The growth of both flexible and rigid foams in the last decade has been very spectacular due to a combination of factors such as light weight, excellent physical properties and relatively low costs. The wide acceptance of foams in many diversified industries has led to the necessity of developing foams of low combustibility, often combined with low smoke evolution in case of fire, particularly in industries such as building and construction, transportation, bedding, etc. This paper deals with commonly used methods to impart varying degrees of flame retardance to foams and discusses effects of elemental constituents, synergism, fillers as well as some more recent approaches in changing the chemical structure to yield foams with inherent low combustibility and low smoke. Methods for incorporating flame retardants are reviewed. Finally, some aspects of government and code regulations concerning plastic foams are briefly discussed.
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