FR protective clothing is essential for personal protection in industries dealing with open flames, sparks, molten metal, and flammable substances. As the demand for this type of clothing increases globally, so does the need for technical regulations that evaluate its FR performance.

The United States and the European Union have developed a series of standards specifically for the flame retardancy of protective clothing. For instance, the National Fire Protection Association in the United States has created the NFPA 2112 standard for industrial flame-retardant protective clothing, which adopts the same test methods and performance requirements as NFPA 1971.

On the other hand, the EU’s FR test standards for protective clothing are mainly formulated by the European Technical Committee (CEN/TC). Current industrial FR protective clothing standards in the EU include EN ISO 11612 and EN ISO 14116.

EN ISO 11612 is designed to evaluate overall performance, structural design, dimensional stability, flame spread, heat resistance and melting metal performance, size marking and shipping marks of protective clothing for workers operating in high-temperature environments, except for fire protection and welding protective clothing.

EN ISO 14116 specifies the FR requirements for materials, material components and clothing that limit the spread of flames. It replaces the original standard EN533, and the requirements for limiting flame spread are divided into three types: Index1, Index2, and Index3. In addition to the specified combustion methods and requirements for direct contact with flames, the EU standard system also puts forward control requirements for protective clothing in terms of the human body’s tolerance to heat, heat shrinkage performance, heat conduction performance, radiation protection performance, and contact heat protection performance.

In conclusion, while there are similarities between the US and EU standards, they also have significant differences in scope, test methods, and evaluation requirements. It is essential to adhere to the relevant standards and continuously simulate real combustion environments to test the flame retardancy of protective clothing for optimal performance and protection.