TARRC develops flame-retardant NR for use in flooring

HERTFORD, England—The Tun Abdul Razak Research Centre has commercialized a flame retardant natural rubber for use in entrance matting after a successful trial at a London Underground station.

TARRC, the research and promotion center of the Malaysian Rubber Board, signed an agreement with Entrance Matting Systems Ltd. for use of TARRC's Natural-FR halogen free, low smoke, low toxic rubber compound.

Use of Natural-FR also will help the matting maker meet sustainability targets in products because it is derived from renewable resources and will “have a significant negative carbon footprint,” according to TARRC.

“I am delighted that this unique material developed here at TARRC has passed the stringent requirements demanded by London Underground,” said Stuart Cook, TARRC director of research. “TARRC's Natural-FR addresses today's market needs for safe, high performing sustainable materials, which can be used in challenging environments such as metro systems.”

The industry previously had been using synthetic materials, but the Malaysian Rubber Board center took on the challenge of developing a usable compound based on natural rubber, according to Marina Fernando, head of TARRC's industrial support unit.

“What we had to do was look at the various standards currently in place in Europe, do the various testing and achieve third-party certification,” she said. “You just can't go in and put the material anywhere. You have to go to a certified laboratory that would do all the tests.”

Criteria that had to be met for the flooring application covered smoke density, smoke toxicity, heat release rate, flame spread, and dry and wet slip resistance.

TARRC modified the natural rubber and then added fire retardant additives, Fernando said. “What's proprietary is the modified natural rubber and the way we have optimized the additives package that goes into the rubber compound to give it the flame retardancy,” she said.

The compound was tested at an underground station for at least six months prior to this agreement being signed.

TARRC also is looking to develop the compound for use in other applications. Fernando said one company already has approached it regarding a different type of product, though she didn't disclose what that was.

The TARRC official said she sees a possible use for the compound in rubber components used in railway systems. She said railway springs in the suspension system of a train have needed such a high level of filler loadings to make it flame retardant that the springs could lose performance characteristics. “You can't have a very hard rubber in a suspension element that requires vibration isolation,” she said.

So TARRC has worked on a technique where the inner layer has a normal NR compound giving the performance required in terms of dynamic stiffness, while the outer layer cured on top of the rubber component would give the flame retardancy in case of a fire, Fernando said. Thus far, this potential application has not undergone testing with a prospective customer.

“We want to expand (Natural-FR's) potential to as many markets as we can,” she said. “But we can only do that if people come forward, and we can actually evaluate the performance criteria for a given application against the flammability requirements.”

The group also is working on a color version of the Natural-FR compound.

Besides funding from the Malaysian Rubber Board, Hertford-based TARRC also operates Rubber Consultants to help generate revenue to cover its costs.