What’s Performance Requirements of Protective Clothing for Firefighting and what's kinds of zipper can meet it ?

Protective clothing for firefighting is one of the important equipment to protect the personal safety of firefighters active in the first line of fire fighting against heat and fire. They also have developed with the times. Since 2013, protective clothing for firefighting have can be roughly divided into two types including integrated type and two-piece type.

In spite of different wearing methods, all protective clothing for firefighting must have excellent performances in properties like closure system, heat resistance, flame spread limitation, tensile strength, resistance to penetration by liquid chemicals, etc.

Here are some primary performance requirements of protective clothing for firefighting.

1.    Flame Spread

All materials including seams, the surface of the outer garment and the surface of the innermost lining tested according to EN ISO 15025:2002 shall achieve flame spread index 3 of prEN ISO 14116:2013. When exposed to flame, protective clothing should limit flame spread otherwise firefighter will be threatened with burn.

2.    Heat Resistance

According to EN 469:2014, all materials used in protective clothing for firefighting shall not melt, ignite or shrink more than 5% and all hardware like zippers shall remain functional when exposed to an atmosphere having a temperature of 180 ± 5°C.

3.    Tensile Strength

As specified in EN 469:2014, outer materials shall bear a breaking load more than 450N and main seams shall have a maximum force to seam rupture more than 225N.

4.    Anti-wicking Barrier and Moisture Barrier

These barriers are used to prevent liquid transferring from outside to inside the garment and they can provide the properties of hydrostatic pressure resistance and water vapour resistance.

(1) hydrostatic pressure resistance: for garments with a moisture barrier, the resistance should more be no less than 20 kPa.

(2) water vapour resistance: level 1 is from 30 m2Pa/W to 45 m2 Pa/W and level 2 is less than 30 m2 Pa/W.

5.    Resistance to Penetration by Liquid Chemicals

Besides fire, firefighters may be faced with other dangers like chemicals. Under this circumstance, protective clothing should completely protect their safety as well. There shall be no penetration to the innermost surface and the the index of repellency shall be no less than 80.

6.    Visibility Material

Visibility materials like retroreflective/fluorescent materials should be attached at least one band encircling arms, legs and torso to firefighter’s protective clothing to ensure visibility. The minimum area of separate retroreflective material attached to outermost surface should be no less than 0.13 m2 and the minimum area of fluorescent or combined performance material applied to the outermost surface should be no less than 0.2 m2. And the photometric requirements, color and fabric should be in accordance with EN ISO 20471:2013.

7.      Dimensional Change

The dimensional change of woven materials should be no more than 3% and that of non-woven materials should be no more than 5%.

8.    Metal Accessory

For safety and comfort, metal accessories attached to protective clothing should no be exposed on the innermost surface and should not have sharp edges, roughness or projections.

9.    Closure System

Closure system, fastening openings of clothing to achieve a secure closure, also plays a significant role in protection. For instance, flame-resistance zippers, whose tapes are made from fibers with flame resistance, should accord with the requirements to slow, stop or prevent flaming.

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