Is cuben fiber flammable?

[Kevin Burton]

I assume it probably is flammable because if it wasn't they would be touting it as a feature left and right.

That said, I can't find any information on the Interwebs about its fire retardant properties.

It would be awesome for winter and hot tents as you could just have a fire inside your tent.

[James Reilly]

it has zero fire retardant properties. I learned that the first time I took my rain kilt next to a fire to sit on. Sparks melted holes instantly. Pretty close to the same as a plastic bag.

[michael levi]

I think almost anything lightweight is flammable.

How many threads do you need to make tonight?

Couldn't you have asked this in your cuben hypothermia thread?

[Kevin Burton]

I didn't realize we needed to conserve threads. Maybe I'll use them all up!

Are threads flammable? :)

[Daryl and Daryl]

Kevin,

Are threads flammable?

Thanks for the laugh.

I can relate to multiple posts in a short period. I've/I'm done/doing it and I have seen it done by many of the other regulars.

Thanks for joining we "regulars".

You gotta do what you want to do it when you can do it.

Doing it.

Laughing now at my own comments.

Daryl

[Jerry Adams]

There are a finite number of threads. When we use up the last one, pooof!, that will be the end of the internets…

[Brian Johns]

You should just stick to silnylon so you dont get killed. Curious though. You dropped out of your first cuben "flame" thread when your attempts at hyperbole got shut down, and now the death by fire under cuben tarps imagery. Just stick to sil. But one must wonder if you own stock in silnylon factories or were just beaten with cuben fibers as a child?

[John Donewar]

Kevin,

Here is some rather dated info (06-26-2010, 18:59) copied and pasted from Whiteblaze.

"BTW, cuben fiber shrinks like crazy when exposed to heat. I put my iron on it and it was like shrink wrap. All shriveled up. Then, I tested it with fire – it won't catch fire right away, just shrivels up, then once it was all a shriveled up ball, it caught fire and burned for a long time."

From a post by,
Judy aka HeartFire of LightHeart Gear

Below is the link to the whole thread if you care to look at it.

http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?63250-LightHeart-Solo-in-Cuben-Fiber

Except for the part about shriveling up it reminds me of an Esbit tablet.

…"it won't catch fire right away… …it caught fire and burned for a long time."

Party On,

Newton

Oh my…. this is such a bad topic and thread that I should stay away from… but I just can't!!!

Ok, if I make it to the GGG next month, I will bring some cuben fiber… somebody with a video camera can record it and we can thus have all the proof we need!!

John and setting stuff on fire… not a good topic. heheheeh

[John Donewar]

@John A.

Not me!

Kevin raised the question and the info in italics is a quote from Judy at Lightheart Gear in response to a question put to her on Whiteblaze.

Cook outside, sleep inside and campfires go away from the shelter.

Party On,

Newton

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

Cuben melts/shrinks/disappears quite impressively when exposed to flame/extreme heat, but it doesn't actually flame up that easily. I don't think you could easily light a tent/tarp on fire, because it would melt/shrink away from the fire source long before it would actually flame up. Like some plastics, you'd likely need to create a pile/pool of molten cuben before you'd actually get it sustaining a flame.

Silnylon will burn fairly easily though, as it has no fire retardant properties and it doesn't really shrink away from the heat. If I was tarp camping next to a big fire, I'd expect to see more melted holes with cuben as it's more sensitive, but I suspect that silnylon would be the first to actually go up in flames if one was to go.

[Sam Farrington]

In testing the effect of heat on suspended Cuben with a heat gun, found that it did not cause the material to shrink – just the opposite, in fact. It expanded and sagged a little. Also, all of the many little wrinkles or multiple creases that appear on Cuben in use sort of melted out of existence.

This was not heat intensive enough to be intended to melt the material, however. The outer surface is a plastic, and I'd be very surprised if it would not melt, and eventually ignite at some point with continued exposure to flame or high heat. The inner, or sandwiched material, dyneema or spectra, is a thermoplastic that I would also expect to melt; not to be confused with aramid fibers, like Kevlar, that go into highly fire-resistance materials like Nomex.

Will not be trying to ignite or melt Cuben, because can see no need or useful info from that. It is no more flammable than silnylon, probably less, so no new problems presented. Thanks, John, for the helpful info you assembled and presented.

Unless, of course, this is really about the winter tent thing on the current related thread. Would love to be a fly on the wall in the room where some of these threads get cooked up. Could not do it now, though, because have given up drinking for Advent, and would need some form of artificial stimulant to keep my sense of humor.

[Dan @ Durston Gear]

If you hold a lighter near cuben – maybe an 0.5" – 1" away – it'll shrink like crazy in an instant without actual flame contact.

[Phillip Damiano]

What about the environment, such as a desert summer with temps of 40 degrees celcius + ?
How does Cuben Fiber fair in such conditions?

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