It is about protective textiles.

1. M.MUHUNDHAN & M.KAVITHA
PSGCOLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY
COIMBATORE

2. Protective clothing is now a major part of
textile classified under technical textiles.
Protective clothing refers to the garments
and other fabric related items designed to
protect the wearer from harsh
environmental effects that may results in
injuries or death.
Extensive research is being done to
develop the protective clothing for various
regular and specialized civilian & military
occupations.
Protective textiles are the fastest growing
area of textile consumption in the world.

3. ENVIRONMENTAL
PROTECTION
THERMAL
PROTECTION
MECHANICAL
BIOLOGICAL PROTECH PROTECTION
PROTECTION
INVISIBILITY
RADIATION
PROTECTION
PROTECTION
ELECTROSTATIC
PROTECTION

4. KEVLAR
UHMWP
NOMEX
PROTEX ZYLON
NOVEL
TWARON
CARBON

5. SYNTHETIC FIBRE WITH HIGH MECHANICAL
PERFOMANCE
High Strength, high modulus that makes
protective clothing capable of sustaining high
velocity and retaining their shape during and after
impact.
EX: KEVLAR & TWARON (para-aramid fibres)
excellent thermal resistant do not melt or burn
easily.
ULTRA HIGH MOLECULAR WEIGHT POLYETHYLENE
(UHMWPE) high modulus & 15 times stronger than
steel twice as aramids.
ZYLON (Poly-paraphenelene benzobisoxazole)
high heat resistance & good mechanical
properties.

6. COMBUSTION RESISTANT ORGANIC FIBRES
The limited oxygen index (LOI) is measure for
resistance of the fibre to combustion.
NOMEX & CONEX were produced from meta-
aramids has low LOI.
POLY BENIMIDAZOLE (PBI) has high LOI of 42
produced by Hoechst-Celanese.
Recently PAN-OX is of LOI 55 made by RK
textiles.
These are thermal resistant protective
clothing with out any chemical finishes.

7. HIGH PERFORMANCE INORGANIC FIBRE
CARBON FIBRE has high mechanical properties,
electrically conductive & has high thermal
resistance. It is used for reinforcing fibres in fibres
in composites & also for electromagnetic &
electrostatic protection.
 Alumino silicate compound mixtures of
aluminium oxide & silicon oxide can withstand
upto 1250o to 1400o.
SILICON CARBIDE (SIC) fibres have an outstanding
ability to function in an oxidising condition upto
1800o

8. NOVEL FIBRES
These are fibres which exhibits silk like
properties in additionally enhanced with
durability.
These are micro fibres with denier similar to
silk.
Now a days more thinner fibres have been
successfully made & tight weave with 30,000
filament/cm2.
This makes impermeable to water droplets
and allow air & moisture circulation.
These are used in waterproof materials and
outdoor protective clothing.

9. Protective garments are used against a variety of
hazards, it may be mechanical, environmental
pressure, thermal, fire, chemical, biological,
electrical & radiations.
Each hazard has its own behavior so the
protective garments has to be designed to meet
that hazard.
In many cases it has to protect against more than
one hazard is required.
EX: Fire fighters cloth need to protect them from
fire & chemical.
And also the person wearing protective garment
need to function effectively when using, so these
are aspect while designing protective garments.

10. These garments are manufactured based on the
type of & level of the threat caused by projectile.
THREAT CLASSIFICATION ON KED
(kinetic energy density)
THREAT Velocity KED (J/MM2) ARMOUR
(M/S) USED
KNIFE 10 17 (blunt) SPECIAL
210 (sharp) TEXTILES OR
PLATES
HAND GUN 450 16 (initial) TEXTILES
4 (final)
ASSAULT RIFILE 720 45 COMPOSITES
BULLET (AK47)
HIGH VELOCITY 940 75 CERAMIC
BULLET (SA 80)

11. High performance fibres such as
KEVLAR,SPECTRA,ZYLON are used for this.
For AK 47 bullets armour must be polymer
matrix composite.
Military armour has hard & soft parts, hard
part has CERAMIC PLATE with polymer backing.
The polymer backing prevents the plate from
brittle fragmentation.
For knives & needles, tight weave with film
lamination and abrasive coating are commonly
used to improve penetration resistance.
Other fibres used in ballistic protection are
KEVLAR 49, ZYLON (PBO), SPECTRA & DYEEMA
(ultra high strength polyethylene fibre)

12. Protection from blunt impact is another
important.
EG: injuries from vehicle accidents, falls &
physical assaults with weapons like bats, bottles
& metal bars.
One of the recent development is MULTI
THREAT PROTECTIVE BODY ARMOUR protection
from various threats including blunt trauma.
It requires shock absorbing materials between
human body and outer shield.
This is made up of nylon multi filament coated
with silicone to improve resistance against
ageing & reduce air permeability.

13. These are specialized hazard that relatively
few peoples are likely to exposed to.
EG: industry, deep sea work, working in
space, military flights are experiencing this
atmospheric pressure hazard.
Protective clothes are designed to cope this
hazard with fully air impermeable suits with
their own air apply.
This is designed not to leak under a high
pressure difference.
The EVA(Extra Vehicular Activity) suit's life
support system also has to remove the heat and
moisture generated by sweating astronauts
done by the garment wearing in the leg.

