An online acquisition method for monitoring the surface growth of flame retardant protective layers

This paper describes the development of a video acquisition system aimed at monitoring the surface growth of flame-retarded polymers during flammability and combustion tests. The system minimizes the disturbances of the flames on the image sensors, thus gathering a video of the material surface. The device continuously records and quantitatively measures the carbonization front growth rate. The apparatus consists of a camera with customized lighting and dedicated software acquiring images of the burning specimen. The UL94 test procedure has been used during the development of the device and as test bed for the apparatus