Usually, all the fire-retardant, or fire-resistant, clothes are 100 percent cotton. Later that cotton clothing is treated with chemicals to turn it into fire-resistant clothing. It aims to protect the wearer from fire, heat or any other hazardous situation. Working around fire hazards and high-voltage materials or performing welding are a few examples of jobs that require fire-resistant clothing.
The reason why the cotton needs treatment to make FR clothing is that none of the naturally occurring fibers can resist heat, flame or heat. Even 100% pure cotton will burn and ignite if exposed to any ignition source. Let’s discuss FR clothing in details:
The Materials Used to Make the FR clothing:
Mentioned earlier that fire-resistant clothing made of 100% cotton. It is not possible to craft FR cloths from synthetic materials such as rayon, nylon, acetate or polyester. As these materials dare to burn or melt over the skin of the wearer.
Therefore, it is important to choose 100 percent wool or cotton cloth, depending on their weight, texture, several factors, color, and weave of the material. As this type of materials, neither melts nor ignites or continues to burn.
The Reason behind Introducing FR Clothing:
For any industry, it is their first duty to ensure the complete safety of their employees. It is crucial to have proper arrangements for the workers to keep them protected from arc flash, flame, flash fire, extreme heat, combustible dust explosion, and other oil or petroleum sources.
Fire-resistant clothing provides thermal insulation, which protects the wearer’s skin from getting exposed to hazards. Non-FR clothing contains components, which can conduct electric current or heat to the skin and even melt on the skin.
Evolution of FR clothing:
The fire-resistant clothing has evolved a lot in the past few years. Apart from providing safety and containing features like self-extinguishing, etc. The FR clothing has now become stylish as well. At first, wearers didn’t have many options to choose from, but now there are various colors, sizes, and forms of FR clothes like FR denim or jeans are available in the market.
Also, many producers have included fabrics that bring out the look of attractive denim along with proper flame-resistant lineup to give it a fashionable look. This way, the FR clothes can be worn by anyone on any occasion.
Types of FR Clothing:
There are three types of FR clothing- 1) Fire-Resistant, 2) Fire-Retardant, 3) Arc-Rated.
1. Fire-Resistant- This type of clothing is made up of materials that are naturally resistant to embers and flames. That means the fibres and threads are inherently self-extinguish and do not need any treatment.
2. Fire-Retardant- Clothes that need treatment first to make it fire-resisting are known as fire-retardant clothing. The original clothing does not possess the same self-extinguishing feature before the treatment.
3. Arc-Rated- However, AR clothing is different from FR clothing in nature. Arc-Rated clothing, unlike the FR clothing, does not protect the wearer from fires, embers, flames, and flash fire, rather it protects them from electrical arc hazards.
How to Choose the Right FR Clothing?
It is necessary to choose the right FR apparel for you. So before you buy, you must ensure the facts that the Fire-Resistant cloth is easy to wash, its protection level, proper PPE feature, comfortable enough, avoid both heat-related & cold-related illness, and eligible size. As the determination and productivity of the workers highly depend on their FR apparel, so it is required to check all the details before you buy.
Conclusion:
Hence, these are some basic details about Fire-Resistant clothing that you can buy both for yourself and the employees of your industry. Based on their difference, the best Fire-Resistant clothing differs for every wearer. Therefore, you need to decide which type of FR clothing will be suitable for your job requirements.