Burning Behavior of Cotton Fabrics with Different Finishes According to EN ISO 6940

Fire safety plays an important role in textiles across many areas of application, such as in commercial settings, decorative fabrics, or public buildings. To reduce the risk of fire ignition and spread, textiles are either treated with flame-retardant finishes during manufacturing or impregnated with fire-retardant agents afterward [1].

The flammability of textiles is influenced by various factors, in particular fiber material, textile structure, weight per unit area, surface texture, and any coatings or impregnations. Cotton consists primarily of cellulose and is classified as a highly flammable natural fiber.

In a recent project, the fire behavior of three plain-woven cotton fabrics was investigated in accordance with DIN EN ISO 6940. For this purpose, a conventional cotton fabric, the same cotton fabric after fire-retardant impregnation by a flame-retardant (B1) spray for natural and synthetic fibers, and a cotton fabric already classified as B1 (flame-retardant) according to DIN 4102-1 were compared (minimum n = 10 for each material). The objective was to determine the resistance to ignition of the various materials under identical test conditions and to evaluate the effects of a post-treatment flame-retardant impregnation on their fire behavior. Other fire-performance characteristics, such as flame spread or afterflame time, were not investigated in this study.

While the conventional cotton began to burn after an ignition time of 6-7 seconds, neither the B1-classified cotton fabric nor the impregnated cotton fabric showed any signs of ignition within the maximum exposure time specified in EN ISO 6940. The tests thus demonstrate the flame-retardant effect that can be achieved even with simple flame-retardant sprays. Long-term and practical performance will be evaluated in future tests.

[1] Ghosh, J.; Rupanty, N. S.; Noor, T.; Asif, T. R.; Islam, T.; Reukov, V. Functional coatings for textiles: advancements in flame resistance, antimicrobial defense, and self-cleaning performance. RSC Advances 2025, 15, 10984-11022.