Zhou, Secretary General of the Chinese Society of Flame retardants and Professor at Beijing Institute of Technology, stated that although China's flame retardant industry started relatively late, its technological development has reached the international advanced level. At present, most of China's flame retardant products are exported, and there is still a lot of room for development in the domestic market.
The Fire Protection Regulations of the People's Republic of China clearly stipulate that the fire protection work policy in China is to prioritize prevention and combine prevention with firefighting. Expert Zhou pointed out that the use of flame retardant products is mainly based on prevention, which is an effective means to reduce the occurrence of fires or contain larger fires, and truly achieve prevention before they happen. With the development of China's materials industry and the continuous expansion of application fields, flame retardant materials, as a new type of environmentally friendly protection material, have been widely used in chemical building materials, electronic appliances, transportation, aerospace, daily furniture, interior decoration, clothing, food, housing, transportation and other fields, with broad market prospects. In addition, fields such as coalfields, oil fields, and forest firefighting have also promoted the rapid development of flame retardant material production in China.
In 1995, China implemented the "Code for Fire Protection Design of Interior Decoration of Buildings" GB50222-1995 and revised it in 2001. The "Code for Fire Protection Design of Interior Decoration of Buildings" clearly stipulates that the design of interior decoration of buildings should properly handle the contradiction between decoration effect and safety of use, actively use non combustible materials and non combustible materials, and try to avoid materials that produce a large amount of smoke or toxic gases during combustion. However, due to the relative lag and implementation of standard regulations, the application and popularization of flame retardant materials in public entertainment venues are far from sufficient, and there is still great room for improvement in the market.
In recent years, many fire accidents in public entertainment venues have further promoted people's attention to the application standards and regulations of flame retardant materials. But currently, some domestic property owners are not familiar with relevant fire safety regulations and standards, and even a considerable number of units do not know that building materials and decorative materials must undergo graded inspections of fire safety performance and combustion performance; Some operators and managers of public entertainment venues want to save costs, be lucky, and avoid inspections. From the perspective of production enterprises, due to users' lack of understanding of flame retardant materials and market competition, low-priced counterfeit products have emerged; Some producers forge fire safety performance and green environmental protection inspection reports in their business activities and construction projects, deceiving users and supervisors, and restricting the development of the flame retardant material market.
Professor Zhou also introduced that the United States is one of the countries with relatively good regulations on flame retardant technology in the world. It has not only made relevant provisions on flame retardancy in public entertainment venues, but also extended to various aspects of daily life. For example, the United States has established flame retardant requirements for children's pajamas and general clothing. Canada, Australia, and the UK have also established relevant technical regulations, such as the flame retardancy of children's evening wear, with the UK also specifying the flame retardancy and testing methods for adult evening wear. Moreover, our country is still blank in this regard, and only mandatory national standards have been established for flame retardant clothing worn by people engaged in special industries. In addition, the United States, Japan, and Canada have also formulated relevant technical regulations for decorative textiles such as carpets, mattresses, and curtains, and proposed flame retardant performance requirements and testing methods.
The significant fire casualties in public entertainment venues have attracted high attention from the government and widespread concern from society. Drawing on advanced foreign experience, in order to further prevent accidents and promote the development of the flame retardant material market, China began implementing the national standard GB20286-2006 "Requirements and Markings for Combustion Performance of Flame Retardant Products and Components in Public Places" on July 1, 2008. This standard was formulated by the Ministry of Public Security to effectively control the casualties and property losses caused by fires in public places. This standard specifies the definition and classification, combustion performance requirements and signs of flame retardant products and components in public places, specifies the combustion performance of building products, floor paving materials, wires and cables, sockets, switches, lamps, household appliances and other plastic products used in public places, as well as the thermal insulation layer and foam plastic used in seats, sofas and mattresses, and puts forward the requirements of corresponding flame retardant standard grades. Require public places to use flame-retardant products that meet combustion performance requirements and label them as flame-retardant products.
In addition, the new Fire Protection Law implemented in China since May 1, 2009 has also made mandatory provisions on the decoration materials of public entertainment venues. Article 26 of the new Fire Protection Law stipulates that the fire resistance performance of building components, building materials, and interior decoration materials must comply with national standards; Those without national standards must comply with industry standards. The indoor decoration of densely populated areas should use non combustible and non combustible materials in accordance with the requirements of fire safety technical standards. When a fire occurs, materials with non combustible performance that can last for more than 5 minutes are non combustible materials, and materials with non combustible performance that can last for more than 20 minutes are non combustible materials. According to relevant technical standards, non combustible materials or various flame-retardant products should be used for ceilings, walls, floors, and decorative fabrics in entertainment venues. Among them, non combustible materials such as granite, marble, cement products, and ceramic tiles have the highest fire rating. Non combustible products such as gypsum board and cement particleboard are also widely used in ceiling and wall decoration, with good fire resistance.
The development of the flame retardant material market is closely related to policies and regulations. Timely, feasible, and strictly required laws and regulations have greatly promoted the development of the flame retardant material market. With the implementation of the "Requirements and Labeling for Combustion Performance of Flame Retardant Products and Components in Public Places" and the new "Fire Protection Law", the market for flame retardant materials in public places has broad development prospects.
