Proxilyn Plastics

[SWLAFireDawg]

This has not gotten a response in the HazMat forum, so let's try it here.......

What common household items would you expect to find Proxilyn Plastics in?

And is it just a Nitrate based product?

[plisken]

Fire Dawg, Are you sure you have the right name. I have searched most the pubs on our hazmat rig and have come up with a blank even in trade names searchs. Check http://heritage.dupont.com/floater/f.../floater.shtml this and see if it is what you are looking for.... PYROXYLIN Plastics. DuPont is the main maufacturer of this product... I will keep looking.....

[SWLAFireDawg]

This was listed in the Essentials of Firefighting book under toxic gases in chapter 4. Possible source of Nitrogen Dioxide.

I haven't found much info either, other than being a Nitrate based compound.

[eaglesrule1024]

i found this while googling and changing the name from pyroxylin to cellulose nitrate.

Celluloid became the generic name for cellulose nitrate plastics and its use for knife handles, washable collars and cuffs, toys, table tennis balls, etc became widespread. However, the highly inflammable nature of celluloid was always a hazard to its manufacture and use, and as newer plastics materials became available its use gradually declined. In the USA, celluloid companies became merged into and engulfed by firms making newer plastics and in 1949 manufacture of celluloid at Newark ceased - 77 years after it began there.

It is used now only to make table tennis balls, the properties of which have not yet been successfully imitated by any other material. Celluloid has long lost its economic importance but the word itself has not died because of the influence its ideas has had on 20th century technology.

this info is via:

http://www.plastiquarian.com/celluloi.htm

[SWLAFireDawg]

I finally come across this:

In 1889 Eastman Kodak began commercial production of nitrate base film, which was delivered to Edison in 1892 as cellulose nitrate. It was a proxylin plastic, made up of organic material. Cotton or wood fiber was treated with a mixture of nitric and sulfuric acids. It was then processed with the addition of solvents, plasticizers, and flame retardants. The result in chemical terms was a nitrate ester of cellulose with the following chemical formula:


The problem with nitrate base motion picture film was that it was chemically unstable. In particular, it was highly flammable, having a very low flash point. According to A.S.A. testing, nitrate film can self-ignite at a temperature of 300° F., and decomposing nitrate in unventilated conditions has been known to ignite at temperatures as low as 125° F. Much later it was realized that the nitrate was also subject to extreme deterioration. (See "Nitrate".)

Found Here:

http://www.cinema.ucla.edu/tank/stockshorak.htm