AHFA To Hold Furniture Flammability Workshop

Furniture World Magazine

The American Home Furnishings Alliance will hold its annual Flammability Workshop on Thursday, March 20, at the Sheraton Four Seasons in Greensboro, N.C. On December 27, 2007, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) voted 2-0 to issue a proposed rule on upholstered furniture flammability. Officials invited to speak at the workshop will address performance requirements of the new regulation, which focuses only on ignition of furniture by dropped cigarettes – which account for over 90 percent of furniture fires. Previous CPSC staff proposals would have also required furniture to resist small open flame sources such as lighters, matches and candles. In a written statement, CPSC Commissioner Thomas Moore said he regretted that the agency could not also address open flame fires at this time. Moore urged agency staff to conduct further research to identify safer flame retardant compounds that would allow open flame requirements to be added back into the pending regulation. Dale Ray, the CPSC’s project manager for upholstered furniture flammability, has once again been invited to headline the March Flammability Workshop – this time to review the second stage of the rulemaking process currently underway for the proposed furniture flammability regulation. Other invited officials include Shivani Mehta, a CPSC staff engineer, and Allyson Tenney, CPSC directorate for engineering science. Mehta works in the CPSC’s division of combustion and fire sciences where she evaluates a broad range of consumer products to determine potential risks to consumers. From 2002-2005, she designed and conducted flammability experiments involving textiles, building materials, and commercial and residential appliances. At the Flammability Workshop, she has been invited to report on a project undertaken to review the effectiveness of cigarettes that are designed to have a reduced propensity to ignite fires. Tenney has been involved in helping mattress manufacturers better understand the requirements of the CPSC’s mattress flammability standard, which went into effect July 1, 2007. She has held seminars on compliance issues and has fielded a wide spectrum of questions from manufacturers, importers, retailers and others in the bedding industry working to comply with the complicated regulation. She has been invited to discuss compliance challenges faced by the bedding industry that may also be faced by the upholstered furniture industry. Also on the March 20 agenda is an update on the development of fire blocking barrier materials. The smoldering cigarette resistance test endorsed by the CPSC in the new regulation is more stringent than the industry’s voluntary UFAC standard and could fail up to 15 percent of upholstery fabrics. Failing fabrics would have to be reengineered, or furniture manufacturers would need to use these fabrics with a complying barrier that would prevent the spread of fire into underlying cushioning materials. CPSC staff has identified several “barrier” products that could meet this application, including some developed in response to the mattress flammability regulation. AHFA and UFAC have already begun evaluating barrier materials for functionality and economics. The panel of speakers to address this issue has not yet been identified. Additional sessions during the one-day workshop include an overview of the research program undertaken by Underwriters Laboratories to assess the fire hazards associated with upholstered furniture and a panel discussion by textile and foam industry executives covering concerns and activities related to the proposed furniture flammability regulation. A 6 p.m. opening reception is planned for March 19 at the Sheraton, during which attendees will have the opportunity to view tabletop exhibits from suppliers of materials used in improving the overall fire performance of bedding and upholstery. Workshop registration is $250 for members of the AHFA and the Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Association (BIFMA), and $340 for all others. The fee includes the March 19 reception, as well as lunch and workshop materials on March 20. To register, call 336/884-5000, ext. 100. Those requiring overnight accommodations should contact the Sheraton Four Seasons directly at 800/242-6556 and reference the AHFA Flammability Workshop. The cutoff date for reservations at the group rate of $129 is February 26. The American Home Furnishings Alliance – located in High Point, N.C., and Washington, D.C. – is the largest association of home furnishings companies in the world and represents more than 240 leading furniture manufacturers and distributors, plus about 200 suppliers to the furniture industry worldwide.