plastics - The customer magazine from BASF 2/2007

Design
body made of steel, impregnated Basotect
and Bonnell innersprings, is particularly
well-suited for furnishing public spaces.
Prize-winning
design
The non-combustible KITE 560 offers a
unique combination of safety, comfort and
design. It was the brainchild of the British
design team of PearsonLloyd, which has
received a number of awards for this creation.
The success of this innovation was
due in part to the fact that the independent
and accredited fire testing facility “Brandhaus
Hoechst” in Frankfurt am Main,
Germany, developed a special fire testing
program for upholstered furniture. After
undergoing this new testing regime, the
KITE 560 with its impregnated Basotect
core received the unparalleled test rating
of “non-combustible”. Moreover, Walter
Knoll also performed static and dynamic
tests on the body with its BASF foam in
order to assess the sitting comfort, elastic
properties and plastic deformation. The
decisive aspects for the use of Basotect in
upholstered furniture are two of its properties,
namely, fire resistance and elasticity.
This foam is flame resistant without the
addition of flame retardants. It does not
melt or drip upon exposure to flames. Instead,
it becomes charred with only slight
smoke formation and does not exhibit any
afterglow. The filigree three-dimensional
network structure consisting of easily
deformable webs accounts for the high
flexibility of this material, which is by nature
hard and brittle. The greater elasticity of
this material also goes hand in hand with
greater processing and design freedom, so
that this BASF foam lends itself very well
for durable and comfortable upholstered
furniture.
Further information:
www.basotect.de
A unique combination
of safety,
comfort and design:
KITE 560, the first
non-combustible
upholstered furniture,
with a core
made of Basotect.
Background
Basotect, the jack-of-all-trades
Originally used in the acoustic insulation
of buildings because of its outstanding
sound-absorption capacity, there are
now several versions of Basotect ® for
various applications. In particular, mention
should be made of the aeronautics
and aerospace industries, which greatly
benefit from the fire-protection provided
by this material. For instance, this BASF
foam protects the sensitive satellites
that the Ariane 5 launch system delivers
into space. The lightweight Basotect UL
meets the strict fire-protection standards
stipulated for the insulation of cabins in
large-bodied aircraft. Since 2004, this
versatile melamine resin foam has also
been employed for aircraft seats. In the
meantime, there are now flame-resistant
mattresses made of Basotect UF in the
United States that are in compliance with
the stringent safety regulations in force
there.
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