FprCEN/TS 17973
(Main)Safety of toys - Categorization of slime type materials
Safety of toys - Categorization of slime type materials
This document specifies a test method for categorization of slime-type products to support users of EN 71-3 in the categorization of products with slime-like behaviour into material categories 1 (dry, brittle, powder-like or pliable toy material) or 2 (liquid or sticky toy material).
Sicherheit von Spielzeug - Einstufung von schleimartigen Materialien
Dieses Dokument legt ein Prüfverfahren für die Kategorisierung von schleimartigen Produkten fest, um die Anwender der EN 71-3 bei der Einstufung von Produkten mit einem schleimartigen Verhalten in Kategorie 1 (trockenes, brüchiges, staubförmiges oder geschmeidiges Spielzeugmaterial) oder Kategorie 2 (flüssiges oder klebriges Spielzeugmaterial) zu unterstützen.
Sécurité des jouets - Catégorisation des matériaux de type slime
Le présent document spécifie une méthode d’essai pour la catégorisation des produits de type slime, afin d’aider les utilisateurs de l’EN 71-3 à classer les produits ayant un comportement similaire à celui du slime dans la catégorie de matériaux 1 (matériau-jouet sec, friable, poudreux ou souple) ou 2 (matériau jouet liquide ou collant).
Varnost igrač - Kategorizacija materialov, podobnih sluzi
General Information
Standards Content (Sample)
SLOVENSKI STANDARD
kSIST-TS FprCEN/TS 17973:2023
01-junij-2023
Varnost igrač - Kategorizacija materialov, podobnih sluzi
Safety of toys - Categorization of slime type materials
Sicherheit von Spielzeug - Einstufung von schleimartigen Materialien
Sécurité des jouets - Catégorisation des matériaux de type slime
Ta slovenski standard je istoveten z: FprCEN/TS 17973
ICS:
97.200.50 Igrače Toys
kSIST-TS FprCEN/TS 17973:2023 en,fr,de
2003-01.Slovenski inštitut za standardizacijo. Razmnoževanje celote ali delov tega standarda ni dovoljeno.
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kSIST-TS FprCEN/TS 17973:2023
FINAL DRAFT
TECHNICAL SPECIFICATION
FprCEN/TS 17973
SPÉCIFICATION TECHNIQUE
TECHNISCHE SPEZIFIKATION
May 2023
ICS 97.200.50
English Version
Safety of toys - Categorization of slime type materials
Sécurité des jouets - Catégorisation des matériaux de Sicherheit von Spielzeug - Einstufung von
type slime schleimartigen Materialien
This draft Technical Specification is submitted to CEN members for Vote. It has been drawn up by the Technical Committee
CEN/TC 52.
CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia,
Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway,
Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and
United Kingdom.
Recipients of this draft are invited to submit, with their comments, notification of any relevant patent rights of which they are
aware and to provide supporting documentation.
Warning : This document is not a Technical Specification. It is distributed for review and comments. It is subject to change
without notice and shall not be referred to as a Technical Specification.
EUROPEAN COMMITTEE FOR STANDARDIZATION
COMITÉ EUROPÉEN DE NORMALISATION
EUROPÄISCHES KOMITEE FÜR NORMUNG
CEN-CENELEC Management Centre: Rue de la Science 23, B-1040 Brussels
© 2023 CEN All rights of exploitation in any form and by any means reserved Ref. No. FprCEN/TS 17973:2023 E
worldwide for CEN national Members.
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Contents Page
European foreword . 3
Introduction . 4
1 Scope . 5
2 Normative references . 5
3 Terms and definitions . 5
4 Theory . 5
4.1 Historical methods . 5
4.1.1 General . 5
4.1.2 Tube test . 6
4.1.3 Shape test . 6
4.2 Newly developed test method – “rod test” . 7
5 Test procedure for the “rod test”. 7
5.1 Principle . 7
5.2 Test equipment . 7
5.3 Sample preparation . 8
5.4 Test execution . 8
6 Results evaluation . 10
7 Categorization . 11
Annex A (informative) Background considerations on slimes . 12
A.1 Possible facts to describe slimes found in the market . 12
A.2 Development of the “rod test” . 12
Annex B (informative) Interlaboratory trial . 14
B.1 General . 14
B.2 Conclusion. 14
Annex C (informative) Detailed results from the interlaboratory trial. 15
C.1 Rod test . 15
C.2 Shape test . 17
C.3 Individual subjective evaluation of additional parameters . 18
Bibliography . 23
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European foreword
This document (FprCEN/TS 17973:2023) has been prepared by Technical Committee CEN/TC 52 “Safety
of toys”, the secretariat of which is held by DS.