14. It is protection from cold, hot & water.
This protection clothes are used to maintain
the body temperature.
So this area has extensive research and many
developments in these areas.
Recent development in these area is PHASE
CHANGE MATERIALS, which has paraffinic
hydrocarbons added to man-made fibres during
spinning or microencapsulated during finishing.
This will help by keeping the body at
constant temperature, cool in hot conditions
and warm in cold climate.

16. This fabrics are used for mainly fire fighters
protection clothing.
NOMEX, KEVLAR, GLASS & CARBON are fibres
majorly used for flame retardant purposes.
Fire fighter’s clothing consists of flame
resistant inner layer which is composed of
moisture barrier & thermal barrier and lining.
Outer shell gives flame resistance, thermal
resistance & mechanical resistance.
Fibres used in this are ARAMIDS &
POLYBENZIMICLAZOLE (PBI).
NOMEX III (nomex/kevlar:95/5) also used &
PBI is most advantageous which feels the
wearer equivalent to feel of cotton by
celanese.

17. The biological hazard covers a variety of
threats from biological warfare, insects, food
contamination & disease infection.
These garments were designed to resistance
against infectious agents & fully encapsulated.
Insect repellant finish, Anti-microbial finish &
also hydrophobic finish to give some bacterial
protection.
Spun bonded non-woven or non woven/plastic
film laminates are often used.
Two approaches are there to protect against
microbes 1) BARRIER APPROACH
2) CHEMICAL RELEASE APPROACH

18. This may be electrostatic charge, lightning
strike & high voltage electricity.
These will have conductive fibres such as
CARBON FIBRE, SYNTHETIC FIBRES, METAL
FIBRES with carbon core & conductive polymer
fibre are used.
The fibres are made either a central core of a
carbon black & a sheath of polyamide or
conversely central core of aramid fibre & a
sheath of a carbon black.
EX: NOMEX III by DUPONT.
Other way of manufacturing is giving coating
or laminate the fabric.

19. Radiation hazard are a problem in the
nuclear power industries & health care
services.
Conventionally disposable non-woven clothing
such as polyethylene spun bonded materials
are used in nuclear power industries.
It does not protect gamma rays but stop
radioactive particles contacting skin.
Now DEMRON which has a polymer film
between woven & non-woven fabric.
The polymer is a composite of polyurethane
& polyvinyl chloride that blocks X-rays, gamma
rays, alpha rays & beta rays,

20. “The aim of sun protective clothing is to
reduce a person's UVR exposure”
Ultraviolet radiation (UVR) is present in sun
light but we cannot see it or feel it.
Exposure to UVR can cause not only sunburn
but also lasting skin damage, skin cancer &
eyes disorder.
Less UVR passes through tightly woven or
knitted fabrics.
Darker colours usually block more UVR.
Heavier weight fabrics usually block more
UVR than light fabrics of the same type.
Garments that are overstretched, wet or
worn out may have reduced UVR protection

21. Gore-Tex materials are typically based on
thermo-mechanically expanded
polytetrafluoroethylene and used in a wide
variety of applications such as high performance
fabrics, medical implants, filter media, insulation
for wires and cables, gaskets, and sealants.
Gore-Tex is known for its protective rain wear.
The basic rain wear consists of two layers where
the outer layer is typically nylon or polyester
which provides strength.
The inner layer is polyurethane and provides
water resistance at the cost of breathability.
This membrane had around 9 billion pores per
square inch.

22. Due to their enabling character and the
unique properties of materials at nanoscale,
nanotechnologies are particularly suitable for
use in technical protective textiles.
These development streams gives rise to two
main classes of products:
1.Functional protective textiles
2.Smart/intelligent protective textiles.
Many particles were converted to nano size
and given as coating for the fabrics.

23. Packtech
35%
Oekotech
Geotech 0%
1%
Agrotech
1%
Protech
3%
Meditech
4%
Buildtech Clothtech
5% 17%
Sportech
7%
Mobiltech Hometech
7% 12%
Indutech
8%

24. Technical textile is the fastest growing segment in textiles in India
and it has generated a lot on investor interest in recent past.
The Indian Technical Textiles market has grown from Rs. 42,000
crores in 2007-08 to Rs. 57,000 crores in 2010-11
There are over 3000 units manufacturing technical textiles,
mostly in small scale sector.
 Though India is the second largest textile economy after China,
its contribution in the global technical textile industry is only 9%
to the total consumption.
There are several multinational large players in technical
textiles like Johnson & Johnson, Du Pont, Procter & Gamble, 3M,
SKAPs, Kimberly Clark, Ahlstorm, Maccaferri, Strata, and Terram
etc. who have set up their manufacturing facilities in India
Large textile houses like Arvind Limited and Welspun are now
focusing to develop strong technical textiles businesses.

25.  Setting up of Centres of Excellence:
Four Centres of Excellence (COEs) were setup, i.e., BTRA for COE
Geotech, SASMIRA for COE Agrotech, NITRA for COE Protech and
SITRA for COE Meditech,PSG TECH for indutech, DKTE,
Ichalkaranji, Maharashtra for Non –wovens, ATIRA for composites.
The COEs are working like one stop shop to provide infrastructure
support in terms of Facilities for testing with national and
international accreditation center, Development of Resource
Centre with infrastructure, Facilities for training, prototype
development etc.
The Protective textile market is respective to innovative new
products.
There is opportunity and need for functional, cost-effective
materials.
Due to increasing health and safety issues at work this may be an
increasingly attractive segment.