A watertight, vapor permeable, flame retardant coated support material prepared by the process which comprises:
- 1) foaming by mechanical means into a stable foam, a coating composition comprised of:
- A) an aqueous dispersion i) having a solids content of from 30 to 70% by weight of a vinyl chloride copolymer consisting essentially of 20 to 90% by weight of vinyl chloride, based on the total weight of the copolymer.
- from 10 to 80% by weight, based on the total weight of the copolymer, of at least one comonomer selected from the group consisting of the (meth) acrylic esters of alcohols of from 1 to 10 carbon atoms, the vinyl esters of saturated aliphatic carboxylic acids of from 2 to 10 carbon atoms, and the .alpha.-olefins, and
- from 0 to 10% by weight, based on the total weight of the copolymer, of at least one ethylenically unsaturated functional comonomer selected from the group consisting of monocarboxylic acids, dicarboxylic acids, amides of monocarboxylic acids, amides of dicarboxylic acids, hydroxy functional monomers and sulfonate-functional monomers, or an aqueous dispersion ii) having a solids content of from 30 to 70% by weight of vinyl acetate-ethylene copolymer consisting essentially of 10 to 40% by weight of ethylene, based on the total weight of the copolymer, and
- from 0 to 10% by weight, based on the total weight of the copolymer, of at least one ethylenically unsaturated functional comonomer selected from the group consisting of monocarboxylic acids, amides of monocarboxylic acids, dicarboxylic acids, amides of dicarboxylic acids, hydroxy-functional monomers and sulfonate-functional monomers,
- B) from 5 to 70% by weight based on the solids content of the aqueous dispersion A of a flameproofing agent selected from the group consisting of antimony oxides, phosphoric esters, zinc borates, metallic oxide hydrates, metal hydroxides and chloroparaffins,
- C) from 0 to 20% by weight based on the solids content of the aqueous dispersion A, of a crosslinker,
- D) from 0.5 to 20% by weight, based on the solids content of the aqueous dispersion A, of a foam stabilizer,
- E) from 0 to 10% by weight, based on the solids content of the aqueous dispersion A, of a thickener,
- 2) applying the foam to form a foam layer on at least one side of a support material selected from the group consisting of woven, knitted and a nonwoven support material to form a coated support material and drying the coated support material at a temperature of from 60.degree. to 180.degree. C.
- 3) after drying the coated support material, crushing the foam layer on at least one side of the coated support material by hot calendering the coated support material under a nip pressure of from 2 to 300 daN/cm, and
- 4) applying a further coat of an unfoamed copolymer dispersion of the composition of the copolymer dispersion i) or ii) to at least one coated side of the coated support material.