Category:Original articles

Christian Lohrer and Jörg Dengel Abstract: With the coming into force of the new European Directive 2013/29/EU (Official Journal of the European Union L 178/27; 28.6.2013) pyrotechnic articles are regulated in view of making them available on the Union market. This Directive is a recast of the current Directive 2007/23/EC (Official Journal of the European …
Continue reading Towards the New Pyrotechnics Directive 2013/29/EU – an Impact Assessment

Andrew Tang Abstract: Outdoor displays have been carried out for many years at Victoria Harbour in Hong Kong. These occur at least twice a year on China National Day (CND) and Chinese New Year (CNY) with a show time of about 23 minutes. The 2013 shows attracted many hundreds of thousands of people to watch …
Continue reading Analysis of Impact on Ambient Air Quality of Outdoor Firework Display During Chinese New Year 2013 in Hong Kong

Rene Yo Abe, Yoshiaki Akutsu, Akihiro Shimada and Takehiro Matsunaga  Abstract: Light transmission and particle size distribution measurements of aerosol (smoke) emissions from pyrotechnic compositions have been performed in a combustion chamber at atmospheric pressure over a wide range of relative humidity. Maximum light extinction over time is proportional to weight of incinerated sample and …
Continue reading Quantification of Visible Aerosols from Pyrotechnics: The Effect of Relative Humidity

Tom Smith & Christian Lohrer Abstract: There is a wide variety of approaches across the world in determining appropriate “safety distances” for firework displays. Comparison of the different national approaches and distances for shells derived from ShellCalc© highlights the variety and derivation of the “safety distances” adopted and these distances are related to the various …
Continue reading Comparison of national “safety distances” at professionally fired firework displays and distances derived from ShellCalc©

Christian Lohrer Abstract: Display fireworks and theatrical pyrotechnic articles are widely used in the EU by persons with specialist knowledge for local festivities, events, concerts and various music shows. According to the European Directive 2013/29/EU relating to the making available on the Union market of pyrotechnic articles, these articles are categorized as fireworks of category …
Continue reading Display Fireworks And Stage Pyrotechnics In Use – Which Distances Are ‘Safe’ In Germany And Other Parts Of the EU?

Thomas M. Klapötke, Magdalena Rusan and Jörg Stierstorfer Abstract: The investigation of green-burning boron-based compounds as colorants in pyrotechnic formulations as an alternative for environmentally and health hazardous barium nitrate is reported here. Metal-free and nitrogen-rich dihydrobis(5-aminotetrazolyl)borate salts and dihydrobis(1,3,4-triazolyl)borate salts have been synthesized and characterized by NMR spectroscopy, elemental analysis, mass spectrometry and vibrational …
Continue reading Green Pyrotechnic Formulations Based on Metal-Free and Nitrogen-Rich Tetrazolylborate Salts

Rene Yo Abe, Yoshiaki Akutsu, Akihiro Shimada and Takehiro Matsunaga Abstract: The effect of metal and metal compounds commonly used in pyrotechnics on visible aerosol development at high relative humidity has been investigated in combustion experiments using a combustion chamber. Ammonium perchlorate/ hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene as oxidant/fuel system allowed aerosols generated from the additives to be …
Continue reading Quantification of Visible Aerosols from Pyrotechnics: Metal and Metal Compound Additives

Silke Schwarz, Annett Knorr and Christian Lohrer Abstract: This paper gives a brief overview of the findings of hexachlorobenzene (HCB) in fireworks compositions observed within EC type-examinations according to Module B (as set out in the annex II of the Directive 2007/23/EC) of the notified body BAM. In this work, roughly 220 samples were analysed, …
Continue reading Screening of hexachlorobenzene (HCB) contents in fireworks