Re: flight suits

[Helodoc@aol.com]

In a message dated 28-Feb-03 23:48:38 Eastern Standard Time, debmilliner@hotmail.com writes:

> The point that everyone must remember is that Nomex only protects you in the case of flash fires and with a true blaze, there is little protection. Nomex was originally developed when military helicopters had problems with flash fires in the cockpit. Nomex must also be laundered correctly and hung to dry to preserve the Nomex fire retardant. When I came to my present program, they were wearing short sleeved Nomex at almost 1/3 the price of poly-cotton suits. I also wondered why suffer the extra expense and then wear short sleeves or roll them up. Seemed to be counterproductive. We now wear the poly-cotton and are very happy with them. I will tell you that there is no one "Wonder Flight Suit Company". They all have issues.

I'm not sure where you got your data.  Nomex is actually a thread, not a coating.  As long as the fibers are there, you have flame protection.  There is nothing special about laundering nomex. When exposed to flames nomex chars, unlike most synthetic fabrics, which tend to melt or catch fire.  The thickness of the cloth will determine how long nomex will protect you against flame.  It is certainly longer than a "flash fire."  If you want to learn about nomex, look at www.dupont.com/nomex  which has lots of good info on the properties of nomex.

I don't get any money from DuPont, but I've seen nomex work on firefighters.  I had a friend who died in a fire when a floor collapsed.  His SCBA melted, and he was cooked, but his nomex bunker gear just turned brown.  No burns where the nomex bunker gear was in place.

Dave Thomson