As many plastics are inherently flammable, measures must be taken to increase their safety in applications where there is the risk of fire. Often the most cost effective method of doing this is to add a fire retardant additive during processing.
There are two types of Fire Retardant Masterbatches available :
- Containing Halogen free additives
- Containing Halogenated additives
Careful choice of the fire retardant for a particular polymer and application is important. Additives must be chosen to function properly in the polymer they need to protect. Other properties of the fire retardant must also be considered. The additive should be compatible with the polymer, it should not adversely affect physical properties and ideally be effective at low addition rates. Additionally, in certain applications, it is desirable that the additive is colourless and does not affect UV stability.