This document is currently submitted to the Vote on TS.
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Introduction
There have been long lasting discussions on the correct categorization of slime type products in
conjunction with testing those products according to EN 71-3 and the applicability of the correct limit
value.
Due to their complex behaviour in many cases a clear distinction cannot be made easily to come to a
reliable conclusion on category 1 (pliable) or category 2 (liquid).
As they often present non-Newtonian behaviour on the one hand and/or are creeping rather than free
flowing on the other hand the determination of the status appears complex. The stickiness of some
compositions needs to be evaluated in a specific way and presents a further challenge.
According to Annex II, Chapter 3, Paragraph (13), the Toy Safety Directive 2009/48/EC differentiates 3
material categories, which are derived on a risk basis from, besides other facts, (inter alia RIVM report
320003001/2008 [incl. erratum]) an assumption of daily values for ingestion: category 1 – 100 mg toy
material per day/category 2 – 400 mg toy material per day. This was confirmed by SCHER - Final Opinion
on Estimates of the amount of toy materials ingested by children as of 8 April 2016, ISBN 978-92-79-ND.
Hand-to-mouth contact (addressing residues on the hands/fingers) is yet addressed within the
mentioned RIVM report and therefore addressed by the given limit values. In this conjunction sticky
should mean “visible product residues” on fingers and hands (wet feeling does not necessarily reflect the
intake of toy material).
For slime-like products, such as toy slime (free-flowing), effect slime (creeping slime masses) and
kneading slime (quasi-stable pliable compounds), 2 possible categories come into consideration:
— Category 2: liquid or sticky toy material;
— Category 1: dry, brittle, powder-like or pliable toy material.
Some test institutes as well as market surveillance authorities tend to categorize more conservative into
category 2 because of a potentially higher level of protection which leads to different evaluations. This
may be not proportionate from the TSD perspective.
The purpose of this document is to give some clarification on slimes and their behaviour, methodology
for the characterization as well as an approach for a suitable categorization.
Besides various elements, the element boron is of particular interest for slime-like products which
usually obtain their special (non-Newtonian) properties (such as rheopectic or thixotropic behaviour)
through the cross-linking of organic components (binders) with the element boron.
For category 1, the migration limit for boron is 1 200 mg/kg toy mass, for category 2 the migration limit
is set to 300 mg/kg.
In the context of conformity assessment, it is of particular importance to categorize the slime-type
materials correctly for a well-founded evaluation of the test results on the applicable limit value.
Request for a test method proposal
The test method should be easy to use and show acceptable precision for decision making. It must also
be pragmatic and may be based on a convention.
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1 Scope
This document specifies a test method for categorization of slime-type products to support users of
EN 71-3 in the categorization of products with slime-like behaviour into material categories 1 (dry,
brittle, powder-like or pliable toy material) or 2 (liquid or sticky toy material).
2 Normative references
There are no normative references in this document.
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.
ISO and IEC maintain terminology databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:
— ISO Online browsing platform: available at https://www.iso.org/obp
— IEC Electropedia: available at https://www.electropedia.org/
3.1
slime
liquid, semi-liquid or firm material exhibiting free flowing, viscous, paste-like up to creeping behaviour
presenting non-Newtonian properties (like rheopexy or thixotropy) and changing the shape over a
certain time when left alone
3.2
liquid
free flowing fluid presenting Newtonian behaviour, not keeping any defined shape when not kept in a
container
3.3
putty/modelling clay
pliable material exhibiting kneadable behaviour (soft to firm) keeping the shape after manipulation
3.4
creeping
slow steady flow of a viscous material under low stress conditions commonly understood as a specific
viscoelastic property
4 Theory
4.1 Historical methods
4.1.1 General
Due to the non-Newtonian behaviour of slime-type products the standard measurement methods for
viscosity are not suitable to obtain reliable results for the categorization.
Furthermore, there is no clear range or point for decision making.
Known provisional methods need mechanical manipulation of the material in preparing the sample for
measurement.
