Non-Destructive Assessment of Outer Shell Degradation for Firefighter Turnouts

Fire Protection Research Foundation report: Non-Destructive Assessment of Outer Shell Degradation for Firefighter Turnouts
Authors: R. Bryan Ormond, Ph.D., and William J. Gabler, Ph.D., Textile Protection and Comfort Center, North Carolina State University
Date of issue: October 2017

Report

Non-Destructive Assessment of Outer Shell Degradation for Firefighter Turnouts

The goal of this project was to determine whether Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) can be used as a non-destructive measurement technique to monitor the degradation of outer shell fabrics of firefighter turnouts. This summary describes the 1) Outer shell materials evaluated 2) Methods used to expose the samples and to test them, and 3) Results from the material-level testing.

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Current retirement criteria for firefighter protective clothing including outer shell materials establishes a maximum service life in NFPA 1851, Standard on Selection, Care, and Maintenance of Protective Ensembles for Structural Fire Fighting and Proximity Fire Fighting. However, this maximum service life does not compensate for amount of usage and exposure time, i.e., a major city fire department versus a rural fire department fire volume. A non-destructive method is needed to evaluate the outer shell integrity to determine when a garment is no longer protecting the wearer at peak efficiency.