Why is it important to keep your FR garments clean? It might seem like an obvious answer: so you don’t offend your colleagues with the unmistakable odor of “well-worn FR.” And yes, that is a good reason to keep up with your laundry, but for protective workwear, there are a few other considerations you should keep in mind in order to get the most out of your gear.
Protecting Your Protection
The case for keeping your flame-resistant clothing clean is pretty simple: your garment is flame resistant. Anything that gets added to it—whether lint from other clothing, fabric softener buildup, or residue from the workplace environment—may not be flame resistant, which can alter how effectively your PPE can protect you in the event of a flash fire.
Cross-Contamination Compromises Safety
Your FR garments are meant to buy you time in the event of an emergency by self-extinguishing. But if you washed your uniform with a fuzzy sweater and little balls of lint are covering it, those lint-balls are now flame-balls that will not self-extinguish in a fire, which can compromise your FR garment’s ability to protect you. Similarly, if oil and gas workers who come into contact with flammable materials during their work don’t wash their safety uniforms thoroughly, that flammable residue stuck on their clothing is a potential hazard.
FR garments are extremely effective at mitigating risk when worn and maintained properly; that means keeping them clear of contamination with materials that reduce their efficacy. So how should you maintain your safety uniform?
How to Wash FR Garments
Flame-resistant garments come with specific washing instructions. If you’re ever unsure of how to wash your safety uniform, check with your distributor and/or garment manufacturer to make sure you’re following the right guidelines. Safety managers should ensure that their workers are briefed on those instructions at least as often as uniforms are distributed. For garments made with TenCate Protective Fabrics products, we have some standard instructions that apply to most of our products, with some variation depending on product factors like whether the fabric is woven or knit. In general, here are some guidelines to follow when washing any FR garments at home:
- Launder separately from non-flame-resistant garments.
- Do not use chlorine bleach, which may reduce garment life.
- Use detergent only, not soap that may leave deposits on the fabric.
- Do not use fabric softeners.
What About Industrial Laundry Programs?
Many companies use industrial laundry programs to take care of FR garment maintenance for their workers. Industrial launderers are well-versed in the care and keeping of protective workwear and wash them accordingly. They can also track garments throughout their lifespan with barcodes to get an idea of when it’s time to replace a uniform, and they can handle regular wear and tear procedures according to NFPA standards that indicate when garments should be repaired or retired.
Garments that go through industrial laundries do have to be durable enough to withstand the higher temperatures and more rigorous cleaning process in their large machines. Your average home washing machine can get up to 120° while an industrial laundry machine gets up to 140°. In order to give our clients the most options, TenCate Protective Fabrics makes all our FR fabrics durable enough to be washed either at home or by industrial launderers. Some products can also be dry cleaned.
At TenCate Protective Fabrics, we meet all the after-wash requirements as defined by NFPA standards, but we want to know that more than just the protection lasts: we wash our fabrics in various methods to test color fastness, strength, thermal shrinkage, and appearance to ensure that the products we send to market hold up for the end users in every way.
Got questions about how to maintain your protective workwear? Our FR garment experts are always ready to discuss your safety strategy and how to reach the next level of safety for your workers.
