Description:FORM 2
THE PATENT ACT, 1970
(39 OF 1970)
&
THE PATENTS RULES, 2003
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
(See section 10 and rule 13)
1. Title of the invention: “A PROTECTIVE GARMENT AND PROCESS OF MAKING THE SAME”
2. Applicant:
NAME NATIONALITY ADDRESS
Tarasafe International Pvt. Ltd. INDIAN Dutta Properties, Budge Trunk Road
Govindapur, Benepukur, Kolkata,
West Bengal, INDIA – 700140.
Email: shreedattalawconsultancy@gmail.com
Prahant@tarasafe.in
Mob. No. +91-9879740982
3. Preamble to the description
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION
The following specification particularly describes the invention and the manner in which it is to be performed:

Field of the Invention:
The present invention relates to multilayer protective garment and more particularly to a non-woven thermal liner layer of protective garment and a process of manufacturing the same. Furthermore, it relates to a thermal insulation fabric to be used in protective clothing for human protection from thermal hazards of flame and electrical arc.
Background of the Invention:
People working in hazardous environment need to wear personnel protective equipment to prevent accidents in hazards like fire electrical arc flash. Fire and arc protective fabrics/garments are designed to provide protection against heat, flame, electric arc and flash fire thus prevent burn injury to a wearer. An electric arc protective garment with the desired protection against hazard needs good thermal comfort and ergonomic. Arc protection clothing with higher protection level generally consists of two or more layers of fire-resistant textile materials. These different layers individually or collectively work together to provide protection to the wearer during a flash fire and electric arc incident.
Generally woven flame-resistant fabric are used in electrical arc protection clothing. Initially two layers of woven fabric were used in clothing for higher arc protection level. Subsequently keeping the weight, cost and thermal comfort of multi-layer clothing in mind, non-woven fabrics, quilted to a light weight fabric is used. The flame resistant non-woven layer provides air pockets, which help to achieve better thermal protection level. But it is important to ensure a balance between the thermal protection level and comfort or stress caused by the clothing to the wearer.
For comfort in a hot environment, garment weight and its breathability are important criterion while designing the protective garments. The cooling of human body, in hot environment, is achieved not by sweating but by the evaporation of sweat. Higher the rate of sweat evaporation, more comfortable the user will be. Rate of sweat evaporation is dependent on the humidity of the environment. In case of clothing this environment is between the user skin and the clothing inner layer.
As the sweat evaporates it turn into vapour form, so moisture vapour transmission rate of the clothing is important in determining the comfort of the clothing. The moisture vapor transmission rates are measured to determine the comfort perceived in the clothing by escaping sweat in the form of vapor. Few arc protective clothing use a waterproof breathable membrane, with high vapor transmission rate. But it needs to be understood that a multi-layered clothing result in lot of sweat generation in hot and non-conditioned climate. Such a volume of sweat is difficult to vaporize and due to that clothing and skin microclimate becomes very humid thus deteriorating the comfort of multilayer protective clothing. This can be solved by wicking away the sweat from the body and transfer the same to the exterior of clothing where the relatively low humidity level of the open environment will promote faster evaporation of sweat.
The multi-layered arc protection clothing comprising of:
a) an outer layer woven fabric made from high performance inherent flame-resistant fiber rich blend;
b) an inner layer of woven fabric made from high performance inherent flame-resistant fiber rich blend; and
c) a thermal liner made for high performance inherent flame-resistant fiber in the form of the non-woven, quilted to the inner layer and sandwiched between the outer and inner layer.
Some alternative and less popular option include use of heavy weight woven fabric in two or three layers.
The high-performance fibers used in preparation of different fabric layers have very low water absorption characteristic. The moisture regains of high-performance fibers ranges from 0 to 5% compared to that of cotton which has a moisture regain of more than 8%. Some flame-resistant fabric although being made from cotton, show a reduced level of absorbency after being treated with a flame-resistant finish. When performing a water drop absorption test, fabrics made from high performance fibers show a long absorption time. This behaviour hinders the phenomenon of quick sweat absorption and transport to outer layers in case of a multiple layer garment.
JP2013540915A discloses arc-resistant garment containing multilayer fabric laminate. The system consists of fabrics with high-performance flame-resistant fibers like modacrylic, aramid fiber, a polybibenzimidazole fiber, or a polybenzoazole fiber, or a blend of any of the fibers. The said first layer and second layer of the fabric is woven and used in different proportion of the fibre. Such fibers absorb moisture very slowly and are not good for quick sweat transmission for evaporation in the external environment. The said patent application silent about the sweat transmission rate. Thus, there is need of a garment with improve mechanism of sweat vapour from the multi-layered protective clothing which can be achieved by the present invention. The present invention provides multi-layered arc-flash protection clothing garment.
Object of the Invention:
The main objective of the present invention is to provide protective garment for protection against thermal hazards of flame and electrical arc.

