Production For Arc Rated Clothing Increasing
The need for flame resistant clothing (FRC) to help keep our workers safe in the oil and gas and electrical industries is on the rise along with improvements in safety standards and fabric enhancements. Growth in personnel in these Industries has increased significantly providing the demand for more protective and comfortable FR clothing.
As the Standards have evolved by the NFPA the limit that protective garments are considered suitable for protection has come a long ways but is still not enough for some companies. OSHA compliance states that US employers need to provide full body protection for electrical related industries and it must be known that not all flame resistant fabrics have been tested for both flame resistance and are arc rated. When a garment is arc rated it is assigned an arc rating such as 8 cal/cm2 depending on the protection required and is stated inside the garment label.
Safety is the number one reason this is good news but it is also a huge benefit for manufacturers of arc rated clothing as it helps eliminate cheap alternative products that have come online in recent years that are inviting due to the low cost but do not provide the protection required. It is more common to hear that there is not much confidence in some imported products although this is not totally true because there are a lot of good products overseas. We are seeing more of the use of natural or cellulosic fibres which provide the greatest level of comfort and breathability and comfort is the key to ensuring employees are wearing the protective apparel when they are supposed to.
The use of “inherently FR” meta-aramid fabrics such as Nomex has long been the most popular fabric but now we are seeing much more additions of natural blends such as those made by Westex by Milliken, Glenguard by Glen Raven Technical Fabrics and man-made cellulosic fibres such as Lenzing FR. What it all really comes down to is that the FR/AR properties are stable and will last the life of the garments. Having met this first requirement it is then determined what is the best fabric choice once field tested by the ones who wear the garments day to day. With more and more women coming in to the workforce this is becoming even more of a concern as women tend to be more concerned about the look and feel of their PPE then men are.
Terry Smeader
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