By Kevin L. Jones
FireRescue1 Product Editor
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DuPont has launched a high tech new “smart-fiber” thermal liner for turnout gear that expands up to four times its original thickness during high heat.
The company announced last Tuesday an updated version of its Nomex brand fiber that it says will do a better job of protecting firefighters in emergency situations.
The new material, Nomex On Demand, utilizes new “smart-fiber” technology, which is engineered to react and expand at temperatures of 250 F or higher, thereby increasing its insulation.
“If you’re a firefighter and you’re in a structural fire-fight, you really want the most insulation you can get,” said Rich Young, senior research chemist for DuPont. "[With Nomex On Demand] you don’t get uniform expansion everywhere — only in the areas where you have the weakest protection, such as the back of your arms.”
After the insulation expands, it stays expanded in order to continue providing the extra protection in the areas where the turnout coat lacked. Though it might make the coat thicker in those areas, as Young puts it, you’re trading “breathability for functionality.”
“Where you see high heat transfer is where the garment wasn’t providing enough insulation anyway,” Young said.
‘Next generation’
Young said the company asked his division to create the “next generation of thermal liner” and so they applied the smart-fiber technology being used in some of DuPont’s other products.
“This is just another tech we’re adding to the mix,” he said.
A firefighter’s mobility will not be affected by the liner’s thickness increasing, Young said, as it thickens to around a half-inch at most.
“That’s not going to make the garment puff up, but it will make a significant impact on the insulation you get,” he said. Dupont has indicated that the new technology provides up to 20 percent more thermal insulation.
The product has already been tested by its customers and third party laboratories, meeting the requirements of NFPA 1971 Standard on Protective Ensembles for Structural Fire Fighting and Proximity Fire Fighting. The material has yet to be tested in the field but already the response to the product has been promising, according to Young.
“Everyone who we’ve shown it to have been very excited about it,” Young said. “People are coming to us with all kinds of applications.”
‘Welcome addition’
FireRescue1 PPE columnist Jeff Stull, president of International Personnel Protection, a leading company for research on PPE, said that the new material technology is a welcome addition to the array of fabrics available to firefighters.
“In most cases where firefighters are exposed to emergency conditions such as flashovers and backdrafts, there is often extensive damage to the clothing, requiring its replacement,” Stull said.
He said the industry as a whole may start to identify those areas of the garment typically exposed to the hottest temperatures by examining the garments with the new liner after the incident.
Initially, DuPont has made the new material available for use in protective gear for firefighters only, but it is considering applying it to apparel used by the military, professional racecar drivers, and oil workers. Nomex On Demand is currently only available in the United States and Canada; the company plans to release the material globally later this year.
“We have to make sure, on our side, that it fits the applications, that it doesn’t try to go beyond its abilities,” Young said.
Introduced to the firefighting world in 1967, Nomex was the first flame-resistant fiber to be used in the inner layers of firefighters’ turnout coats. Now 40 years later, materials containing Nomex (and Kevlar) make up 70 percent of the thermal protection in a firefighter’s turnout coat, according to DuPont.