Flame resistant clothes have been a great help throughout the globe for their durability, toughness and protection feature. Further, this fabric is the most liked clothing material for industrial wear. However, no matter how strong, rough and durable this fabric can be – we as users still need to understand what is the best way to take care of the flame resistant clothes, and how to get any grease or chemicals off them. And thus, this guide today revolves around making the best use of the fire resistant fabric- along with making the best uniform for your teams as well.
What Are Flame Resistant Clothes?
Clothes that can resist fire and don’t let it harm the person who wears it – are called fire resistant clothes. This fabric is very famous in industrial use because of the heavy-duty work the staff has to do. The fire resistant fabric is specially made-up of material that isn’t flammable or can easily withstand the heat or temperature. However, most of the time this material is manufactured synthetically for creating uniforms.
Another plus is that due to the technological growth of the workwear fabric suppliers, now you can easily get acid proof clothes, electricity proof clothing, flame retardant fabric and much more. The popularity goes directly to the fire resistant fabrics because of their durability and lifesaving mechanism. And thus, the cycle is followed on for the production of clothes which are better in quality and hold durability along with catering to other life-threatening situations as well.
Are All Materials Fire Proof?
As quoted above, not all of the fabric is going to be fire resistant naturally. But yes, you can manufacture certain fabrics synthetically to have low melting properties and are less prone towards damaging the user. Particularly, the fabrics for workwear have to be made very carefully as its the life of an individual at risk. Silk is one of the worst fabric because of its high burning and melting properties.
Similarly, nylon, acrylic, and polyester tend to catch fire slowly, but once they do get ignited – they can melt and burn easily. If you look at linen and cotton then they too have a high burning rate but with the alleviated treatment of flame-retardant chemicals, they can be used for industrial wear.
Though, these aren’t recommendable without additional fire retardant treatment. Next comes wool, which is kind of better flame-retardant material. It can easily self-extinguish and has a low burning rate. A lot of workwear fabric suppliers are manufacturing material created with synthetic fibers and also ensure that the newly created fabric does hold properties to be the best source to be tried as flame resistant clothes.
Why Do Fire Resistant Clothes Have To Be Treated Differently?
These are general guidelines to protect the durability, quality and safety properties of your FR clothing. These tips are to be followed as the general rule of thumb for other fabrics as well. But since FR clothes do mark an important aspect, that’s your life – hence need to be treated with extra care. The below pointers have been suggested by FR specialists, and these are:
● Wash your FR working gear prior to wearing it. And, never use it after activity without washing off the previous residue.
● You can use a mild detergent that is free of additive toxic ingredients like animal fat, bleach, and hydrogen peroxide.
● Never use any chlorine-based product, starch or fabric softener on your FR clothes.
● Further, every fabric has washing properties mentioned on it by the manufacturer – you should read those carefully.
● Never miss reading the laundering properties of fire-resistant fabrics.
● Your FR clothing should be washed with water at 120 degrees Fahrenheit temperature to be exact and precise.
● If it is a rain gear – hang it to dry it easily. Don’t try to use iron or any other drying material.
● Workwear fabric suppliers recommend special instructions on the packaging of the fabric, this is quite helpful to cater to the washing and cleaning needs.
● Always try to wash your flame-resistant fabric inside out during a thorough wash.
● Don’t try to use any insect repellents or DEET on your FR fabric.
Here Are Your Fire Retardant Fabric’s Laundry Guidelines?
Though most of you are well aware of the basics involved in the laundering procedure. However, with FR clothing and fabric the basics do not apply. The fabric is made with the purpose of taking care of you and keeping you safe from fire, acid, electricity, and all such dangerous hazards. For example, you can’t use too much of the hard water as it will leave residues on your FR fabric and make it highly flammable. Further, the water temperature also causes a lot of effect on the properties of the FR material. So, we have to ensure it doesn’t increase more 120-degrees Fahrenheit.
Since the FR fabric tends to shrink easily, so the making has to be in shape along with extra material add-up. In this way, you don’t get to wear smaller clothes suddenly. Dry cleaning will be a plus factor for the treatment of your workwear fabric. But once again, the dry clean residue has to be completely removed from the clothes before use. The general rule of thumb is to always read instructions and user manual very carefully before opting for any method of FR fabric cleaning.
Does Every Fabric Come With Fire Resistant Finishes?
Not all materials will come with fire resistant fabric finishes. These are only added by the material manufacturers, and these are used to enable the cloth to meet the National Fire Safety Standards and guidelines. There are two very main manmade fibers that are termed as cellulose-based and non-cellulose based. In cellulose-based, you get to wear rayon, triacetate, and acetate which are highly flammable just like the cotton material. Further, these can melt easily as well as cause serious burns which are quite damaging.
Whereas, non-cellulose based fibers are polyester, olefin, modacrylic, acrylic, and nylon. All of these aren’t flammable and once they do ignite their burns will be quite serious. Here only, modacrylic comes with inherent properties that are flame retardant. A lot of industrial gear is made with the fiber which is not combustible easily. In fact, now the general public is much more aware of these life-saving materials and is demanding a continuous increase in production so that they can use fire-retardant fabric in day-to-day living materials as well.