Another objective of the present invention is to provide multi-layered protective garment with non-woven thermal liner fabric layer.

Yet another objective of the present invention is to provide non-woven thermal liner fabric layer with hydrophilic finish to help easy sweat transfer and improve comfort of garment/fabric.

Summary of the Invention:

The present invention relates to multilayer protective garment having a non-woven thermal liner layer in combination with thermal insulation fabric for human protection from thermal hazards of flame and electrical arc.
A hydrophilic finish on all the fabric layers is used in the arc flash protective clothing. The woven, knitted and the non-woven fabric used in the construction of the protective clothing are treated with a hydrophilic finish during the finishing state of the fabric. In certain cases, a combination of hydrophilic and soil release finish is applied to the fabrics used in the construction of protective clothing. The hydrophilic finish is durable in nature and will last for a minimum of 25 home laundry. The hydrophilic finish is preferably durable for at least 50 home laundry. The hydrophilic finish is also resistant to industry laundry process.

The main aspect of the present invention, a protective garment (100) comprising of:
a) inner layer (101) made from flame resistant fibre having weight of 50 to 300 GSM;
b) outer layer (103) made up from flame resistant fibres having a weight of 100 to 400 GSM; and
c) non-woven thermal liner layer (102) is placed between inner layer (101) and outer layer (103) made from flame resistant fibres having weight of 20 – 250 GSM; and
wherein the said layers of protective garment (100) are treated with hydrophilic finish that improves moisture absorption capability of garment. An absorption rate of more than 45 %/sec is achieved on the outer layer of the garment when the 3-layer fabric assembly is tested as per AATCC 195.

Another aspect of the present invention, said inner layer (101) and outer layer (103) is a flame-resistant fabric made from blend of not less than 70% by weight cellulosic fiber with thermoplastic fibers.
Another aspect of the present invention, the non-woven thermal liner layer (102) is made from 20 to 250 GSM flame resistant fibres. More specifically, made from 50 to 100 GSM flame resistant fibres layer.

Another aspect of the present invention, the non-woven thermal line layer (102) is made from needle punch non-woven technique with flame resistant fibers like m-aramid, p-aramid, flame resistant viscose, modacrylic, polyimide, glass, asbestos, carbon, polyphenylene benzobisoxazole, polybenzimidazole, fluorocarbons, polyphenylene sulfides, melamines and combination thereof. Further comprising of 5% of anti-static fibers.

Another aspect of the present invention, the non-woven thermal liner layer (102) is treated with hydrophilic finish by padding process or spraying process. A pickup of 50–90 % is maintained during padding of non-woven thermal liner layer (102) in 30 – 70 GPL bath of polyethylene glycol as hydrophilic polymer along with binding agent at a bath temperature 20 °C followed by drying at 110–130 °C.

