Specialty Fabrics Review September 2019 - 62

FOCUS

MARKETS

THE KEY FUNCTION
OF SLASH-RESISTANT
CLOTHING IS TO
REDUCE THE RISK
OF LACERATIONS
AND PROTECT KEY
ARTERIES-KEEPING
THE WEARER OF
THE PROTECTIVE
CLOTHING FULLY
OPERATIONAL AND
UNHARMED.

62 REVIEW SEPTEMBER 2019

shoot man after officer slashed with knife."
Unfortunately, this was hardly an isolated
incident. More recently a global headline
read, "Japan knife attack kills 2, injures 16
others at bus stop." Emergency services and
first responders were at risk when engaging
with this situation.
Colin Mackinnon, a retired counterterrorist police officer and technical lead for
PPSS Group, a U.K.-based producer of highperformance PPE, was himself the victim of a
knife attack. "The offender, who had martial
arts training, attacked me with a concealed
knife," Mackinnon says. "Even with training,
in the heat of the moment they used a slashing
motion rather than a stabbing motion, resulting in four deep cuts to the front of my stab
vest before they were overpowered."
Ian Horsfall and Mathew Arnold of
the Impact and Armour Group within the
Department of Engineering and Applied
Science at Cranfield University (Defence
Academy of the United Kingdom) wrote a
comprehensive piece on slash knife attacks.
A statement from this article reads: "A
retrospective survey of hospital admissions
data . . . suggested that 63 percent of wounds
attributable to sharp-edged weapons were
slash events."
TESTS AND STANDARDS
In the past, most clients and customers had
only a limited understanding of cut-resistance
performances. To help those individuals,
many cut-resistant clothing producers use the
EN388:2016 standard. The original version of
this standard was intended to test and verify
the cut protection of industrial gloves (for
example, for sheet metal and the flat glass
industry), something many consumers were
either aware of or able to easily understand.
For this reason, even today many cut-resistant
clothing producers use this standard on their
technical data sheets.
The latest version of this standard tests
the material with four performance criteria:
1) abrasion resistance; 2) cut resistance;
3) tear resistance; and 4) puncture resistance.
I believe the second performance criteria,
cut resistance, to be of great importance.
The highest possible level of cut resistance is
level 5. The highest level for the other three
criteria is level 4.

The ANSI/ISEA 105-2016 Hand Protection
Classification is an important U.S. standard
addressing the classification and testing of
hand protection for specific performance
properties related to mechanical protection
(that is, cut resistance). It is another great
benchmark and reference point for someone
wishing to purchase slash-resistant clothing.
The ISO 13997:1999 "Protective clothing-
Mechanical properties-Determination of
resistance to cutting by sharp objects" is an
extremely important test, a real indicator of
true cut protection. The test concludes in a
precise newton force number, stating clearly
the precise level of protection such a material
or garment offers.
THE FUTURE OF
SLASH-RESISTANT CLOTHING
Many technical textile engineers and yarn
producers around the world are aiming to
further improve cut-resistant fabric. The goal
everyone shares is to make slash-resistant
clothing and other PPE lighter, thinner and
more breathable. That journey starts with
the raw fibers.
Future yarns will offer a greater weightto-performance ratio and allow for the
production of protective garments that
look like any other garment. Right now,
too many frontline professionals, such
as counterterrorism officers and covert
intelligence and surveillance officers,
decide not to wear PPE. They make this
choice because the PPE is too hot and too
cumbersome, and because their lives would be
at risk if the PPE makes them easy to identify
in covert situations.
Clothing, uniform, workwear and tactical
apparel producers have recently started to
analyze the performance of yarns and fibers
previously available only to the military
and aerospace sectors, all with the safety of
frontline professionals in mind.
Robert Kaiser is the CEO of U.K.-based PPSS Group,
a producer of high-performance PPE. He is also a
consultant for several international organizations and
has articles published in industry-leading publications
in several countries.
Specialty Fabrics Review September 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Specialty Fabrics Review September 2019
