PECOAT® PVC coating Meets the Flame Retardant UL94 V0

Flame Retardant Standard UL94 V0 Testing

According to the test report issued by the internationally authoritative testing organization SGS, PECOAT® PVC coating has met the UL94 V0 level standard in the flame retardancy performance test.

This test focused on the 50W (20mm) vertical burning performance of the coating, conducted in accordance with the standard of UL 94-2023 Rev.2-2024 Section 8. The test samples were A-sheets with specifications of 125mm × 13.0mm × 5.3mm. The test was carried out under two conditions, namely “as-received state” (placed in an environment with a temperature of 23±2℃ and a relative humidity of 50±5% for 48h) and “after aging state” (aged in an environment of 70±2℃ for 168h, then placed in a desiccator at 23±2℃ for 4h). Five samples were tested under each condition.

From the test results, under both conditions, the afterflame time of all samples after the first and second applications of flame was ≤10s, and the sum of the afterflame time and afterglow time after the second application of flame was ≤30s. Moreover, no sample burned up to the clamping device, and there was no case of burning particles or droplets igniting the cotton. Among them, the total afterflame time of the five samples under the “as-received state” was 8.9s, and that under the “after aging state” was 12.4s, both far lower than the ≤50s required by the V0 level standard. Based on comprehensive data, the vertical burning performance of the coating was rated as V0 level.

UL94 V0 level is one of the high standards for the flame retardancy of plastics. PECOAT® PVC plastisol coating reaching this level demonstrates its excellent flame retardant properties and provides reliable safety guarantees for relevant application scenarios.

Detailed Explanation of UL94 V0 Flame Retardant Standard

UL94 is a standard for testing the flammability of plastic materials formulated by Underwriters Laboratories (UL). Among them, the V0 level is one of the higher flame retardant grades in this standard, which has strict requirements on the flame retardant performance of materials.

According to the UL 94-2023 Rev.2-2024 Section 8 standard and related contents referred to in the test report, the specific judgment criteria for UL94 V0 level are as follows:​

• The afterflame time (t1 and t2) of each test specimen after the first and second applications of flame shall be ≤ 10s.​
• The total afterflame time (sum of t1 and t2) of 5 test specimens in any condition group shall be ≤ 50s.​
• The sum of the afterflame time and afterglow time (t2 + t3) of each test specimen after the second application of flame shall be ≤ 30s.​
• No test specimen is allowed to burn up to the clamping device.​
• Burning particles or droplets are not allowed to ignite the cotton indicator below.​

These standards comprehensively measure the flame retardant ability of materials from multiple dimensions such as afterflame time, afterglow time, burning range and the impact of burning substances. Materials reaching the V0 level can self-extinguish quickly when encountering an open flame, with low risk of flame spread, which can effectively reduce fire hazards and have important application value in fields with high requirements for flame retardant performance.