Evaluation of the Constancy of the Performance of Firefighters Suits

Abstract

In the designing of advanced personal protection equipment, the problem related to the continuous loss of properties associated with functionality and safety over the course of its use, storage and cleaning cycles is rarely noticed. Products and their technical characteristics are applied for the conformity assessment process, which does not take into account the risk of the reduction of safety parameters. As part of the research conducted, we established the influence of factors arising from use and cleaning cycles on the reduction of physico-mechanical parameters describing critical requirements associated with the safety and functionality of special clothing for firefighters. The scope of the research covered evaluation of the influence of atmospheric factors over the course of a period including three seasons (spring, summer and autumn) and of cleaning cycles (20 cycles of washing in water at 60 °C, according to PN-EN ISO 6330:2012, distributed proportionally over three seasons of the year, with the use of commercial, commonly used washing powder) on the change in the level of parameters characterising special clothing for firefighters.