What Is Crib 5? Breaking Down Fire Compliance and Breaking into New Markets

One of the biggest hurdles we’re seeing customers encounter is Crib 5. Particularly in the UK and markets that follow UK requirements, Crib 5 can be the difference between a fabric being considered for a project and being taken off the table.

At Applied Textiles and Applied Lab, we’ve seen these challenges firsthand.

And we don’t believe a fire-performance requirement should automatically mean giving up on a great fabric.

BS 5852 includes a range of ignition sources of increasing severity. These range from a cigarette ignition source to open-flame sources and wooden crib structures.

Source 5 uses the wooden ignition source commonly referred to as Crib 5.

During testing, the crib is positioned on the upholstery test assembly and ignited. The laboratory then evaluates the upholstery combination for progressive smoldering, flaming, and other signs of ignition.

As the ignition source increases, the severity of the fire challenge presented to the upholstery assembly increases.

When someone says a project “requires Crib 5,” it’s easy to assume that passing BS 5852 Source 5 is the entire requirement.

It isn’t necessarily.

BS 5852 provides the test methods used to evaluate the ignitability of upholstered seating materials. BS 7176 uses those test methods within a broader framework that categorizes non-domestic environments according to their level of fire hazard.

In other words, the appropriate level of fire performance depends on where the furniture will actually be used.

That’s why the first question shouldn’t simply be:

“Does my fabric pass Crib 5?”

It should be:

“Where is this fabric going?”

For example, low-hazard environments can include:

• Offices
• Schools
• Universities
• Colleges
• Museums
• Exhibitions
• Day centers

These applications generally require cigarette and match ignition resistance, although a higher performance level may be needed when a space is used for sleeping.

However, as you move into medium-hazard environments, the requirements increase.

These environments can include:

• Hotels and hotel bedrooms
• Hospitals
• Restaurants
• Bars and public houses
• Casinos
• Hostels
• Public buildings
• Public halls
• Places of public entertainment

For these environments, BS 7176 includes BS 5852 Source 5 (Crib 5) in addition to cigarette and match ignition testing.

Higher-hazard environments can require even more stringent ignition sources.

Requirements should always be confirmed for the specific project,
occupancy, location, and specifying authority.

Common U.S. upholstery requirements such as CAL TB 117 and NFPA 260 use a smoldering cigarette as the ignition source.

Crib 5 introduces a substantially more severe flaming ignition source.

And there’s another important consideration:

You’re not simply testing a piece of fabric. You’re evaluating an upholstery combination.

The cover fabric, foam, backing, interliner, and other components can influence how the assembly performs.

For BS 5852 Source 5 testing, the material is evaluated over filling material meeting the applicable BS 7176 requirements, typically combustion-modified high-resilience (CMHR) foam.

When a fire-retardant treatment is used, water soaking is also required as part of the test preparation.

To meet the Source 5 requirements, the upholstery assembly cannot exhibit unsafe escalating combustion or progressive smoldering and must remain within specified flaming and smoldering limits.

That’s a very different challenge from a cigarette ignition test.

A fabric that performs successfully against a smoldering cigarette ignition source may respond very differently when exposed to the more severe flaming ignition source used for Crib 5 testing.

We’re seeing textile companies with great fabrics and real opportunities in the contract market struggle to achieve the required Crib 5 performance.

A mill may have a collection that has historically been successful in residential applications.

Then a hospitality designer wants to specify it for a hotel.

A distributor sees an opportunity in the UK.

A manufacturer wants to use it on seating for an international project.

Suddenly, Crib 5 becomes part of the conversation.

And when that upholstery combination doesn’t perform as required, the consequences can extend far beyond a failed laboratory report.

It can mean a lost specification.

A delayed project.

Another round of development and testing.

A designer being forced to substitute a fabric they originally loved.

Or an entire collection remaining limited to markets where less stringent fire performance is required.

We’ve spent more than 35 years engineering textiles to perform for their intended environments. And as we’ve worked with customers pursuing international and contract opportunities, we’ve seen the Crib 5 challenge become increasingly common.

So, we approached it the way we approach any textile performance problem.

We engineered for it.

Our team evaluated how different textiles responded to Crib 5 requirements, considering factors such as fiber content, construction, backing, and processing.

We tested.

We adjusted.

We tested again.

From that work, we developed an Alta™ fire-performance solution engineered to help customers overcome Crib 5 challenges.

It’s one thing to engineer a textile for improved fire performance.

It’s another to have the testing expertise to evaluate whether that solution performs as intended.

Applied Textiles and Applied Lab work together to give customers a more complete pathway from problem to performance.

We can evaluate the textile and its construction, understand the intended market and applicable performance requirements, engineer the textile accordingly, and test the resulting upholstery combination.

That gives customers something incredibly valuable when they’re trying to enter a new market:
Confidence.

Confidence that the appropriate requirement has been identified.

Confidence that the textile has been engineered with that requirement in mind.

And confidence backed by actual testing, not assumptions.

Compliance can create opportunity.

If fire performance is the factor preventing a textile from moving beyond residential applications, solving that challenge can potentially open the door to entirely new markets.

• Hospitality.
• Healthcare.
• Restaurants.
• Workplace.
• Education.
• Public spaces.
• International projects.

For mills and distributors, that can mean more places to sell existing collections.

For furniture manufacturers, it can create greater sourcing flexibility.

For designers, it can mean greater freedom to specify the fabrics they actually want.

And for textile companies, it can turn compliance from a limitation into a competitive advantage.

Talk to us.

Applied Textiles and Applied Lab can help evaluate the textile, understand the intended application, determine the appropriate testing path, engineer the necessary performance, and evaluate the resulting upholstery combination.

Because passing a fire test isn’t the ultimate goal.

Helping your textile go further is.