Brief Description of drawings:

The various aspects, features, and advantages of the embodiment of the present invention, hereinafter more particularly described, will be more apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the drawings, in which:
Figure 1 shows an enlarged view of protective garment.
Throughout the drawings, it should be noted that like reference numbers depict the same or similar elements, features, and structures.
100 Protective garment
101 Inner layer
102 Non-woven thermal liner layer
103 Outer layer
Detailed Description of the Invention:
The following description with reference to the accompanying drawings is provided to assist in a comprehensive understanding of exemplary embodiments of the invention as defined by the claims and their equivalents. It includes various specific details to assist in that understanding but these are to be regarded as merely exemplary. Accordingly, those of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that various changes and modifications of the embodiments described herein can be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. In addition, descriptions of well-known functions and constructions are omitted for clarity and conciseness.
Figure discussed below, and the various embodiments used to describe the principles of the present disclosure in this patent document are by way of illustration only and should not be construed in any way that would limit the scope of the disclosure. Those skilled in the art will understand that the principles of the present disclosure may be implemented in any suitably arranged environment. The terms used to describe various embodiments are exemplary. It should be understood that these are provided to merely aid the understanding of the description, and that their use and definitions in no way limit the scope of the invention. Terms first, second, and the like are used to differentiate between objects having the same terminology and are in no way intended to represent a chronological order, unless where explicitly stated otherwise.
The main embodiment of the present invention, the multilayer protective garment (100) comprising at least two layers of fabric i.e., inner layer (101) and outer layer (103). The non-woven thermal liner layer (102) is placed between the inner layer (101) and outer layer (103) wherein the said thermal liner layer (102) of protective garment (100) is treated with hydrophilic finish to achieve an absorption time of less than 10 seconds and an absorption rate of the outer layer (103) to be greater than 45 %/sec in a multi-layer configuration.
Another embodiment of the present invention, the inner layer (101) and outer layer (103) is treated with hydrophilic finish.
Another embodiment of the present invention, the outer layer (103) has a soil release finish.
Another embodiment of the present invention, the inner layer (101) and outer layer (103) is made up of woven and/or knitted fabric. The fabric is made up from the flame-resistant fibres and its blends. The said fabric has weight ranges from 50 to 400 GSM. Another embodiment of the present invention, outer (103) and inner layer (101) is a flame-resistant fabric made of a blend of cellulosic fiber. In an exemplary of present invention, a blend of cotton, hemp, viscose, rayon, and modal fiber wherein the percentage weight of one of the fibers presents in the blend is not less than 60 %. Examples of such blends are Cotton: Hemp blend in a ratio of 60:40; Cotton: Modal blend in a ratio of 80:20. The fabric are subsequently treated with a flame-resistant finish.
Another embodiment of the present invention, outer (103) and first inner layer (101) is a flame-resistant fabric made from blend of cellulosic fiber with thermoplastic fibers wherein the percentage of cellulosic fiber is not less than 70% by weight. The thermoplastic fibers include but are not limited to polyester, polypropylene, and polyamide. An example of such a blend is Cotton: Nylon in a blend ratio of 88:12; Cotton: Polyester in a blend ratio of 75:25. The fabric are subsequently treated with a flame-resistant finish.
Another embodiment of the present invention, outer (103) and first inner layer (101) is a flame-resistant fabric made from blends of inherent flame-resistant fibers. These inherent flame-resistant fibers include but are not limited to m-aramid, p-aramid, flame resistant (FR) viscose, modacrylic, polyimide, glass, asbestos, carbon, polyphenylene benzobisoxazole, polybenzimidazole, fluorocarbons, polyphenylene sulfides, melamines. An example of such a blend is 93% m-aramid, 5% p-aramid and 2% antistatic fiber. The inner layer (101) and outer layer (103) is a flame-resistant fabric made from cellulosic fiber like cotton, rayon, modal, bamboo, jute, viscose, hemp, linen; thermoplastic fibers like polyester, nylon; inherent flame retardant fibers like meta-aramids, para-aramids, inherent fire-retardant viscose, modacrylic, acrylonitrile, asbestos, carbon, polyphenylene benzobisoxazole, polybenzimidazole, fluorocarbons, polyphenylene sulfides, melamines, polyimide and / or combination thereof.
Another embodiment of the present invention, the middle layer is non-woven thermal liner layer (102). The non-woven thermal liner layer made up from the flame-resistant fibres like m-aramid, p-aramid, flame resistant (FR) viscose, modacrylic, polyimide, glass, asbestos, carbon, polyphenylene benzobisoxazole, polybenzimidazole, fluorocarbons, polyphenylene sulfides, melamines and combination thereof. The said layer has weight ranges from 20 to 250 GSM, more particularly in the range 50 to 100 GSM. It is made from flame resistant fibres like m-aramid, p-aramid, flame resistant viscose, modacrylic, polyimide, glass, asbestos, carbon, polyphenylene benzobisoxazole, polybenzimidazole, fluorocarbons, polyphenylene sulfides, melamines and combination thereof. Further comprising of 5% of anti-static fibers.
Another embodiment of the present invention, the non-woven thermal liner layer (102) is treated with hydrophilic finish. The hydrophilic finish is applied by padding process or spraying process. The hydrophilic polymer such as polyethylene glycol with a suitable binding agent is used. Aqueous bath with 30 – 70 GPL hydrophilic polymer is used. The padded non-woven thermal liner layer (102) with a pickup of 50–90 % is obtained at a l temperature approx. 20 °C followed by Drying at 110–130 °C.
Another embodiment of the present invention, the hydrophilic finish is durable for more than 50 home laundry as well as for industrial washing. The hydrophilic finish helps to improve the absorbency rate of the non-woven thermal liner layer (102). The absorbency rate is tested with AATCC 79 method. Absorption rate of the non-woven thermal liner treated with hydrophilic finish is less than or equal to 3sec.
Another embodiment of the present invention, the protective garment (100) consists of multiple fabric layers which are treated with hydrophilic finish to improves the moisture absorption capability of garment. The outer layer of protective garment (100) provides absorbency rate greater than 45 %/sec when tested with AATCC 195.
Another embodiment of the present invention, all the fabric layers in two- or three-layer arc flash garment are treated with a hydrophilic finish to improve its absorption time or individual fabric layers to less than 10 seconds, preferably less than 6 seconds, more preferably less than or equal to 3 seconds as per AATCC 79.

