A number of products are manufactured and supplied by various manufacturers to offer protection from hazardous particulates as well as liquid and gaseous substances. The chemical protective clothing includes gloves, boots, face mask, aprons and also highly sophisticated system enable encapsulated suit.

Clean Room Textiles (CRT)

In case of CRT where the environment is protected from the wearer for clothing carrier a good amount of dust, ions, hair, tobacco smoke and it is said that the human body sheds 1 billion skin cells every day. The clean room textiles should be lint free, antistatic and should retard human contamination of textiles. Institute of environmental services recommends different types of garments for clean room. Woven, non woven and laminate fabrics are used for clean room.

The main properties of the fabrics require optimum filtration efficiency, moisture vapour transmission rate, static decay property and Flame retardance. The typical air permeability range is 1 to 45 cfm and typical filtration efficiency varies from 50-60% for particles measuring 0.3 to 0.5 microns. Conductive yarns such as carbon, nickel or aluminum can be woven in the clean room fabrics. The chemical protection ability and the flame retardency are added requirements during fabrication of clean room garment.

Protection from Radiation

People working in radioactive environment require such kind of outfits so that the transfer of radioactive materials to the human skin is prevented. Radiation protection is necessary for employees of nuclear plant, x-ray professionals and the workers working in cancer treatment centres. Nuclear protection fabrics are made of cotton, polyester cotton, nylon polyester. One of the techniques for use of protection from gamma, beta emissions from an artificial material is by shielding the same using lead (Pb) metal barrier between the radioactive dirt. Protective clothing from radiation include head cover, gloves, shoe covers, etc.

Protection from Extreme Cold

These insulating materials offer protection while playing the wonderful games under the extreme cold conditions. The material with fine denier yarn offers better insulation as compared to that of the coarser denier.

High Visibility Materials

HVMs have become very essential for the protection of pedestrians. Accidents in us 110ne in the night due to the vehicles, result in the death of more than 4,000 pedestrians and injury of more than 30,000 annually. In the dark, HVM clothes increase the detectability and application of such high visibility material (HVM) has resulted in 40% decline was observed in such road accidents. There are 3 main type of HVM:

1)       Reflection materials which shine when struck by light,

2)       Photo luminescent material which give yellow light in dark

3)       Fluorescent material which is visible during the day.

Textile substrates of these kinds are used in personnel safety products. Fabrics covered with reflective micro prison sheeting offer high visibility for personnel safety. They are used by pedestrians, cyclists, joggers, police etc. Personnel's working in airlines, law enforcement and medical field also make use of reflective materials. Photoluminiscent materials absorb the daylight or artificial light and emit green- yellow light in the darkness. Zincsulphide crystals which are non radioactive and non toxic pigments provide the visibility in the dark.

Nanotechnology Applications

The application of nano technology in the field of textiles and apparels is gaining increasing importance. Nanotechnology is defined as the utilization of structures with at least 1 dimension of nano size for the construction of material with improved properties owing to such a small size. Commonly, the products in the range of 1100 nano meters are considered to be nano particles. It has been proved beyond doubts that permanent effect with improved performance properties even after repeated laundering are possible in case of textile goods manufacturer using nano technology.

Nano particles have high surface area to volume ratio and thus present increased affinity for fabric which leads to improved durability. Some of the finishes based on nano particles are found to maintain the breathability and soft hand. A US based Berlinton industry first reported the nano technology application under the trade name Nano-text. The nano materials can be applied to textile by coating using various other ingredients and by varying the technology of coating. Out of the many possible applications in textile, some of the most successful one are water repellence, soil resistance, UV protection, anti bacterial and anti static finishes and as well as wrinkle resistance.