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4.1.2 Tube test
Cylindrical test tube
Tube dimensions Diameter 30 mm
Height min. 60 mm
Procedure Slime is pressed into the tube and the slime surface is cut flat
Tube inclination: 90°/45°/0° (different approaches)
The time for the protrusion of 10 mm of the slime material is taken
Results evaluation ≥ 90 s → category 1
< 90 s → category 2
Disadvantages of the tube test
— Sample material handling needs some effort to fill the tube properly (e.g. without air bubbles).
— Sample material may be influenced by sweat/fat from the hands and loss of humidity, hand
temperature or mechanical forces which may trigger non-Newtonian behaviour.
— The test material needs to be cut at the upper edge of the test tube to have an exact starting point.
— The material cannot be used for further testing.
— No data on reproducibility is available.
— Time taking is not exact because there is no means of a defined end point.
— The test tube material and inclination are not defined and agreed anywhere.
4.1.3 Shape test
A sphere (ball) is shaped from the slime-type toy material with a diameter of 30 mm (as far as it is
feasible).
The sphere is placed on a flat horizontal glass, metal or plastic surface and the initial height is determined
(H0). The sphere is left for 5 min ((300 ± 5) s). Subsequently the height (H5) is taken.
Results evaluation If H5 is less than H0/2 → category 2.
If H5 is more than H0/2→ category 1.
Disadvantages of the shape test
— Sample material handling needs some effort to shape an acceptable sphere (especially with creeping
and flexible material or within the transition range of the categories).
— Sample material may be influenced by sweat/fat from the hands and loss of humidity, hand
temperature or mechanical forces which may trigger non-Newtonian behaviour.
— Placing the sphere onto a flat surface and measuring the initial height is accompanied by continuous
change of the sphere’s shape which results in an uncertainty of the starting point (no equilibration is
possible prior to measurement).
— The material cannot be used for further testing.
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— The optimum sphere diameter is not described nor agreed anywhere.
— No data on reproducibility is available.
— Height determination is variable in its precision depending on the means of measurement (like
vernier calliper, which needs to touch the upper surface).
4.2 Newly developed test method – “rod test”
The proposed test method describes an easy-to-use procedure exhibiting an acceptable accuracy for
decision making. It is also pragmatic and represents a convention method.
An advantage of the described method is that the material to be categorized is not subjected to any
mechanical influences prior to measurement, e.g. by kneading or moulding or loss of humidity or other
effects which enables a uniform and repeatable starting point (see Annex A).
The material can directly be used for migration purposes according to EN 71-3 after categorization.
5 Test procedure for the “rod test”
5.1 Principle
A rod made of polymeric material, preferably POM (polyoxymethylene), is placed onto the surface of a
slime-type product and the time of sinking into the material for a certain distance is taken.
5.2 Test equipment
POM rod Length 100 mm (drilled hollow from the top for adjusting the
weight)
Diameter (12,5 ± 0,1) mm
Contact area 2 2
123 mm /(= 1,23 cm )
Weight (10,0 + 0,2) g (including indicator ring)
Guiding tube (POM, PC, ABS) Inner diameter (12,8 + 0,1) mm
Height 20 mm to 25 mm from the base
Base plate (PC, PMMA) Diameter 100 mm (not less than 70 mm)
or Square 70 mm × 70 mm
Indicator ring Height 20 mm
Inner diameter about 12 mm (vertically slotted, slidable on the rod,
fixed and positioned by friction)
Adjustment clamp Height 10 mm (for adjusting the indicator ring to the
measuring distance)
Test container Glass beaker 50 ml (standard laboratory glass ware)
Inner diameter approx. 40 mm
Height approx. 60 mm
or original product container (meeting at least the above
defined container size specifications as a minimum)
Minimum sample height 30 mm
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Maximum sample height 80 % of the height of the container
Minimum test amount approx. 30 g slime-type material (depending on the
density)
Stopwatch commercially available stopwatch (analogue or digital
(resolution at least 0,1 s)
NOTE Considering the minimum sample height as well as the minimum container diameter is crucial to keep
the necessary distances of the rod to the container wall.
Examples for the POM rod, the base plate, the indicator ring, and the adjustment clamp are shown in
Figure 1.
Key
1 POM rod
2 indicator ring
3 base plate
4 adjustment clamp
Figure 1 — “Rod test” equipment
5.3
...
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