Another embodiment of the present invention, the non-woven thermal liner layer (102) is treated with hydrophilic finish by padding process or spraying process. The concentration of hydrophilic finish is 30 to 70 GPL.
The present invention relates to protective garment (100) which comprising at least two layers of fabric i.e., inner layer (101) and outer layer (103). The non-woven thermal liner layer (102) is placed between the inner layer (101) and outer layer (103).
The inner layer (101) and outer layer (103) is made up of woven and/or knitted fabric. The fabric is made up from the flame-resistant fibres and its blends. The said fabric has weight ranges from 50 to 400 GSM. The inner layer (101) and outer layer (103) is treated with hydrophilic finish. The outer layer of protective garment (100) is optionally treated with soil release finish.

The middle layer is non-woven thermal liner layer (102). The non-woven thermal liner layer made up from the flame-resistant fibres. The said layer has weight ranges from 20 to 250 GSM, more particularly in the range 50 to 100 GSM. The non-woven thermal liner layer (102) is made up from flame resistant fibers like m-aramid, p-aramid, flame resistant (FR) viscose, modacrylic, polyimide, glass, asbestos, carbon, polyphenylene benzobisoxazole, polybenzimidazole, fluorocarbons, polyphenylene sulfides, melamines and combination thereof.
The fabric layers used in protective garment (100) are treated with hydrophilic finish which improves the moisture absorption capability of garment.
The thermal liner consisting of a non-woven fabric is treated with a durable hydrophilic finish to improve the absorbency of the thermal liner fabric. The hydrophilic finish is a commercially available finish such as UltraPhil® from Huntsman, FERAN® ICA form Rudolph group.
The fabric can be made from a suitable non-woven fabric making technology and has a weight in the range of 20 to 250 GSM, more particularly in the range 50 to 100 GSM. Examples of suitable non-woven fabric making techniques include but are not limited to needle punching, hydro entanglement, stich bonding and chemical bonding.
The non-woven fabric may contain up to 5% of anti-static fibers. Although in most situation it may not be needed as the hydrophilic finish will prevent generation of static charges.
The hydrophilic finish is applied to the thermal liner by padding process and subsequently squeezing to remove the excess solution, followed by drying and curing. Optionally the hydrophilic finish can be applied by spraying process followed by drying and curing.
The hydrophilic finish is durable and is effective to at least 10 home laundry, preferable to at least 30 home laundry cycle, and more preferably effective to at least 50 home laundry cycle. The hydrophilic finish is also durable to industrial laundry cycles. Hydrophilic finish is applied in an aqueous solution, preferably in water and a concentration of at least 30 GPL (gram per litre), preferably as least 50 GPL and more preferably at least 70 GPL is used.
After application of hydrophilic finish, the absorbency of the non-woven fabric is improved and as per AATCC 79. The time to absorption is less than 10 seconds, preferably less than 6 seconds, more preferably less than or equal to 3 seconds.
In exemplary of the present invention, the non-woven thermal liner layer (102) is made up from the 50% m-aramid, 50% flame resistant viscose and having weight ranges from 20 to 250 GSM. More effectively, the weight of the non-woven thermal liner layer ranges from 50 to 100 GSM. The non-woven thermal liner layer (102) is obtained from non-woven technique includes but not limited to needle punching, hydro entanglement, stich bonding and chemical bonding. In an aspect of the present invention, needle punch non-woven technique is used.
High-performance flame-resistant fibers as well as cotton fabrics treated with flame resistant finish show poor water absorption behaviour. Table 1 shows composition of commercially available clothing solution A as well as B.
Table 1: Composition of clothing solution A and clothing solution B
Layers Clothing Option A Clothing Option B
Outer layer Woven (200 GSM)
Modacrylic Aramid blend Woven (180 GSM)
P-Aramid and OPAN blend
Middle layer Non-woven (80 GSM)
P-aramid blend Non-woven (90 GSM)
P-aramid, M-aramid, Melamine blend
Inner layer Woven (180 GSM) Viscose Aramid blend Woven (110 GSM)
M-Aramid, P-aramid Blend

