Characterization of the California technical bulletin 133 ignition source and a comparable gas burner

The California Bulletin (CB) 133 upholstery ignition source is based on the use of crumpled newsprint. The present work examined the reproducibility of several aspects of this source when placed on an inert chair mock-up. The tendency of this source to heat the side arms of a chair, the area of the seat back subjected to high heat fluxes, the peak flux there and the flux duration all showed substantial variability. For inherently lesser variability a gas burner is preferred. A gas burner, derived from that developed at the British Fire Research Station, was shaped so as to deposit a similar pattern of heat to that of the CB 133 source. The two sources were tested for comparability both on chair mock-ups and on full-scale chairs made from a wide variety of materials. The results indicate that the gas burner, as used here, is a somewhat less severe ignition source than is the CB 133 igniter.