US Mattress Cigarette Ignition (FF 4-72) — 16 CFR Part 1632
- Citation
- 16 CFR Part 1632
- Jurisdiction
- US
- Made by
- Consumer Product Safety Commission
- Instrument
- Regulation
- Status
- In force
What it requires (2 obligations)
This standard prescribes testing of prototype designs of mattresses and mattress pads before the sale or introduction in commerce of any mattress or mattress pad subject to it, to determine ignition resistance when exposed to a lighted cigarette. Each manufacturer required to perform prototype testing must perform it with acceptable results before selling in commerce.
No date set Confirmed In force, dates fixed in published law
- Who it falls on
- Manufacturers, importers and sellers
- Products
- Home textiles, mattresses, textiles
- Markets
- US
A PRE-MARKET duty on the prototype design, discharged before the first unit ships rather than sampled afterwards. Parts 1632 and 1633 are not alternatives. 1632 measures resistance to a lighted cigarette in char length; 1633 measures the size of the fire a mattress set generates over thirty minutes in heat release. Passing one says nothing about the other.
Quoted from 16 CFR §§ 1632.2(a)(1) and 1632.3(c), eCFR snapshot 2026-08-01.
The test exposes the surface to lighted cigarettes in a draft-protected environment at smooth, tape edge and quilted or tufted locations where they exist, and also conducts a two-sheet test with burning cigarettes placed between sheets. An individual cigarette test location passes if the char length is not more than 2 inches (5.1 cm) in any direction from the nearest point of the cigarette.
No date set Confirmed In force, dates fixed in published law
- Who it falls on
- Manufacturers, importers and sellers
- Products
- Home textiles, mattresses, textiles
- Markets
- US
The named locations are construction features — tape edge, quilting, tufting — so the test follows how the mattress is built rather than sampling a flat area. The two-sheet condition tests the cigarette between bedding rather than on the bare surface, which is the realistic case.
Quoted from §§ 1632.3(a) and 1632.3(b).
This is a register, not advice. It records what an instrument says and when it applies. Whether it applies to a particular company, product or shipment is a question for somebody who knows that business, and the answer is frequently not what the summary above would suggest.
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