While people consume fiber products in large quantities and enjoy the warmth, comfort and beauty it brings to people, fires caused by the burning of fiber products have also become one of the major disasters in modern society. The results of the investigation of fatal accidents caused by fires showed that fires caused by interior decorations and textiles accounted for the first place in total fires. At the same time, we found that the harmful gases released when combustible textiles are burned are more harmful to the human body than flame-retardant textiles. Therefore, in order to prevent fires, more and more attention has been paid to the production of flame-retardant fibers.

In foreign countries, the US Federal Safety Commission formulated the 1633 Act, which is more stringent based on the original California TB603 standard, in response to the huge threat to people’s life and safety caused by the continuous fires in the United States, and in July 2007 It will be enforced in 50 states in the United States on the 1st. The bill is mainly aimed at the flame retardant properties of mattress products.

In this year, the new demand and new changes in the fiber market for product safety protection performance attracted great attention from the leadership of Shandong Yinying Chemical Fiber Co., Ltd. Since then, Shandong Yinying Chemical Fiber Co., Ltd. began to pay attention to, investigate and follow up the flame-retardant fiber market. Based on a large number of experiments, screenings, and comparisons of flame-retardant fibers, Shandong Yinying Chemical Fiber Co., Ltd. determined the positioning and production implementation plan of flame-retardant fiber products in 2009, and successfully conducted trial production that year.

Early flame retardant viscose fibers were produced by post-finishing methods. After the fiber is made or in the production process, the fiber is treated with a nitrogen-containing organic phosphate compound, or antimony trioxide and halogen-containing flame retardant are coated on the surface of the fiber in a latex state. The fiber prepared by this method has a good flame retardant effect, but the smoke produced by fire is large, and the fiber has poor washing resistance: the flame retardant performance is easily damaged during the fiber dyeing and finishing process.

Later, people developed a blending and addition method for the production of flame-retardant fibers, which is to add flame retardant to the spinning dope at the later stage of the dissolution of cellulose sulfonate to produce flame-retardant viscose fiber. When using this method, in order to meet the flame retardant requirements, a large amount of flame retardant needs to be added to the viscose collagen solution. The weight of the flame retardant added is usually 15% to 30% of the fiber weight. Since the flame retardant is added to the viscose collagen solution before spinning, this requires that the flame retardant not only has alkali resistance, acid resistance, and excellent heat resistance, but also must be insoluble in water.

In recent years, people have begun to study the production of flame-retardant viscose fibers by graft copolymerization. Flame retardant viscose fiber can be obtained by graft copolymerization of fiber and vinyl monomer containing phosphorus and halogen elements. Cellulose has a high degree of crystallinity. At the same time, there are a large number of hydrogen bonds between and within molecules. Cellulose cannot be dissolved in most organic solvents. Therefore, it is very difficult to find the environment and initiation conditions for flame retardant graft polymerization. The technical difficulty and production cost of using this method to prepare flame-retardant viscose fiber is also the largest, and it is currently limited to laboratory development.

At present, the flame-retardant viscose fiber that has been researched and industrially produced is mainly prepared by the additive method.

The flame-retardant viscose fiber prepared by adding pyrophosphate organics, represented by Lenzing Company, has excellent product performance, but the price is extremely high. It is a high-end product. At the same time, Lenzing Company has complete intellectual property protection and protection of flame retardants. Market monopoly. The technology of producing flame-retardant viscose fiber produced by domestically produced silicon-based flame retardants has low product strength, high defect rate and poor hand feeling. It is mostly used to prepare non-woven fabrics, fillers and other disposable safety protection products.

Find the balance between performance and price

In the production of flame-retardant viscose fiber, the improvement of the flame-retardant performance of the product is a contradiction with the improvement of the physical and mechanical properties of the fiber. In order to improve the flame retardant effect of the product, the only way to increase the content of flame retardant in the fiber is to reduce the physical and mechanical properties of the product.

The biggest obstacle to the marketization of flame-retardant viscose fiber is its high product price. Affected by the continued fermentation of the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States, the sovereign debt crisis in Europe, the increasing pressure on domestic exports, and the slowdown in economic growth, consumers are more sensitive to prices, and have a serious mentality of reluctant to buy.

With the continuous emergence of public safety incidents in recent years, domestic consumers have paid more and more attention to safety protection products, but there is still a big gap in their cognitive level compared with consumers in developed countries in Europe and America.

In response to these circumstances, we will further increase investment, continue to develop and optimize, so that the cost-effectiveness of flame-retardant fibers will continue to increase, so that the performance will be improved and the price will be lowered to meet the needs of consumers.

Other flame-retardant fibers on the market are mostly polyester fibers, and their advantage is that the physical and mechanical properties of the fibers are significantly better than viscose fibers. However, some polyester flame-retardant fibers will melt and drip when burned, ignite low-flammability substances or burn people, causing secondary fires and injuries, and some will produce a large amount of toxic fumes, which will make people feel awake.

The flame-retardant viscose fiber is directly carbonized or solidified when it is burned, without melting and dripping: thereby preventing secondary damage. At the same time, flame-retardant viscose fiber has better skin affinity and dyeability than flame-retardant polyester fiber, with a moisture regain of about 13%, which belongs to the category of moisture regain that the human body feels comfortable. In addition, flame-retardant viscose fiber belongs to regenerated cellulose fiber, which is made by secondary processing of natural fiber. After being discarded, it can be naturally degraded into carbon dioxide and water under the action of microorganisms, moisture, and air in the soil. Its raw materials are endless, and its waste is non-toxic and harmless. It is a green, environmentally friendly and sustainable fiber raw material. The polyester flame-retardant fiber is a petrochemical product. It is prepared from the scarce resource of petroleum. The energy consumption ratio from petroleum to fiber is much higher than that of viscose fiber, and fiber waste will cause secondary pollution.

Have broad development space in the future

In the future, the preparation technology of flame-retardant viscose fibers will all be converted to production by blending and addition, and the silico-nitrogen-based flame-retardant viscose fibers with a high cost performance will be more and more favored by the market. Silica-nitrogen flame-retardant viscose fibers will shine in the fields of flame-retardant fibers for mid-end textiles, high-end nonwovens, flame-retardant fillers, etc., to fill the current phosphorus-based flame-retardant viscose fibers and silicon-based flame-retardant viscose Fiber market gaps caused by their respective defects.

The production of flame-retardant viscose fiber by graft polymerization is still in the laboratory stage, and there is still a long way to go before industrial production.

Indoor soft decoration, fire-retardant viscose fibers for soft decoration materials in public places and vehicles will be valued by consumers in the future, and they are also the most potential market areas for fire-retardant fibers.