Ansell Protective Solutions

About Materials & Manufacturing

 About Materials & Manufacturing

Content:

• Chemical resistance

• Polymer materials
• Rubber
• Plastic
• Textile

• Designing chemical protective garment materials

• Manufacturing coated fabrics

2
Chemical resistance – what does it mean?

Chemical resistance = penetration + permeation+ degradation

Penetration:
Permeation:
Drops of liquid
Molecules diffusing
chemicals coming
through a material.
through a material

Degradation:
Chemical attack
of a material
* Typically woven materials,
non-coated materials.

3
Penetration – Liquid going through pores/holes

Penetration is typically
occuring in porus materials
such as woven, trikot or non-
woven textiles.

Cross section:
Porus material Liquid chemical

Pores / holes

4
Permeation – Molecules diffusing through a material

Permeation is typically
occuring in coated materials
i.e. liquid or gastight materials.

Important!
There are no holes in these
materials but the molecules
finds their way through the
material by diffusion - a very
slow process in a chemically
resistant material!

5
 Degradation – Chemical damage

Degradation is a chemical reaction between chemical and suit material which is irreversible
i.e. it cannot be repaired.

Degradation can be detected by changes in the material properties (feeling, appearance) like
for example:
1. Stiffness, hardness, brittleness
2. Swelling, stickiness, “sponginess”
3. Any of 1 or 2 in combination with a colour change.

WARNING! Take the suit out of service and replace it.

NOTE: Degradation also includes natural aging of a material, for example ozon cracks.

6
 Polymers

The material group of polymers includes both natural and synthetic* materials:

Natural Synthetic
•Latex from the rubber tree •Chloroprene rubber
•Proteins like the DNA •Viton rubber
•Cellulose •Nylon plastic or fibre
•Wollen •Teflon plastic

* I.e. ”man made”

7
 Polymers

Polymers can divided into different groups depending on properties, for example:

Very high elasticity Elastomers / Rubber

TPE (thermoplastic elastomers)

Plastics
- thermoplastics
Low or no elasticity - thermosets

8
 Properties of polymers

Property scale

Butyl rubber Chloroprene rubber Viton rubber

Polyethylene Nitrile rubber Teflon
PVC

Good against for example: Good against for example:

- acids - strong acids
- alkalies - alkalies
- ketones - chlorinated hydrocarbons
- esters - aromatic oils & petrol
Extremely gastight (specially Butyl) - mineral oils
Flame retardant
Very gastight

9
 Polymers

Polymer is greek and means ”many parts” – ”poly – mer”

A polymer is built up from many parts, just like a necklace:

”mers” polymer

Chemical reaction

The properties of the different ”mers” decides the properties of the polymer.

10
 Rubber materials for chemical protection

Butyl rubber Carbon atom

Chloro atom

Fluoro atom
Chloroprene rubber / Neoprene
Hydrogen atom

Fluoro rubber / Viton

11
 Plastic materials for chemical protection

Typical plastics with good chemical resistance:

• Polyethylene (PE)
• Polyvinylalcohol (PVA)
• Polyamide (Nylon)
• Ethylvinyl alcohol (EVOH)

From these you can build multilayer barrier laminates:

By combining different plastic polymers, one can optimize the chemical resistance and
gastightness.

Typically 50 – 100 µm!

12
 Textile materials for mechanical strength

Polyamide fabric:

• Typically known as Nylon

• Strong and light-weight material
• A cheap & good base material in chemical protective garment material.

13
 Textile materials for mechanical strength

Aramide fabric:
• Typically known under tradenames Nomex (meta-aramide) and Kevlar
(para-aramide).
• Strong as steel but much more light-weight
• Heat and flame resistant
• An excellent, but expensive, base material in chemical protective garment
material.

14
 Designing chemical protective garment materials

Trellchem EVO

Viton rubber
Trellchem Super
Two very different
chemical resistant Viton rubber Two very different
Butyl rubber (as)
rubber materials. chemical resistant
A strong & flame Nomex fabric Butyl rubber rubber materials.
resistant fabric.
Chloroprene rubber Polyamide fabric A cheap & strong fabric.

A super-resistant plastic
Multilayer barrier Butyl rubber Another layer of
barrier film.
chemical reistant rubber

Top-of the line chemical protection Soft & comfortable

24 hour permeation times 8 hours permeation times
Flame retardant Good flame flame resistance

15
 Mixing the rubber compound

A recepie for a rubber compound typically contains10-15 different ingredients:

– Raw rubber
– Fillers
– Oil / Lubricants
– Antioxidants
– Antiozonants
– Pigments
– Vulcanising system
• Vulcanising agents
• Activator
• Accelerator
• Retarder

17
Mixing rubber – two methods

Mill: Banbury mixer:

Max 20 kg/batch, 30 min. Mixes 600 kg in 5 min!

18
 Spread coating

• First the rubber is dissolved in solvent.

• Then the rubber solution is spread with a knife on the fabric.
• 0.001 to 0.01 mm/layer

Dissolver

19
Spread coating

Coated Fabric

Rubber Solution

Uncoated Fabric

20
Spread coating

Trellchem VPS Flash material Trellchem EVO material

21
 Vulcanizing – Rotocure / AUMA

• Vulcanisation was discovered in 1839 by Charles Nelson Goodyear

• Rubber needs to be vulcanised to get its full properties, such as elasticity.
• Vulcanisation requires: chemicals, heat, pressure and time.

Trellchem VPS material

22