Effect of Cigarette Variables on Ignition Propensity of Various Fabrics

Abstract

A factorial matrix consisting of 25 cigarette samples, where tobacco density, circumference, paper porosity and paper citrate were varied at three levels was tested on cotton duck, treated sailcloth and four commercial fabrics. Duck fabrics are heavy canvas-type fabrics that have very high levels of potassium ions. Treated sailcloth is a light areal density fabric treated with potassium sulfate and hydroxide salts to produce ignition results that mimic those obtained with light areal density commercial fabrics. The chosen commercial fabrics had light, heavy and mid-range areal densities. The results underscore the fact that changing tobacco column parameters does not produce cigarette designs that perform consistently well on all fabric types. Lower cigarette density and reduced circumference levels reduce ignitions on duck fabrics but increase ignitions on treated sailcloth and the light areal density commercial fabric. Reducing paper porosity reduced ignitions on duck fabric, had little effect on treated sailcloth and increased ignitions on the light areal density commercial fabric. Paper citrate had the smallest effect. Ignition results on duck fabrics correlated with each other but were in contrast to those obtained with treated sailcloth. The heavy and light areal density fabrics produced similar ignition results to the duck fabrics and treated sailcloth, respectively. The two mid-weight commercial fabrics produced ignition results dissimilar to the other fabrics.

The science behind the development and performance of reduced ignition propensity cigarettes

“…The time and heat flux required for the initiation of smouldering was also found to depend on the environment and the properties of the fabric (Kellogg et al 1998;Yi et al 2001). However, different results were obtained by different test laboratories as to the degree of correlation with cigarette type, and up to three quarter of the 79 upholstery fabrics produced similar ranking with the cotton duck fabrics used Eberhardt et al 1997;Hirschler 1997aHirschler , 1997bWanna & Zelius 2001;Wanna & Chen 2001;Ihrig et al 1987). Taken together, these studies highlight the technical difficulties in developing a fabric-based standard method due to the specification and production of reproducible batches of test fabrics.…”

Do open flame ignition resistance treatments for cellulosic and cellulosic blend fabrics also reduce cigarette ignitions?

“…The smouldering behavior of cigarettes on substrates is different from that of cigarettes burning in air [19]. The type of cigarette and the burning rate of the cigarette can also have an effect [39,40]. Light density fabrics (e.g.…”

“…sailcloth) can have high ignitions with fast smouldering cigarettes, while heavy density fabrics (e.g. cotton duck) can have high ignitions with slow smouldering cigarettes [40,41]. Gann et al [42,43] showed that cigarettes can be modified (some combination of reduced tobacco packing density, less porous paper, smaller cigarette circumference and no citrate [burn additive] in the paper) to have a lower relative ignition propensity than conventional cigarettes.…”