. With production in the USA, Asia and Europe, the company formulates a wide range of technical plastics and rubbers and produces additives for applications including transport, construction, electrical and electronics, wire and cable and medical. Teknor Apex focusses on non-halogenated flame retardants, and today includes no halogenated FRs in its portfolio in Europe and concentrates all new development on non-halogen. This corresponds to customer demand to move away from halogenated FRs. A challenge is to find effective FRs which do not release acids and so cause corrosion for electrical applications such as connectors. Trends for tomorrow include polymeric PIN FRs, which limit risks of migration out of finished products and corrosion, but pose challenges for processing. Sustainability objectives are pushing to develop biobased materials and recycling, including looking for PIN FRs with significant bio-based content. A priority for Teknor Apex is dialogue with customers and end-users to ensure that flame retardants are only used when appropriate: in electric vehicles, the supply chain tends to ask for “everything FR” whereas levels of fire resistance should be adapted to levels of risk, which are not the same in high voltage power chains as in bodywork.

Interview: Eurotec Engineering Plastics

Can Altiparmak. Eurotec is a compounder of engineering thermoplastics, based in Turkey, working in partnership with customers to provide rapid, flexible and tailor-made solutions for a variety of industries including automotive, transport, E&E and household appliances. Eurotec sees a continuing trend towards non-halogen fire safety with a performance and price competitiveness. Miniaturisation means higher energy densities and increased fire risk, as well as demanding electrical and mechanical materials performance. In electrical vehicles, sustaining of electrical insulation performance (CTI) and providing UL94 V0 rating & high glow wire temperatures are important for vehicle safety and require tailor-made flame-retardant compounds. Eurotec offers a full range of flame-retardant thermoplastic compounds meeting key standards including UL, FMVSS, EN455545-2 for railway and FAR for aviation, while also focusing on sustainable, eco-friendly solutions according to customer demand, with virgin, recycled, bio or blends polymers to achieve performance requirements. As sustainability becomes a key focus, end-users should adjust their current material specifications for virgin materials, such as colour sensitivity and material performance, to accommodate sustainable solutions. Challenges for tomorrow include material performance of recycled polymers, non-PFAS anti-drip formulations, reducing carbon footprint and combining fire performance with electrical insulation characteristics.

Interview: TER Chemicals

Janina Krügel. TER Chemicals GmbH & Co. KG is a leading EU distributor of speciality chemicals for industrial applications. TER’s vision is of innovation and sustainability, including advancing chemical regulations on safety, upcycling and product carbon footprint. For sustainability reasons, TER offers non-halogenated, PIN-based flame retardants. As a distributor, TER offers a wide portfolio of different FRs and additives from a pool of suppliers, enabling response to specific customer needs based on and building of different customer experience to propose proven solutions. Challenges today are to replace PFAS (PTFE) with non-halogenated anti-drip formulations, replacing ATO (antimony trioxide), finding supply chains which rely on EU-sourced materials. TER Chemicals remains open to innovation, seeking solutions for current and future industries and advancing sustainability through collaboration and forward-thinking initiatives.