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| Lion Apparel’s Tri-Certified pants meet station, duty and wildland firefighting and technical rescue use criteria. |
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| Honeywell’s Ranger Combat Ready gear is custom tailored and lighter and lower in cost than traditional gear. |
Personal protective equipment (PPE) manufacturers are continuing to make strides in improving the performance and fit of firefighting gear.
Honeywell Safety Products of Dayton, Ohio, introduced its new Ranger Combat Ready Gear at the Fire Department Instructors Conference trade show in Indianapolis this spring. Honeywell’s new line is designed to be lightweight and protective, and it’s priced to be affordable for most fire departments.
“This is the kind of gear that’s light on a firefighter’s back and also light on the department’s budget,” said Tony Wyman, Honeywell’s vice president of marketing. “We designed Ranger Combat Ready Gear to be highly protective, yet light in weight and lower in cost than other gear.”
He said Honeywell developed the line by making “small design changes that reduced our labor costs, yet didn’t compromise the protection or performance offered by the gear.”
Ranger Combat Ready Gear is somewhat more form-fitting than traditional firefighting gear, Wyman noted. “That’s because each set is custom tailored for each individual firefighter, instead of being made as cookie-cutter gear. And we offer a wide variety of options so departments can custom design gear to their specific needs.”
Ranger Combat Ready Gear is available in a variety of outer shells, including Nomex IIIA, Kevlar and Nomex composite, and PBI (Polybenzimidazole)-Kevlar blends. All outer shells feature Shelltite water repellency.
The gear is offered with a variety of thermal liners and moisture barriers, depending on a department’s needs. Options are available regarding trim, reflective lettering, suspenders and belts, alternative reinforcement materials, pockets, clips and hooks.
Lion Apparel, also based in Dayton, Ohio, showed several new products for firefighters at FDIC, including the company’s Tri-Certified pants.
Three Use Criteria
Karen Lehtonen, director of Lion’s Protective Systems Group products, said the Tri-Certified pants meet three use criteria: station, duty and wildland firefighting/technical rescue. She said they are certified as meeting several National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards – the 1975 station standard, the 1977 wildland standard and the 1951 utility standard.
“They’re designed in a [battle dress uniform] style for crisp military looks and functionality,” Lehtonen said. “They come with semi-bellows cargo pockets and a hook-and-loop closure on each leg.”
The Tri-Certified pants also have rear welt pockets with flaps, side adjustors at the waist for a custom fit and a ratcheting zipper closure with one button at the waistband. They are available in 6-ounce Nomex IIIA plain weave fabric.
Lion also displayed a new fire-resistant crew T-shirt that Lehtonen called “Under Armour for firefighters.”
The new shirt is moisture wicking to help a firefighter stay dry, is flame resistant and has anti-microbial properties.
“We brought a great deal of sports technology into the fire service with this T-shirt,” she said.
Lion Apparel also offered a number of new options for reflective trim on its firefighting personal protective equipment.
Sperian Fire of Franklin, Pa., exhibited its Ultramotion line of turnout gear, a premium line of PPE engineered for “the ergonomics of motion,” according to Catalina Ciobanu, Sperian’s manager of marketing and brand design.
“We took elements from skiing and snowboarding suits and engineered those movement patterns into this line of firefighting gear,” she said. “The result is that we’ve reduced the weight and bulk of the gear while maximizing the comfort, mobility and protection.”
Ciobanu said that Sperian Fire designers analyzed human movement as a mechanical system and developed a framework to document the range of bodily movements most commonly used by firefighters.
Climbing, crawling, ventilating a roof or pulling hose are efforts that entail specific patterns of movement and muscle utilization, she said. By analyzing those movements, Sperian designers came up with a five-panel approach to the Ultramotion line, corresponding to five main areas of movement.
Thermal Enhancement
Ultramotion features include: an ergonomic shoulder and underarm design; integrated collar and storm flap T-closer; Sidewinder coat pockets; side adjustment pull tabs in Nomex webbing; bar-tack reinforced stress points; SteamGard wrist trim; low-rise front and hi-rise back pants; Kevlar-reinforced full bellows pockets on the pants; ergonomic legs; neoprene-lined anti-wicking pants bottoms; and oversized knee reinforcements.
Ultramotion also sports a Thermal Enhancement System that the company said dramatically increases the thermal protective performance with no significant impact on total heat loss, providing added protection without added bulk.
Options on the gear are available in wristlets, pockets, reinforcements, device pockets, suspenders, thermal enhancements, trim and lettering.
Globe Manufacturing of Pittsfield, N.H., showed Classix at FDIC, a new turnout gear line the company identified as “delivering Globe quality at a value price for today’s budget-constrained customer.”
Globe makes Classix available in a full range of material and option choices, as well as in a choice of regular or lo-rise pants.
The Classix jacket features a free-hanging throat tab, contoured collar and sleeves, underarm gussets, dual action cargo pockets and double sleeve wells.
The pants feature: a hook-and-loop fly with a hook-and-D closure and take-up straps; padded H-back; ripcord suspenders with horizontal loop attachment; diamond crotch gusset; and flex liner knees.
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