PolyNorme 504 apparatus for rigid material test , Design and marketing of the flame persistency and propagation test apparatus are subjected to a partnership with LNE (Laboratoire National d’Essais).

PolyNorme 504 apparatus allows to perform automatically all the operating sequence including recording of the flame persistency duration determined by push-button activation, excepted the displacement of the carriage still manual. Regarding the flame propagation test, the simplified automatization allows to maintain the flame in contact with the bottom angle of the free end of the test piece for 30 s at the maximum or until the flame reaches the first mark placed 50 mm from the free end of the test piece, with however the manual help of the carriage displacement and the push-button activation. Time required by the flame to travel the distance between the two marks, that is to say 250 mm, determined by push-button activation, is automatically recorded. Moreover, company A.I.S. improved the equipment by replacing the original data acquisition control box by a computerized system with PC and software.

The flame persistency test according to NF P 92-504 is a reaction to fire complementary test for M classification of building and fitting materials. It is used for flexible and rigid materials of any thickness which develop holes without inflammation or with short time inflammation during the main test (electrical burner test according to NF P 92-503 or radiation test in an epiradiator cabinet according to NF P 92-501). In that case, the flame persistency test becomes the deciding test for M classification of materials.
In principle, if there is no flame persistency after burner withdrawing, the material can be M1 classified. In case of flame persistency after burner withdrawing, the M2 or M3 classification will be made depending on whether the duration of inflammation is = 5 s or > 5 s. In case of inflamed or not dripping, the dripping test (NF P 92-505) is carried out.

The flame propagation test is performed with the same apparatus and on the same size test pieces as for the flame persistency test ; it is used for M4 classification of flexible and rigid materials of any thickness. A material will be classified M4 if it doesn’t enter in any of the M1, M2 or M3 categories at the conclusion of the main test, or of the flame persistency test, and if during the flame propagation test, it is noticed a continuous flame propagation on 250 mm length at a speed lower than 2 mm per second.