Development of high-performance protective equipment

Recently, Donghua University has achieved fruitful results through strong cross-disciplinary cooperation. The "Made Aramid" high-performance fiber and clothing institute's "combustion dummy" system developed by the School of Materials Science and Technology of Donghua University has successfully developed a high-performance thermal protection product that fills the domestic gap and has now become industrialized. Mass production.

Meta-aramid is an important high-performance fiber. The fiber itself has inherent flame-retardant properties, can withstand high temperatures of 220°C in a short time, and maintain the shape of the fabric without melting drops. It begins to decompose at nearly 400°C, and the formed carbonized layer can effectively block heat transfer. These "exceptional functions" can help escapers and firefighters get as much time as possible. It can be said that meta-aramid is an excellent material for thermal protective equipment materials. Fire-fighting clothing fabrics in the United States and other countries use such high-performance fibers even for sewing threads. However, due to the technological blockade and market monopoly of developed countries, meta-aramid aramid materials have been outside the country for many years.

How to make Chinese people use safer thermal protection products and how to fill in the gap in the industrialization of China's meta-aramid? To this end, the team of Professor Hu Zuming from the School of Materials Science and Technology of Donghua University has embarked on a path of independent innovation since its inception in the early 1990s. After nearly 20 years of hard work, it has not only developed a meta-aramid paper. As an electrical insulating material, it is widely used in aerospace, defense, and electronic communications. At the same time, its technical achievements have also been successfully applied to the field of fire. A fire suit made of meta-aramid cannot be burned in flames, leaving flames to extinguish, and their protective performance will not be affected even after hundreds of washes. The reporter learned that this achievement has effectively promoted the localization of meta-aramid fire fighting clothing and reached a leading international level in technology.

With high-performance fiber escort, protective equipment is once and for all? In Professor Hu Zuming's view, it is obviously not. “The research on high-performance protective equipment is actually an entire industry chain. It is necessary to study how to improve the performance of fabrics from the fiber level. We must also think about how to improve the structure from the perspective of clothing design, and we must establish science. A reasonable protective clothing detection system constantly finds the insufficiency of existing equipment and continues to improve it." What makes Professor Hu happy is that the combustion dummy system developed by his colleagues and Professor Li Jun of Donghua University’s Institute of Clothing is precisely used to test the overall thermal protection performance of clothing.

The “burning dummy” is a human body model in which a protective clothing is placed on a fire site to conduct a combustion test. As a substitute for the biological body, it collects the heat flow data of the skin surface under the clothing of the dummy and combines with the skin burn evaluation model to report the level of burn that the human skin may be subjected to, so as to scientifically and quantitatively evaluate the overall thermal protection performance of the tested clothing. In the "birthplace" of the burning dummy - the Laboratory of Combustion Environment Simulation of Donghua University Functional Protective Clothing Research Center, the reporter saw that during the experiment, the burning dummy wears a helmet, gloves and a full set of protective clothing. Under the force of the flamethrower, it was instantly surrounded by flames of up to 3 meters in height and kept in a running position in the sea of ​​fire. According to Professor Li Jun, this is China's first burning dummy. Compared with the burning dummy developed in other countries, this dummy simulates the Chinese male body shape design and has adjustable shoulder, neck, elbow and knee joint activities. Such unique features can simulate people's standing, sitting, running, crouching and many other actions and postures. “Rescue workers are moving in the fire, so the design is to get closer to the real environment of the fire rescue, but also to increase the performance of protective clothing. Targeted and effective." Professor Li Jun and the team members vividly called the dummy a "Donghua Fireman." "The 'Donghua Fireman' is the latest member of the clothing bionic dummy family developed by Donghua University. His elder brothers 'God Five Dummy' and 'God's Seven Dummies' used to test space suits in a simulated space environment. 'The first person' provided a valuable scientific basis for the engineering design of the space suits inside and outside the Shenzhou series cabin."

One is the front end of the industry chain, starting from the fiber-based level, the safety "source" of good high-performance protective equipment; one is the follow-up of the industrial chain, and provides basic data for improving high-performance protective equipment through scientific detection methods. At the scene of the experiment, Professors Hu Zuming and Li Jun both stated that there is much room for cooperation in the two disciplines in this field. “Cooperation is inevitable, and it can help many partners to achieve 'win-win'. Experimental data on burning dummy can be used to improve fiber. Performance provides a scientific basis, and material inspection results and data analysis can also make detection methods and methods more targeted, and promote research to a new level, Professor Li Jun and Professor Hu Zuming said.

Author: Asi ( "26472,32500,39557") Yang Wei Hua