ABS flame retardant material.

[Leesparkykent]

Following on from this thread http://www.electriciansforums.co.uk...gulations/101079-plastic-amendment-3-cus.html I emailed Keith Smith from BEAMA to so if this was correct.

My email:
Hi, could could please confirm if ABS flame retardant material consumer units conform to the new regulation 421.1.201 amendment 3 please?

Keith Smiths reply:
​Hi Lee,
No, whilst it may be flame retardant, it is not 'non-combustible'.
Regards


Keith

 

[Marvo]

ABS plastic is very common because it's cheap and quite strong and impact resistant but it's not a fire retardant plastic nor is it non-combustible unless it's been mixed with other agents or even with PVC.

There's so many grades of ABS available nowadays that you've got to take the properties given by the manufacturers or by the ISO conformities marked on the item. Same goes for PVC though which in it's basic form is less combustible than ABS.

 

[Leesparkykent]

Very misleading of screwfix to be advertising like that though.

 

[Marvo]

Yeah, from what I've seen this whole regulation change is just a debacle. I don't see how anyone could punt ABS as being a better option than PVC to be honest. PVC has a lot of good fire qualities such as being non-drip etc and it doesn't support combustion.