Best Burning Plastics

Basics

• This page aims to lay out the Plastics which burn the “best” in order to guide design decisions that need that capability
• ”Best” Can Vary from Application to Application but mainly:
  • Low/No Ash Content
  • Low/No Halogens (Mainly Fluorine ( FEP , PTFE ) or Chlorine ( PVC , C-PVC etc) or Sulfur to reduce noxious fumes in the smoke ( Acid Rain etc )
  • This would be harder to design for, and is less needed in controlled applications such as RDF / LARGE SCALE Investment Casting etc) but ease of complete combustion/minimal monomer release/soot etc (ie NOT Polystyrene )

Applications

• Clean Burning Packaging
  • Albeit mainly for Coated Paper / things which cannot he shipped in Paper/Cardboard or Metal Containers
  • A MRE Wrapper / Meal Pouch (For Freeze Dryed Pouch Meals ) that could be burnt in a

campfire with minimal pollution (or at least comprable to “clean” wood/charcoal fire) and leaves comprable ash (short of maybe additional metal, if Metallized Film is used etc, would aid in waste disposal in the contexts where those tend to be used

• Firestarters
  • Mainly Waterproof/Moisture Resistant/Volatile Retaining Coatings
• Investment Casting
  • Ie a “clean” burnout
  • This is a somewhat solved problem, so looking into FDM Filaments designed for this, or industrial polymers/waxes etc may lead to good existing products/formulations
• Pyrotechnics
  • Nitrocellulose Lacquer on Fuse would be one such example