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Home > Featured Stories > Innovation and Discovery > July 2008 > Putting Protection to the TestOne-of-a-Kind Lab Puts Protection to the Test
This facility compliments all of the research we engage in and will accelerate the development process for new types of protective gear.
Dr. Roger Barker, director of TPACC
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By Chad Austin, News Services
NC State has already helped make a firefighter suit that’s more resistant to fire and heat, as well as chemical and biological threats. Now researchers at the College of Textiles have a facility that will help them test and improve protective garments against those potentially threatening agents.
The new Man-in-Simulant Test (MIST) laboratory will allow researchers at the college to evaluate the capabilities of protective garments against non-toxic vapors that resemble chemical and biological agents in the same way those garments would be used by a first responder.
The facility is the only one of its kind located at a university in the United States and is the next step in the evolution of the university's Textile Protection and Comfort Center (TPACC).
"The new MIST lab will be integrated into our existing garment testing facilities and increases our ability to provide accurate studies of protective gear in a more timely manner," says Dr. Roger Barker, director of TPACC. "This facility complements all of the research we engage in and will accelerate the development process for new types of protective gear."
Funded by a $2 million Department of Defense grant secured by U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge, the facility allows protective garments to be tested in a functional manner. In the main testing chamber, researchers can test the penetration of chemical vapors through protective clothing on mannequins and human subjects.
During testing, subjects can perform the same tasks as a first responder, such as climbing a ladder, crawling or carrying a victim to safety, in an environment that can be controlled for temperature, wind speed and vapor concentration.
Subjects will wear adhesive pads underneath their clothing, which will be analyzed to determine vapor penetration levels through the fabric and at seams and closures of the garment. The MIST lab also gives researchers the necessary technological advances to provide test results and analysis faster than similar facilities.
The MIST project started in the mind of Barker while developing a prototype of new firefighter turnout gear, which offered increased protection against heat and chemical and biological agents while also improving comfort and durability. While searching for a facility to test the suit, Barker and his colleagues saw a need for a readily accessible lab and developed a proposal for the MIST facility.
During the past decade, projects conducted by TPACC researchers has led to many advances in protective garments, including improved fire- and heat-resistant fabrics for firefighters; surgical gowns that provide doctors and nurses with greater protection against infection from blood and other biological agents; and outerwear that helps safeguard HAZMAT workers from dangerous chemical agents.
The new MIST lab will build upon those advances and give researchers a more comprehensive array of garment-testing capabilities.
"This facility doesn't exist in a vacuum," Barker says. "Part of its impact is that it now exists with all the other facilities that we have to test garments. It's complementary to all of the research projects that we engage in here at TPACC."