The water absorption test was performed on fabrics used on the commercial arc flash product (A & B) for 40 cal/cm2 or higher protection level. This test is performed as per AATCC 79, where in one drop of water is dropped on the fabric from a height of 9.5 mm and the time required (seconds) for absorption is noted. The lower the time, better the absorption.
Form table 2, it is observed that both the commercially available products have poor water absorption characteristic.
In case of Clothing solution, A, the inner and outer layer of fabric has good water absorption performance, the thermal liner is almost non-absorbent and the test was abandoned after 180 seconds.
In case of Clothing solution B, all the layers are having low absorbency and specially the inner layer, which is non-absorbent and test was abandoned after 180 seconds.
Table 2: Water absorption characteristics of clothing solution A and clothing solution B
Clothing Solution A Clothing Solution B
Fabric Layer Absorption Time (sec) Fabric Layer Absorption Time (sec)
Inner layer (woven) 7 Inner Layer (woven) >180
Thermal liner (non-woven) >180 Thermal liner (non-woven) 130
Outer Layer (woven) 13 Outer Layer (woven) 80

Result shows that existing multi-layered clothing solution are not suitable for transfer of sweat from the skin to outer layer of clothing. The only mechanism then remains is the removal of sweat in vapor form, which will be minimal due to high humidity.
To improve the transfer of sweat from skin to outer layer a hydrophilic finish is used. The composition of clothing solution A is similar as referred earlier. The thermal liner layer of the clothing solution A is treated with a hydrophilic finish to achieve a time to absorption of 3 seconds. The multilayer fabric assembly with treated and untreated thermal liner is tested as per a custom test setup and compared. To validate the improvement in sweat transmission performance of the present invention, a custom test setup is designed. The test method is known as sweat pass-through test. The fabric assembly consisting of multiple fabric layers used in the clothing is kept flat on a transparent surface, preferably glass. The inner most layer is kept on the top while the outermost layer is facing the glass. A burette is filled with a 0.9% NaCl solution in water. The burette is configured to maintain a constant flow rate of 2 to 3 ml per second. The tip of the burette is place 10 mm away from the inner layer of the fabric. The burette flow is opened, and time and volume of solution needed to pass through to other side is recorded. The test is stopped as soon as the presence of liquid is visually seen on the outer layer of the fabric, through the glass. Results of the experiment are shown in the table 3.
After application of hydrophilic finish on thermal liner, the passthrough time is reduce by 35% and the pass-through volume is reduced by 56% as shown in table 3 which indicates the significant improvement as compared to without thermal liner layer.
The passthrough time indicates time needed for liquid to pass through from inner layer to outer layer. The passthrough volume indicates the volume of liquid required to pass through from inner to outer layer.
Table 3: Sweat transmission performance of clothing solution materials
Assembly Pass through time (seconds) Sweat volume for pass through (ml) Before test weight (g) After test weight (g)
Clothing Solution A original 65 3.2 4.82 8.05
Clothing solution A with hydrophilic treated thermal liner 42 1.4 4.92 6.46

