• • • APPAREL • • • SHIFTING THE DIAL ON
SAFETY VERSUS COMFORT Any Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) that workers refuse to wear properly is PPE that fails to protect By Deborah Sarzotti, Global Strategic Product Manager, INVISTA
owever, research highlights that people often avoid wearing PPE because garments are uncomfortable, restrictive, or make it harder for them to do their jobs. This emphasis on comfort is why the safety industry increasingly views it as one of its top priorities, second only to protection, which must always be paramount. Workers in industries as diverse as oil and gas, public safety, manufacturing and the military run the risk of encountering flame threats while on the job. For engineers working with electrical equipment, for example, a sudden electrical discharge or arc flash can briefly reach temperatures of 20,000oC, around four times hotter than the surface of the sun. Even so, experts report that not properly wearing the required PPE remains a factor in many industrial accidents. In fact, it’s one of the main reasons why comfort has been rising up the agenda when it comes to safety clothing.
H What is comfort?
There is no universal metric for defining what makes a garment comfortable. Instead, it typically involves a combination of factors. First, breathability determines how effective a fabric is at air and moisture management. That’s especially important where workers are expending a lot of physical effort or are operating in hot, humid environments. Second is the softness of the fabric surface against the skin, also known as the fabric hand. Third is stretch, which promotes free movement and improves ergonomic performance. The right combination of characteristics can deliver a garment with the kind of all-day wearability and comfort that can boost productivity, as well as safety compliance. This has sparked a rise in the kind of PPE that is clearly influenced by trends in athleisure and performance wear, leading to the development of next-generation garments that increasingly emphasise flexibility, stretch and lightweight materials, in addition to hazard protection.
The global stretch workwear fabrics market was valued at roughly $2.3 billion in 2023 and is projected to grow by around 7.4 per cent to reach around $4.4 billion by 2032. Similarly, the industrial workwear and fire resistant (FR) textile market has also seen a rise in the adoption of stretch and elastane or elastolefin-blended fabrics over the past decade as manufacturers have looked for ways to improve comfort.
Advancing technology This shift is only possible thanks to innovations in FR fibres and fabric construction. Legacy treated
FR workwear was created by applying FR coatings to conventional fabrics. The resulting garments are heavy, stiff and scratchy, and the fabrics have a limited lifespan, requiring frequent replacements that effectively make them expensive in use when considering the full life-cycle cost of the garment. The arrival of inherently FR fibre technologies have sought to address many of these issues. The first inherently FR fabrics were based on aramid fibres, which delivered a step change in durability but were still stiff and heavy compared with later aramid-based technologies. Next came fabric blends based on modacrylic or cellulosic fibres. These blends offer improved comfort and breathability, with some inherently FR textiles reducing fabric weight by approximately 15–25 per cent for the same level of protection as older technologies. However, they typically cannot match the durability of aramid technology. The most recent addition to the line-up is CORDURA Advanced Fabrics patented, thermally resistant nylon fiber technology. Blending these thermally resistant nylon fibres with other inherently FR fibres, CORDURA Comfort FR fabrics significantly move the needle so that comfort and durability are no longer competing priorities. In other words, the new fiber technology enables a
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range of lightweight, breathable FR fabric alternatives that can deliver the same high level of protection and durability as materials that are heavier, and that feel hot and scratchy against the skin.
Safety first culture
While innovative FR fibre and fabric technologies are playing an important role in creating more comfortable safety gear, workplace culture is another factor that must be right if employers expect workers to embrace their PPE for all-day, everyday use. PPE should be just one element in a far broader, safety-first culture.
Organisations should engage workers early and
often in PPE selection and development, using surveys, wear trials and direct feedback channels. Clearly, clothing innovation can never be allowed to compromise compliance, but harnessing the right fibre and fabric technologies can enhance both protection and user acceptance. By integrating user-centric designs with technological advances and environmental stewardship, companies can develop PPE programs that workers trust and garments they will want to wear.
https://cordura.com
electricalengineeringmagazine.co.uk
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