Development And Performance Of New Fire Extinguishing Protective Clothing

The firefighters’protective clothing(FPC) is one of the important equipments to protect firefighters, which is an indispensable part on the fire rescue scene. However, the traditional FPC usually consists of four layers, which makes it heavy and thick. Besides, its moisture vapor transfer performance is unsatisfying. Its thermal protection property and heat-moisture comfort property are also need to be improved.In order to solve the above problems, a new kind of fabric named flame retardant silica gel points composite fabric was designed. It was used as a middle layer to replace the moisture barrier and thermal barrier layer of the traditional four-layers structure. Under the premise of optimizing the structure of the clothing, a new three-layers structure FPC was prepared. Nomex III A fabric was applied as the outer layer. Silica gel points composite fabric (points next to the outer layer) was used as the middle layer. Nomex/viscose blended fabric was used as the inner layer. The heat-moisture comfort property and the thermal protective property of the new FPC were evaluated comprehensively by sweating manikin and flame manikin system.Firstly, two different sizes of flame-retardant silica gel points composite fabrics were prepared. And referred to the fabric specification of traditional FPC, some kinds of fabrics were also prepared, which were used separately as the outer layer, the moisture barrier, the thermal barrier and the inner layer. Then the general performance of all fabrics was evaluated according to the national standard GA 10-2014< firefighters’protective clothing>. The result showed that all fabrics met the requirements in the standard. The performance of flame-retardant silica gel points composite fabrics satisfied requirements of both moisture barrier and thermal layer, which provided the prerequisite for the design and preparation of a new three-layer structure FPC.Secondly, multilayer fabric combinations were studied to simulate the traditional four-layers structure system and a new three-layer structure system. An optimal combination was chosen based on the comparison of thickness, weight in grams, flexible performance, thermal protective performance and moisture vapor transfer performance of different systems. It was found that the new type of three-layer structure system was thinner, more light and soft when compared with four-layer structure system. The position and thickness of air gap would affect the thermal protective performance of three-layer structure fabric combination. The three-layer structure combination with small silica gel points composite material as intermediate layer (points next to the outer layer) turned to be optimal by weighted optimization method.Finally, one set of traditional four-layer structure FPC and two sets of new three-layer structure FPC with small silica gel points composite material as intermediate layer (points next to the outer layer) were prepared. Based on sweating manikin and flame manikin system, heat-moisture comfort and thermal protective performance of three FPC were researched. The result indicated that structure design of FPC was one factor of those affecting the garment’s overall performance. Heat-moisture comfort and thermal protective performance of new three-layer structure FPC were better than those of the traditional four-layer structure FPC for the manikin total burn area percentage in the new FPC decreased at least 30%.