Certifications and Testing
Modern Plastics offers a wide range of test reporting options to support our plastic stock shapes.
Those reports might include standard material certifications (C of C), resin certification, actual test reports, or typical test reports.
Standard Material Certifications with shipments, are supplied with all shipments upon request. Materials are certified to the latest ASTM, Military, Federal or other applicable testing facility as meeting those properties and requirements listed in each document.
In addition, this certificate supplied by Modern Plastics will also assure that the material conforms to the full product description requested and/or shipped (example for Delrin® rod would read “Delrin® II 150 SA Natural Rod”, certified to “ASTM D4181 POM111”.)
Our certifications is a page of our order pull/packing slip form and is hand-signed after the correct material has been verified by order bar coding scan equipment operators.
Medical Plastics Certifications, are supplied with ALL shipments.
Quality assurance reports, are often supplied to our sheet, rod, tube and film manufactures by the resin manufactures (Dupont, BASF, Ticona, General Electric, etc.). Depending upon the supplier, these reports may contain specific test data covering individual resin lots. Most of this information is relevant to extrusion such as melt flow rate and moisture content. Some resin manufactures will audit the mechanical properties of their products on an annual basis and will provide this information along with the resin certification.
Actual test reports, is report information based on the findings from testing individual lots of extruded or cast product. Test samples are machined from the actual material of a given lot of product. Requests for “Actual Test Reports, must be provided prior to order placing to insure integrity of the report and for proper cost estimates of the report. Request for actual test reports after an order has been placed typically cannot be honored.
Modern Plastics can provide a variety of test reports and actual test reports to a host of ASTM specifications at nominal cost. To purchase this type of information, customers must specify exact requirements to be analyzed and tested at the time of order placement. Modern Plastics will quote a price for the actual test reports and/or special certification reports that are needed, along with an approximate lead time (typically 2-3 weeks).
Typical test reports, offer test results that do not cover specific lot numbers. Often, these reports are not sufficient for certification purposes. Modern Plastics can provide this information for selected products that have been tested in the past, otherwise you will need to refer to the manufacture data sheets.
Some of the typical test reports that are available are:
- ASTM D 4066 Nylon Materials (6/6, 6, 6/12)
- ASTM D 4181 Acetal Delrin® Materials (Delrin® 150, AF, Copolymer)
- ASTM D 3935 Polycarbonate Materials
- ASTM D 4349 Polyphenylene Ether Materials (Noryl®)
- ASTM D 4450 Thermoplastic Elastomer Materials (Hytrel®)
- ASTM D 5205 Polyetherimide Materials (Ultem®)
- ASTM D 4673 ABS Materials
- LP-410a Nylon Stock Shapes
- ASTM D 5989 Nylon Stock Shapes
- ASTM D 6100 Acetal Stock Shapes
- Delrin® AF DE588 per General Dynamics and NAVSEA requirements
Modern Plastics has access to our suppliers testing laboratories where a variety of basic testing functions can be performed such as physical and mechanical testing on plastic stock shapes. In addition, Modern Plastics has partnered with several premier National testing firms to provide you with a fully documented, certifiable and traceable plastic product, quickly, painlessly and at a minimum cost.
UL 94 Overview Test for Flammability of Plastic Materials for Parts in Devices and Appliances
Introduction
UL intends this standard to serve as a preliminary indication of a plastics acceptability for use as part of a device or appliance with respect to its flammability. It is not intended to reflect the hazards of a material under actual fire conditions.
UL 94 flammability testing is the first step toward obtaining a plastic recognition and subsequent listing in the “Plastics Recognized Component Directory” (former known as “Yellow Cards”). UL 94 contains the following tests: 94HB, 94V, 94VTM, 94-5V, 94HBF, 94HF and Radiant Panel.
The 94HB test describes the Horizontal Burn method. Methods 94V and 94VTM are used for Vertical Burn, a more stringent test than 94HB. The 94-5V test is for enclosures for products that are not easily moved or are attached to a conduit system. The 94HBF and HF are used for nonstructural foam materials i.e., acoustical foam. Radiant panel test is an ASTM (E162) test to determine the flame spread of a material that may be exposed to fire. The following is a brief description of three tests that apply to stock shape products (sheet, rod, tube and film) and how the rating system works. This is not meant as a procedure for running the tests nor as a way of determining the acceptability of a material for a particular application. Those who would like more details should contact UL or obtain a copy of this and other UL Standards by visiting the UL’s Standards Department web site, at ulstandards.ul.com.
