Leggett & Platt FR line: It's almost 'auto'-matic
By David Perry -- Furniture Today, March 21, 2004
Statesville, N.C. — Statesville, N.C.— The idea came from the automotive industry, long before mattress makers began thinking about the now-critical open-flame flammability issue.
Karl Van Becelaere, executive vice president of Leggett & Platt's Textile & Fiber Products Division, recalled the day five years ago when one of the Big Three automakers asked L&P to look into applications for the carbon fibers used in brake pads, car frames and heat shields.
That led to Leggett & Platt's introduction of Pyro-Gon, a proprietary blend of fire-hardened fibers and polyester fibers that is permanently and inherently flame and heat resistant.
For the past three years, L&P's plant here has been producing the product in truckload quantities for shipment to institutional customers.
Now L&P is using that proven technology to offer a family of high-loft, fire-resistant barriers to residential mattress producers gearing up to meet tough new open-flame flammability standards that will be enforced in California next year.
L&P's Textile & Fiber Products Division will produce the FR products at five facilities around the country, including the 44,000-square-foot facility here, where production has been going on for years.
"We are making truckloads of these products each week," said Patrick Steagall, branch manager in Statesville. "That's a big difference between us and some other companies."
The Pyro-Gon family of FR products is one of two main FR offerings from Leggett & Platt, a Fortune 500 company with sales last year of about $4.4 billion. The other is the Alessandra product being marketed by Hanes Inds., an L&P unit.
L&P offers a diverse portfolio of FR products because many bedding producers will be combining FR products in "a systems approach," Van Becelaere said.
A major supplier of components used in most mattresses, Leggett is serious about meeting the FR needs of bedding producers.
"Leggett & Platt has the capital and the ability to adjust its business to meet virtually any demand the industry places on us," Van Becelaere said.
"It's not our operating procedure to sit around with idle capacity. We have a plan in place to meet whatever needs the industry has, with reasonable commitments," he said.
The Pyro-Gon products he is responsible for will be manufactured on six production lines at five L&P plants. In addition, the company is eyeing royalty or licensing arrangements to serve customers in the Western half of the United States. And it also could convert production lines currently serving other industries to ramp up production of FR products for residential use.
Van Becelaere said the Pyro-Gon products are well positioned to meet bedding producers' FR needs. High-loft polyester products already are in widespread use in the bedding industry, he said, and Pyro-Gon products can replace those products, enabling bedding producers to add FR protection without sacrificing comfort.
"Our idea was to create products that mattress manufacturers could use without changing their manufacturing process or giving up the feel of the products," he said. "That's still true today."
Two Pyro-Gon products utilize a blend of polyester, Pyron and premium FR fibers. Pyron is supplied by Zoltek, a company L&P has partnered with to serve the FR market.
Pyron is a highly technical FR fiber that consists of oxidized poly-acrylic-nitrile fibers. Those thermally stable oxidized fibers, produced under high heat, resist flames. The fibers char in place and pull heat away from the flame source. They don't lose their strength in the fire, and are thus able to keep flames away from the rest of the mattress.
Pyro-Gon products do not require FR additives that can be inconsistent, wear away and lose their effectiveness. They don't become brittle when exposed to flame. And they are up to 52% lighter than competitive products, ideal for lofty quilting, hypoallergenic, "extremely durable and exceptionally comfortable," and economical and production friendly, according to L&P.
Importantly, the FR qualities are inherent in the fibers. Since there are no chemical additives in the products, they don't raise concerns that some consumers may have about chemicals, Van Becelaere said. Raw materials for Pyro-Gon products are domestically produced, he added.
Pyro-Gon and Pyro-Gon II, the newer offering, both utilize oxidized PAN fibers and are gray in color. L&P can produce those products with a layer of white polyester on top to meet producers' requests for components compatible with light-colored mattress ticking.
That top layer also can include exotic fibers such as wool and silk that some bedding producers are using to enhance comfort. That means producers only need to use one roll of high-loft material, thus simplifying production, Steagall said.
In addition, the Textile & Fiber Division also offers Pyro-Gon Albesco (Latin for "to make white"), a proprietary blend of FR fibers. That product does not use oxidized PAN fibers.
The division also is offering FR insulator pads, which will be distributed nationally from five L&P facilities.
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