It is well known that upholstered furniture represents a fire risk due to the fact that it is composed of relatively large amounts of easily ignited and very combustible materials. The fire properties are usually improved by adding chemical flame retardants to the upholstery materials.

The goal of this investigation is to demonstrate how sufficient fire safety in upholstered furniture may be achieved, without the use of flame retardant chemicals.

A number of cover materials in different combinations with other materials including wadding, barrier materials and foam, have been tested in small scale cone calorimeter tests and in mock-up chair tests. Time to ignition, heat release and smoke production of the different combinations have been examined.

It is shown that there certainly are possibility to improve these properties by means of alternative strategies other than by adding chemical flame retardants.