Are you about to choose your teams’ chemical protective clothing?
September 9th 2010 Ask the right questions: Not all materials offer the same protection barrier.
As a specialist in personal protective equipment, DuPont Personal Protection has put together an online training tool that provides complete support for the selection of protective garments to guarantee that Type 4 chemical spray-resistant suits can be used with complete confidence.
This guide is based on several selection criteria that include:
1: Permeation –Demand an effective barrier against common chemicals
Tests performed by an independent certified laboratory have shown that Tyvek reaches a breakthrough time of 480 min (the equivalent of an entire workday) with sodium hydroxide 40%, whereas microporous films reach between 0 min and 195 min with sodium hydroxide 10%.
2: Abrasion resistance
In order to assess abrasion resistance constitutes an inherent substrate barrier, the current method is to use a coin. The coin edge is rubbed across the fabric to be tested to see if it remains intact or not.
3: Permeability to air and water vapour
Air permeability is measured by the Gurley test according to ISO Standard 5636/5. According to this test, TYVEK garments offer air circulation that is greatly superior to that of microporous films.
For a complete list of criteria that will help you select safe garments, go to:
www.dpp-europe.com
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