Evaluation of Thermal Properties of Certain Flame-Retardant Fabrics Modified with a Magnetron Sputtering Method

Abstract

The article presents the modification of flame-retardant fabric surfaces made of basalt, Nomex®, and cotton fabric to improve their selected thermal comfort properties. The modification consisted of depositing on the fabric surface by magnetron sputtering the metal (aluminum) and ceramic (zirconium (IV) oxide) coatings with a thickness of 1 μm and 5 μm. Flame-retardant fabrics have been chosen because of the desire to apply them to gloves intended for the use in hot-work environments. The article presents the results of testing reference samples and their modifications, which were subjected to the test of resistance to contact heat for contact temperatures of 100°C and 250°C, resistance to thermal radiation and examined their selected thermal comfort parameters, i.e., the thermal conductivity coefficient and heat absorption coefficient. Almost the 1st efficiency level for contact heat was reached for basalt fabric coated with zirconium (IV) oxide with a thickness of 5 μm. The 1st level of protection against heat radiation was obtained for all reference and modified samples. Based on the Kruskal–Wallis test, it was noticed that a significant change in parameter values is caused by the modification with 5 μm thick coating.

Keywords

• basalt fabric
• flame-retardant fabric
• magnetron sputtering
• thermal properties