VIDEO: Fabric Breakdown–Do You Know the Difference in PPE Fabrics?

Good day. One of the challenges safety professionals have is trying to figure out what is the correct level of protection putting people in for the hazards they're working with. And the most confusing area that we run into that is white suits. And there's a perception if it's a white suit it's Tyvek®. The reality is there's a number of different fabric technologies that are used to make garments. They all happen to be white but they all have very different properties.

What we're going to do in this video is briefly talk about the different fabric technologies used and what they do. So at the very beginning, we're going to start with something called SMS. SMS stands for spunbond meltblown spunbond. Spunbond material is basically your spunbond polypropylene material is basically what a hair net is made from. So the way this particular material is made is there's two layers of spunbond material and a melt blown layer in between. So think of it as a polypropylene sandwich where that inner layer provides some degree of filtration. The benefits of this material is it's very low cost and it's highly breathable. It's a very open structure. However, the problem with it is that it's not really PPE. Because it is so breathable it's not going to keep hazardous materials out. This is a great fabric for dirty jobs, keep clean type applications, but it's not going to be appropriate if you're dealing with a hazardous particle-type situation.

Next up we've got something that's referred to as microporous film. So basically we take polypropylene substrate and now what we do is we laminate a layer of plastic material to the surface of it. Very difficult to see on the video but the photo micrograph shows that extremely thin layer of plastic that's laminated to the surface. If you could touch and feel this there's a very plastic feel to the surface of it. This material actually does provide some decent protection. Good news and bad news on it. The good news is when this material is brand new it's going to be pretty much impervious to particles–liquid depends on what the liquid is, light liquid splash is going to be great for–but the problem with this material, there's two different challenges with it. Number one, because it's a plastic suit it's pretty uncomfortable to wear. You get very hot very quick in the material. Also, the barrier performance of this is just provided by that thin layer of plastic. It's extremely easy to damage that. That area where I scratched with my fingernail is now a breach in the protective layer on that fabric.

At the top of the portfolio is Tyvek. Tyvek is made from 100 percent high-density polyethylene and the best analogy I can give you on how this material is made which is what gives its great properties is think about cotton candy. Basically when Tyvek has made a thick mat of randomly sprayed down fibers of high-density polyethylene are made and then that particular material is squeezed together with heat and pressure and it produces Tyvek. Tyvek has some unique properties. Number one, it is a breathable material, it's air permeable. Next, anyone who's tried to rip open a Tyvek Federal Express envelope realizes it’s very tough material so it makes a very durable garment and because it's such a tangled mess of fibers, it provides incredible hold out for particles. It's a very, very difficult path for a particle to try and find its way through the material. Another thing that people don't often think about when we're talking about worker comfort, it's also the thinnest and the lightest weight of all these materials so we believe it gives you the best balance of comfort, durability and protection of all the different zone protection fabrics. Once again, DuPont provides garments made of all these different fabric technologies.  If you want more information please visit www.safespec.dupont.com.