Further a moisture management test as per AATCC 195 was performed on the clothing solution A in original state and with a hydrophilic thermal liner of the present invention.
Comparative result of the test is shown in table 4 as below. The OMMC (overall moisture absorption capability) rating of the clothing solution A with a hydrophilic thermal liner is improved to grade 4 as compared to grade 3 for the original intreated clothing solution A.
Wetting time of the outer layer is reduced from 114.2 second to 8.86 seconds. Similarly rate of absorption increased from 5.11 %/sec to 47.02 %/sec. This indicates that the garment of the disclosed invention can remove more sweat and faster from user skin to outer clothing layer. Thus, there is a significant improvement in the overall moisture management of newly developed clothing layer system, having a hydrophilic thermal liner.
Table 4: Comparative result of the overall moisture management test
Sr. No. Parameter (AATCC 195) Clothing Solution A Clothing Solution A with hydrophilic thermal liner % Improvement

1 Wetting time outer layer (sec)
(Lower is better) 114.2 8.86 92%
2 Absorption Rate outer layer (%/sec) (higher is better) 5.11 47.02 820 %
3 Max wetting radius outer layer (mm) (higher is better) 6.25 11.67 86%
4 Spreading Speed outer layer (mm/sec) (higher is better) 0.44 1.51 243%
5 Overall moisture absorption capability (higher is better) 0.52 0.62 19% , Claims:We claim,
1. A multilayer protective garment (100) comprising of:
a) inner layer (101) made from flame resistant fibre having weight of 50 to 300 GSM;
b) outer layer (103) made up from flame resistant fibres having a weight of 100 to 400 GSM; and
c) non-woven thermal liner layer (102) is placed between inner layer (101) and outer layer (103) made from flame resistant fibres having weight of 20 to 250 GSM; and
wherein the said thermal liner layer (102) of protective garment (100) is treated with hydrophilic finish to achieve an absorption time of less than 10 seconds and an absorption rate of the outer layer (103) to be greater than 45 %/sec in a multi-layer configuration.

2. The multilayer protective garment (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein said inner layer (101) and outer layer (103) is a flame-resistant fabric made from cellulosic fiber like cotton, rayon, modal, bamboo, jute, viscose, hemp, linen; thermoplastic fibers like polyester, nylon; inherent flame retardant fibers like meta-aramids, para-aramids, inherent fire-retardant viscose, modacrylic, acrylonitrile, asbestos, carbon, polyphenylene benzobisoxazole, polybenzimidazole, fluorocarbons, polyphenylene sulfides, melamines, polyimide and / or combination thereof.

3. The multilayer protective garment (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein non-woven thermal line layer (102) is made from flame resistant fibres like m-aramid, p-aramid, flame resistant viscose, modacrylic, polyimide, glass, asbestos, carbon, polyphenylene benzobisoxazole, polybenzimidazole, fluorocarbons, polyphenylene sulfides, melamines and combination thereof.

4. The multilayer protective garment (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein non-woven thermal line layer (102) further comprising of 5% of anti-static fibers.

5. The multilayer protective garment (100) as claimed in claim 1, wherein the non-woven thermal liner layer (102) is treated with hydrophilic finish by padding process or spraying process.

6. The multilayer protective garment (100) as claimed in claim 5, wherein the concentration of hydrophilic finish is 30 to 70 GPL.

7. The multilayer protective garment (100) as claimed in claim 5, wherein the inner and outer layer fabric is treated with a hydrophilic finish.

Dated 19th Sep, 2022

Chothani Pritibahen Bipinbhai
Reg. No.: IN/PA-3148
For and on behalf of the applicant