Fire and Flammability – RTCA DO-160

What Is Fire and Flammability — RTCA DO-160?

DO-160 Section 26 examines the flammability behaviour of materials used in airborne equipment. The section covers procedures such as the vertical flame test, 45° flame test, horizontal flame test and fire resistance. Which procedure applies is determined by the material's location and function on the aircraft.

Purpose of Fire and Flammability — RTCA DO-160

The purpose is to assure a fire breaking out inside the aircraft does not spread rapidly through equipment materials and self-extinguishes once the ignition source is removed. Cabin fire safety is directly linked to evacuation time.

Which Products Is Fire and Flammability — RTCA DO-160 Applied To?

Equipment enclosures and covers
Cable insulation and cable ties
Cabin plastic and textile components
Insulation and sealing materials
Printed circuit board laminates

In Which Sectors Is Fire and Flammability — RTCA DO-160 Used?

AerospaceSpaceDefenceElectronics

Standards Related to Fire and Flammability — RTCA DO-160

RTCA DO-160Environmental conditions and test methods in aviation equipment test

Fire and Flammability — RTCA DO-160 Conditions

Procedure: Vertical, 45°, or horizontal flame test, per the material's location of use
Flame application time: The time defined by the procedure; category from the specification
Quantities measured: Flame extinguishing time, burn length, drip occurrence and drip extinguishing time
Conditioning: Specimens are conditioned at the defined temperature and humidity before the test

Equipment for Fire and Flammability — RTCA DO-160

Vertical and horizontal burn test chambers
Calibrated Bunsen-type flame source and timer
Conditioning chamber
Smoke extraction system and flame temperature measurement

Sample Requirements for Fire and Flammability — RTCA DO-160

The equipment must be supplied in the final configuration of the design being certified.
The installation zone on the aircraft and its corresponding categories must be declared.
Cable types, lengths and the connection layout must reflect the real installation.
The functional check procedure and acceptance criterion must be provided in writing.
The software version and hardware revision must be recorded.

Duration of Fire and Flammability — RTCA DO-160

The test itself takes minutes per specimen. Conditioning time and the number of specimens set the total duration; the study is usually completed within a few days.

Fire and Flammability — RTCA DO-160 Procedure

1The material's location of use on the aircraft is determined and the procedure is selected.
2Specimens are prepared to the dimensions defined in the standard.
3Specimens are conditioned.
4The specimen is placed in the test chamber at the angle the procedure requires.
5The flame is applied for the defined time and withdrawn.
6Flame extinguishing time, burn length and drip behaviour are measured.
7The test is repeated with the defined number of specimens.

Fire and Flammability — RTCA DO-160 Acceptance Criteria

The severity level and acceptance criterion come not from the method standard but from the specification the product is subject to: for MIL-STD-810 applications, the product's environmental life cycle profile and procurement specification are decisive; for DO-160 applications, it is the category corresponding to the equipment's installation zone on the aircraft. This page therefore gives no numerical limit.

Evaluation of Results

The result is assessed on the measured extinguishing time, burn length and drip behaviour meeting the acceptance criteria of the procedure applied. Acceptance criteria vary with the material's location of use on the aircraft; the final compliance decision is made against the aircraft's certification requirements.

Fire and Flammability — RTCA DO-160 Report

Equipment identification, part number and configuration
Standard, revision and method/section number applied
Selected severity level or category and its basis
Test rig, mounting arrangement and measurement points
Functional checks performed before, during and after the test
Measurement results, observations and photographs
Non-conformities and any test deviations
A statement that the result applies only to the specimen submitted for testing

Accreditation

EUROLAB holds internationally recognised accreditation obtained from accreditation bodies party to the IAF and ILAC multilateral recognition arrangements, under ISO/IEC 17025 for laboratory testing, ISO/IEC 17020 for inspection and surveillance, and ISO/IEC 17021-1 and ISO/IEC 17065 for system and product certification. This chain ensures the reports and certificates issued are accepted worldwide.

Whether this test can be offered within accredited scope depends on your product and the standard applied; since accreditation is method-based, the scope is confirmed in writing at the quotation stage.

Scope and authorisations

Related Regulations

RTCA DO-160 / EUROCAE ED-14 (environmental conditions and test procedures for airborne equipment)
Certification requirements under EASA CS-25 / FAA 14 CFR Part 25
The equipment manufacturer's TSO/ETSO approval requirements

Aerospace Testing — What Does This Testing Field Cover?

