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The cone calorimeter has become one of the most important and widely used instruments for the research and development of fire retarded polymeric materials. The paper addresses three important ways in which the principal setup influences the results factors which sometimes do not receive due consideration when drawing conclusions. The paper discusses in detail the impact on cone calorimeter results of the choice of external heat flux, the influence on the peak of heat release rate of sample thickness and thermal feedback from the back of the sample, and the influence on irradiance of the horizontal and vertical distances from the cone heater.
Barrier formation and increasing the melt viscosity are addressed as the two main general fire retardancy mechanisms of polymer nanocomposites. They result in specific impacts on fire properties that consequentially cause varying flame retardancy efficiency in different fire tests. The barrier formation retards mainly flame spread (peak of heat release rate) in developing fires, but does not reduce fire load (total heat evolved), ignitability or flammability (limiting oxygen index, UL 94). Furthermore, this flame retardancy effect increases with increasing irradiation and vanishes with decreasing irradiation. The increased melt viscosity prevents dripping, which is beneficial or disadvantageous depending on the fire test used. In some test, it become the dominant influence, transforming self-extinguishing samples into flammable materials or causing wicking. Advantages and the limits are sketched comprehensively for exploiting the main general fire retardancy mechanisms of polymer nanocomposites. It is concluded that barrier formation and changing the melt viscosity in nanocomposites are not sufficient for most applications, but must be accompanied by additional mechanisms in special systems or in combination with other flame retardants.