Evaluation Of Thermal Protection Performance And Ergonomics Of Firefighting Gloves

Firefighters frequently performed hand movements such as resisting or pushing and pulling while performing rescue and disaster relief tasks.As a kind of important protective equipment,the performance of firefighting gloves determined the working state of firefighters in the fire field.Affected by the fire and the thermal protection performance of gloves,the skin temperature of human hands also changed constantly,which could easily cause burns and heat accumulation,and hinder the rescue activities.Because fire gloves were thicker and larger,with the longer working time of firefighters wearing gloves,the number of hand activities increased,and the problem of increased hand fatigue and decreased flexibility was likely to occur.It could be seen that appropriate firefighter gloves can not only play a full protective role,but also improve work efficiency,delay the generation of fatigue,and increase the emergency response time.Therefore,firefighting gloves should not only have excellent protective performance,but also maintain good ergonomics.Firefighter gloves were usually made up of 4 layers: flame retardant outer layer,waterproof layer,heat insulation layer and comfortable layer.In this paper,5 kinds of outer layer,4 kinds of waterproof layer,6 kinds of heat insulation layer and 2 kinds of comfort layer fabrics were selected to test their structural parameters and wearability.The quantitative relationship between the thermal protection of fabrics and structural parameters and wearability was analyzed by linear regression.3 fabrics with better performance in each layer were selected for 3 factors and 3 levels of orthogonal experiment,and the thermal protection of the 9 fabrics combinations obtained was tested for TPP.The influence of single-layer fabric on the TPP value of multi-layer fabric was explored by range analysis.Secondly,9 kinds of fabrics obtained from the orthogonal experiment were selected to make 9 kinds of gloves.The gloves' fabric combination with the best thermal protective performance was selected to design and make gloves of different structures and sizes.The thermal protective performance of 9kinds of firefighting gloves was tested by flame hand system,and the regression equation was established to analyze the influence of performance Indicators on the thermal protective performance of gloves.9 kinds of firefighting gloves were evaluated comprehensively by multi-attribute decision making method,and the fabric combination gloves with the best comprehensive performance were obtained.The influence of different structure and size on the thermal protective performance of gloves was tested and analyzed.To select the optimal combination of fabric,according to the project team research achievement and state of hand shape standard requirements,with national firefighter gloves size for reference,3 kinds of shape,the production of different specifications of the comprehensive performance of the optimal firefighter gloves,and choose different height range of the tester for efficiency evaluation,the effects of size of efficiency,the quantitative relationship between glove ergonomics and glove size or other influencing factors was analyzed by linear regression.The results were as follows: 1)The best TPP value of multilayer fabric was Z8(double fabric,PTFE,preoxidated felt,Nomex/visco).The variation of outer fabric types had significant influence on the thermal protection of multilayer fabric combination.The regression models of TPP value of outer fabric and air permeability,cutting resistance and tearing strength were established respectively.Among the 9 kinds of gloves,the gloves with the best thermal protection were Z3(Nomex/Kevlar,PTFE,preoxidated felt,Nomex/visco),and the gloves with the best comprehensive performance were Z4(Nomex/Kevlar,TPU,polysulfonamide felt,Nomex/visco).2)The regression model of gloves thermal protection value and average heat flux,average heating rate,mass loss rate and average heat shrinkage rate was established.The average heat flux,mass loss rate and average heat shrinkage rate had significant effects on the thermal protection ability of gloves.The change of size and structure had certain significant effect on the thermal protection of flame hand,and there was significant difference between TPP test results and flame hand test results on the thermal protection of firefighter gloves.3)The regression models of gripping performance and glove size,naked hand pull gravity,and fatigue time and glove size and fatigue grade were established respectively.The firefighters of 160-170 cm height range were suitable for L size firefighter gloves,while the firefighters of 170 cm height and above were suitable for XL size firefighter gloves.In this paper,the comprehensive performance of firefighter gloves and its influencing factors were explored from 4 aspects: the performance of outer fabric,the performance of multi-layer fabric,the thermal protective performance of gloves and the ergonomics of gloves.The research results could provide a basis for the development of new firefighter gloves in the future.