The section below describes the field that the Fire and Flammability test belongs to; the conditions and acceptance criteria of this particular test are given in the sections above. The scope specific to your product is confirmed in writing at the quotation stage.

Aerospace testing shows that equipment keeps working in the flight environment and provides evidence for the airworthiness file. In this family the acceptable probability of failure is several orders of magnitude lower than in other sectors; this directly determines the scope of testing and the certification burden.

The most distinctive feature of the field is TRACEABILITY. Which melt an aircraft part came from, in which heat treatment furnace and with which cycle it was processed, which operator made the weld and which inspector approved it are all recorded. The test report is one link in this chain; if the chain is broken, the report carries no value on its own.

Environmental qualification runs through RTCA DO-160, with categories selected according to the equipment's MOUNTING LOCATION in the aircraft. A device mounted on the cockpit panel and one mounted inside the wing pass the same section under different categories. When reading a DO-160 report it is therefore essential to know which sections were applied at which categories.

On the software and complex hardware side the approach changes entirely: the evidence is not testing but PROCESS ASSURANCE. DO-178C for software and DO-254 for complex electronic hardware define how the development process is to be run and which evidence is to be produced. Every step, from requirement to code, from testing of the code to coverage analysis, must be traceable. Testing software does not make it certifiable; the process record does.

A separate body of work applies on the material and special process side. AWS D17.1 is used for welding, SAE AMS 2750 for pyrometry in heat treatment and NAS 410 for non-destructive testing personnel. For special processes (heat treatment, coating, welding, NDT, bonding) NADCAP accreditation is effectively mandatory in the supply chain; without NADCAP it is not possible to sell parts to many OEMs.

On the quality system side the AS/EN 9100 series is used: 9100 for manufacturers, 9110 for maintenance organisations and 9120 for distributors. Without these certificates it is practically impossible to enter the aerospace supply chain, and audits are markedly more detailed than in other sectors.

Counterfeit part risk is a subject peculiar to the field. Separate standards and verification methods (visual inspection, X-ray, decapsulation and internal structure examination, XRF) are used to detect counterfeit or reworked parts in the electronic component supply chain.

Space applications add further layers: outgassing in vacuum, radiation tolerance, long-duration thermal vacuum cycling and assessment of single event effects.

Method groups in this field

Environmental qualification
RTCA DO-160 sections: temperature and altitude, vibration, shock, humidity, sand and dust, fungus, salt fog, fluid susceptibility, icing, lightning.
Electromagnetic
The EMC sections of DO-160; MIL-STD-461 and MIL-STD-704 power characteristics on military platforms.
Software and hardware assurance
DO-178C software life cycle and DO-254 hardware design assurance evidence; requirement traceability and coverage analysis.
Materials and welding
Welding qualification under AWS D17.1, mechanical testing of materials, metallography and non-destructive examination.
Special process control
SAE AMS 2750 pyrometry, coating and heat treatment process verification, preparation for NADCAP audits.
Space environment
Thermal vacuum cycling, outgassing, radiation tolerance and acoustic/vibration qualification.

Commonly confused in this field

There is no such document as a "DO-160 certificate"; DO-160 is a test specification and its output is a qualification report.
The selection of sections and categories comes from the customer's equipment specification; the laboratory cannot make that selection on its own.
DO-178C and DO-254 cannot be satisfied by testing; the evidence is the traceability of the development process.
An AS9100 certificate is not a product approval; it is a quality system certificate and part approval runs separately.
For special processes, work carried out without NADCAP is not accepted in the supply chain even when it is technically correct.
MIL-STD-810 and DO-160 are often confused: one is a military and the other a civil aviation specification, and their profiles differ.

Which decisions these results support

Airworthiness and TSO/ETSO files
Entry into the aerospace supply chain and supplier approval
Special process approval and NADCAP preparation
Determining the impact of a design change on qualification
Managing counterfeit part risk and component verification

Related Tests

Frequently Asked Questions About Fire and Flammability — RTCA DO-160

Does a UL 94 V-0 rating substitute for this test?

No. UL 94 defines a different specimen geometry and different flame conditions. Aircraft certification requires the DO-160 Section 26 or 14 CFR Part 25 Appendix F procedures.

Are all equipment materials subject to this test?

Applicability depends on the material's location and quantity on the aircraft. Requirements are stricter for materials in the cabin that form a significant surface area.