Exclusive to Occupational Health & Safety/October 2000
8/2/00

Apparel Industry R&D Looks Far From Home
For Latest Performance Advances

By Beth Hohl
Development and Marketing Manager
Kimberly-Clark Protective Apparel
Alpharetta, Georgia

Next time you’re introduced to a new apparel product by a safety supply distributor or manufacturer, you may want to consider the research and product development efforts that went into its creation. Many characteristics apparel specifiers and wearers look for today (from improved particulate hold-out and liquid splash protection to breathability and other comfort factors) have come from development efforts that, at first glance, may seem to have little to do with protective apparel.

In fact, some of the latest advances in apparel technology have their roots in development efforts for products as diverse as baby diapers and medical device packaging.

The Search for Solutions
A recent market study of protective apparel users found that their most pressing needs include:

• • Controlling total systems costs, or the costs to acquire one product over another. This includes variables such as manufacturing costs, distribution costs and application costs.
  • Increasing the productivity of workers who wear protective apparel. Here, issues like the comfort and breathability of a garment come into play, as a comfortable worker is usually a more productive one.
  • Improving worker wellness and safety. Keeping the hazards of the work environment from affecting the health and safety of employees will always be a front-and-center need.

The smart apparel manufacturers focus their R&D efforts on meeting those needs. In addition to having user needs drive R&D, some large, multi-national companies have the benefit of being able to access the work of their companies’ "blue-sky" researchers, whose job is to dream up possible new products and present them to the company’s various business units.

Kimberly-Clark approaches its protective apparel R&D from its foundation in non-woven fabrics. As a company focused on an overall business strategy of "cleaning, caring for and protecting" its customers, the company has much invested in core competencies such as liquid control (for baby diapers and adult incontinence products) and absorption (for bath tissue, facial tissue and hand towels). In fact, the company invests an average of $250 million a year on research and development of non-woven material technology.

The company focuses its apparel R&D efforts on improving several key apparel characteristics:

• • Barrier — especially when dealing with fine particulates and liquid splash scenarios.
  • Wearer comfort — minimizing the effects of heat stress while maximizing fit to improve worker productivity.
  • Garment sizing and durability — providing a range of real-life sizes (to better meet wearer needs compared with ANSI sizing) and minimizing rip-outs.

Improving Particulate Hold-Out
One example of applying "outside" R&D to providing solutions for protective apparel wearers is Kimberly-Clark’s recent enhancement of its spunbond-meltblown-spunbond (SMS) based garments to improve hold-out of fine particulates like carbon black.

SMS fabrics have been well-known for their breathability attributes, however their hold-out of the finest dry particulates has been an area for improvement. SMS wearers clearly needed a higher level of protection, without sacrificing comfort. Therefore, the goal of the development effort was to find a way to impart particulate barrier without shutting down the breathability of the garment.

The solution was implemented by Kimberly-Clark’s Professional Health Care business, where the need existed to improve an already market-leading sterilization wrap for surgical instruments. The sterilization wrap product is designed to keep airborne particulates out, while allowing the moisture inherent in the sterilization process to escape and the instruments to dry. The solution? Researchers discovered a treatment, that when applied to the fabric, significantly improved filtration effectiveness for particles with an average diameter of 3.0 micrometers — a step-change over other SMS fabrics.

This treatment was applied to SMS fabrics for protective apparel, making the garments ideal for environments like tire manufacturing and other settings in which fine dusts are an issue, while maintaining the breathability that SMS fabrics are known for.

Splash-Resistant Breathability
The development of a splash-resistant, breathable microporous film-based general protection suit was another development that came from outside the protective apparel business. In this case, Kimberly-Clark’s Infant Care division was looking for an alternative to solid plastic for the outer cover of baby diapers.

The company’s R&D group developed a spunbond-covered microporous film to allow the diapers to feel more like fabric — an advance that opened the door for a breathable barrier in a protective suit. At the same time, the company’s Professional Health Care division was searching for a solution to the needs of surgeons to have comfortable surgical gowns that are impervious to bloodborne pathogens, as measured by ASTM1670 and ASTM1671 test methods. Traditional SMS fabrics would not meet the requirements of those rigorous test methods, so researchers began to explore a similar microporous film laminate technology being investigated by the diaper folks.

The result was the development of a unique three-layer laminate, with a microporous film interior layer and outer layers made of a copolymer of polypropylene and polyethylene. The microporous film inner layer allows heat and sweat vapor to escape, yet protects against sprays from many non-hazardous liquids and small particles. The tough outer layers protect the film barrier from tearing and abrasion. This construction resulted in a good combination of durable comfort and protection.

The new fabric structure proved to be ideal for surgical gowns as it kept the surgeon safe from bloodborne pathogens while remaining breathable and comfortable throughout hot, grueling medical procedures. It also proved to be ideal for a superior protection suit as its blood and bodily fluid resistance translate nicely into liquid under pressure barrier in industrial applications.

Better Comfort Through Design
Sometimes, apparel manufacturers need to look beyond fabric technology when considering how to engineer a step-change in performance. The situation is analogous to the luggage industry, which for years answered the customer’s cry for "lighter" luggage with lighter, thinner materials when the actual customer requirement for luggage was "make it easier to carry." Eventually, luggage manufacturers learned to think outside the box and began attaching wheels to its luggage products. And the customer need for luggage that was "easier to carry" was finally met.

A similar scenario occurred when Kimberly-Clark was faced with problems associated with rip-outs in protective coveralls. After researching the engineering limitations of fabric technology, the R&D team turned its attention to the design of the garment. The company completely re-vamped its apparel design by moving seams from the splash zone in the front of the garment to the back; making the cut of the garment more generous in the shoulders, seat and crotch; adding an elastic waist; providing more fabric in key stress areas for greater range of motion; and incorporating a concealed zipper with a minimum length of 28 inches. The result is a garment that is 7-1/2 times less likely to rip out than the typical ANSI standard design.

The Manufacturing Connection
The best R&D doesn’t happen in a vacuum. In fact, it’s crucial for the R&D process to take into account the manufacturability of the product as well as its performance and acceptance with end-users. Simply put, a product that is too costly to manufacture won’t provide the return the manufacturer needs to offer it to the market at a competitive price. To that end, R&D groups should work closely with the company’s mills and production facilities to understand the capabilities of production equipment.

A good understanding of the production capabilities will help researchers fine tune process variables during the trial runs that are necessary to achieve the product that will meet user needs. Once R&D has the product formulation that meets user needs, manufacturing trial runs are conducted to achieve both a product and a process that work. This principle extends from raw materials to master roll production to finished sewn garments. If this involves outside cut-and-sew facilities, R&D should work closely with them during qualification, establishing realistic manufacturing specifications and conduct follow-up testing to ensure compliance with specifications. At the end of the day, the company whose name is on the label is ultimately responsible for the garment meeting all specifications.

The Future of Apparel R&D
The face of protective apparel R&D will continue to be shaped by the regulations and industry specifications that drive the industry as a whole. Apparel users have the right to expect that these regulations and specifications will be guided by real user needs, as opposed to being constrained by today’s manufacturing capabilities. And, apparel users should be encouraged to participate in organizations such as ASTM, ISEA, and ISO.

Kimberly-Clark continues to look far afield for new developments to enhance protective apparel performance. From cleaner, drier baby bottoms to a safer, healthier, more productive workforce, research and development efforts will continue to push the envelope and bring more useful needed innovations to the industrial safety industry.