Difference Between Flame Retardant And Fire Resistant Cables

Iec 60322 fire resistant.

Difference between flame retardant and fire resistant cables.

Without a special chemical application a fabric will not qualify as flame retardant. Flame retardant cables are designed to resist the spread of fire into a new area. The biggest difference between flame resistant and flame retardant fabrics lies in how each is made. Flame retardant cables can resist the spread of fire but fire rated cables maintain circuit integrity and continue to work in the presence of fire.

Iec 60332 1 bs 4066 1 flame test on single vertical insulated wires cables. A layer of non melting non flammable halogen free smoke free fire resistant plastic material is filled or wrapped between the cable insulated core and the cable sheath i e insulating organic is used to isolate the cable from the outside oxygen gas so that the cable is non. A fire resistant cable will continue to function in the event of a fire and is also identified as a circuit integrity cable a flame retardant cable on the other hand will not propagate or convey a fire. A flame resistant cable in this manner would let the circuit stay in operation allowing power to be transferred through it while this would not be the case with a flame retardant cable.

Typically flame retardant cables resist the spread of fire into a new area whereas fire resistive cables maintain circuit integrity and continue to work for a specific time under defined conditions. Oxygen barrier cable also known as highly flame retardant cable. The main code as follow. For iec 60322 is test on electric cable under fire conditions.

Due to relative low cost fire retardant cables are widely used as fire survival cables. Similarly without being made of certain nonflammable fibers a fabric will not quality as fire resistant. Difference between flame retardant cable and fire resistant release time 2016 05 27 14 43 hit. Fireproof wire and cable is a general name for the fire resistance wire and cable usually divided into flame retardant wire and cable zr bv and fire resistant wire and cable nh bv.

It s about the test code. There are enormous differences between flame retardant cables and fire resistive cables. Commonly fire resistant cable has red outer sheath jacket while flame retardant may have grey or black outer sheath jacket. This article below will describe the differences between flame retardant and fire rated cables.

Fire resistant cables are often used to maintain circuit integrity of those vital life safety systems such as fire alarm and suppression services. Fire and disaster planning is painstaking so it is of the utmost importance that specifiers and contractors understand when to use flame retardant and when to use fire resistant cable what the differences are and how the right choices should be arrived at.