UL 94 Flammability Ratings Summary |
|
5VA Surface Burn |
Burning stops within 60 seconds after five applications of five seconds each of a flame (larger than that used in Vertical Burn testing) to a test bar. Test specimens MAY NOT have a burn-through (no hole). This is the highest (most flame retardant) UL94 rating. |
5VB Surface Burn |
Burning stops within 60 seconds after five applications of five seconds each of a flame (larger than that used in Vertical Burn testing) to a test bar. Test specimens MAY HAVE a burn-through (a hole). |
V-0 Vertical Burn |
Burning stops within 10 seconds after two applications of ten seconds each of a flame to a test bar. NO flaming drips are allowed. |
V-1 Vertical Burn |
Burning stops within 60 seconds after two applications of ten seconds each of a flame to a test bar. NO flaming drips are allowed. |
V-2 Vertical Burn |
Burning stops within 60 seconds after two applications of ten seconds each of a flame to a test bar. Flaming drips ARE allowed. |
H-B Horizontal Burn |
Slow horizontal burning on a 3mm thick specimen with a burning rate is less than 3″/min or stops burning before the 5″ mark. H-B rated materials are considered “self-extinguishing”. This is the lowest (least flame retardant) UL94 rating. |
94HB Horizontal Burning Test
This is generally considered the easiest test to pass and materials that pass any of the V or VTM tests will usually be accepted by UL for applications that require 94HB. To be sure, check with the UL representative assigned to the device in which the film will be used. The 94HB rating would typically be acceptable for portable, attended, intermittent-duty, household-use appliance enclosures (i.e., hair dryers) or for decorative parts. The test uses a ½” x 5″ specimen held at one end in a horizontal position with marks at 1″ and 5″ from the free end. A flame is applied to the free end for 30 seconds or until the flame front reaches the 1″ mark (see Fig. 2.1). If combustion continues the duration is timed between the 1″ mark and the 5″ mark. If combustion stops before the 5″ mark, the time of combustion and the damaged length between the two marks are recorded. A set of three specimens are tested. A material that is less than 0.118″ in thickness will be classified 94HB if it has a burning rate of less than 3″ per minute or stops burning before the 5″ mark. If one specimen from the set of three fails to comply, then a second set of three are tested. All three of this second set must comply.
94V Vertical Burning Test
This test includes three classifications – 94V-0, 94V-1 and 94V-2 – and would typically be acceptable for portable, unattended, intermittent-duty, household-use appliances (i.e., coffee makers).
Which classification applies to a particular application depends on many factors, including:
- Size and thickness of part.
- Distance from uninsulated live parts.
- Hot wire ignition.
- High current arc ignition.
- High voltage arc tracking rate.
This test uses a ½” x 5″ specimen which is held at one end in the vertical position (see Fig. 3.1). A burner flame is applied to the free end of the specimen for two 10 second intervals separated by the time it takes for flaming combustion to cease after the first application. Two sets of 5 specimens are tested.
The following are recorded for each specimen:
- Duration of flaming combustion after the first burner flame application.
- Duration of flaming combustion after second burner flame application.
- Duration of glowing combustion after second burner flame application.
- Whether or not flaming drips ignite cotton placed below specimen.
- Whether or not specimen burns up to holding clamp.
Criteria Conditions |
94V-0
|
94V-1
|
94V-2
|
Total flaming combustion for each specimen |
£ 10s
|
£ 30s
|
£ 30s
|
Total flaming combustion for all 5 specimens of any set |
£ 50s
|
£ 250s
|
£ 250s
|
Flaming and glowing combustion for each specimen after second burner flame application |
£ 30s
|
£ 60s
|
£ 60s
|
Cotton ignited by flaming drips from any specimen |
NO
|
NO
|
YES
|
Glowing or flaming combustion of any specimen to holding clamp |
NO
|
NO
|
NO
|
94V Thin Material Vertical Burning Test
This test includes three classifications – 94V-0, 94V-1 and 94V-2 Materials that are thin gauge – typically £ 10 mil, or very flexible may distort, shrink or flex during the 94V test. These materials can be tested using 94VTM – the thin material version of the vertical burning test. This differs in several ways from the 94V test:
- The specimen size is 8″ x 2″).
- The specimen is rolled longitudinally around a ½” dia. mandrel and taped on one end. When the mandrel is removed the specimen forms a cone shape, which provides rigidity to the length of the specimen (see Fig. 3.1)
- The two flame applications have duration of three seconds instead of ten.
Although this test was designed for thinner gauge materials, any material can be tested using 94VTM as long as can be formed around a ½” mandrel. The test is performed in the same manner as 94V with the above mentioned differences. The Material Classification criteria is also the same as 94V (see Table 1.) except that no specimens shall have flaming or glowing combustion up to a mark 5″ from the bottom (free end) of the specimen.
It is usually advantageous to test materials using 94VTM instead of 94V because it is usually easier to pass or get a better rating as long as the material can be bent around the ½” mandrel.
Note: UL will generally accept a 94VTM rating of similar level where a 94V material is required (i.e., 94VTM-0 = 94V-0, 94VTM-1 = 94V-1, etc.). UL does, however, reserve the right to make a determination on which rating a material should have based on the application.
DELRIN® is a registered trademark of E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company.