Overview
ISO 10840:2008 - Plastics: Guidance for the use of standard fire tests - provides practical guidance on selecting, applying and interpreting standard reaction-to-fire tests for plastics materials and products. It helps users choose tests that reflect realistic end‑use conditions, groups the fire behaviours each test can measure, assesses test relevance for material characterization, quality control, pre‑selection, end‑product testing, environmental profiling and Design for the Environment (DfE), and identifies common problems that can arise when plastics are subjected to standard fire tests. The standard does not define new fire test methods.
Key topics
- Selection of appropriate tests that reflect realistic end‑use and enclosure fire scenarios (initiation, development, flashover, fully developed fire, decay).
- Categories of fire test use: material characterization, quality control, pre‑selection and end‑product testing.
- Important test considerations: specimen size and geometry, mounting/fixing, ignition-source characteristics, sample preparation and conditioning, apparatus calibration, measurement uncertainty.
- Behavioural issues specific to plastics: melting, slumping, bubbling, intumescence, flaming drips, edge and profile effects, smouldering and glowing combustion.
- Health, safety and environmental aspects: thermal‑decomposition products, environmental‑impact assessment (informative annex), and guidance on toxic effluents.
- Practical annexes: end‑use‑relevant specimen preparation (normative) and environmental‑impact guidance (informative).
- Guidance for inexperienced users on test relevance, cost, duration, complexity and data quality.
Applications and who uses it
ISO 10840 is aimed at professionals involved in fire performance assessment and product safety for plastics, including:
- Fire testing laboratories and certification bodies - to choose and adapt standard tests and specimen mounting to real use conditions.
- Manufacturers and product designers - for material selection, DfE, and end‑product compliance checking.
- Quality‑assurance teams - to define QC and pre‑selection test regimes.
- Fire safety engineers and regulators - to interpret test results in risk and environmental impact assessments.
Practical applications include selecting appropriate reaction‑to‑fire tests for components, preparing representative specimens, troubleshooting anomalous test behaviour (e.g., melting or flaming drips), and assessing potential environmental impacts of combustion products.
Related standards
ISO 10840 references and complements other standards such as ISO 13943 (fire safety vocabulary) and several European test standards (for example EN 13823, EN 13238, EN 312, EN 520) as well as sampling standards (ISO 390, ISO 1887). Use ISO 10840 when you need guidance on applying these tests specifically to plastics and interpreting their results for real‑world applications.
Keywords: ISO 10840, fire testing plastics, reaction-to-fire, standard fire tests, material characterization, quality control, end-product testing, environmental profiling, Design for the Environment.