Flame Resistant Clothing Frequently Asked Questions

What does FRC stand for?
It is quite common that safety minded customers refer to Safety Garments or Flame Resistant Apparel simply as "FRC."

Who wears Flame Resistant (FR) garments?
Combustible Dust Explosion. Plus ANY workers who come in contact with energized electrical equipment.

What is ATPV?
ATPV stands for Arc Thermal Protective Value, which is a rating of the Arc burn protection capability of a garment.

Where do I find a garment's Arc Ratings?
Arc Ratings can be found on many garment labels. Typically a Flame Resistant garment is chosen based on the employer's hazard analysis, which determines the potential incident energy in the work environment.

What are Hazard Risk Categories?
Hazard Risk Categories (HRC) are specified in the NFPA 70E safety standard, based on specific job tasks. Older editions of the standard allowed for "layering" solutions using 100% cotton, non-FR T-Shirts worn under rated FRC.

What is Tecasafe® PLUS and why haven’t I heard about it before?
Tecasafe Plus from TenCate Protective Fabrics is the newest fabric innovation in Flame Resistant technology. You get all the benefits of FR cotton, including higher ATPV ratings and softer, more comfortable fabric. Tecasafe Plus is "inherently" Flame Resistant, combining the best features of all fabric options.

Are Indura® and Indura® Ultra Soft™ the same?
Indura® is chemically treated 100% cotton. Indura® Ultra Soft™ is made of 88% FR Cotton and 12% Nylon woven together to make the garment much more durable and comfortable. This makes the garment last longer through industrial laundering and increases the garments’ ATPV.

Is 100% cotton a "safety" fabric?
While 100% cotton offers better protection than 65/35, cotton fabric can and will ignite and continue to burn if exposed to an ignition source.
My company purchases our FRC directly from FR garment manufacturers….why Rent these garments?
Renting FR garments eliminates the capital investment of purchasing FR safety garments. UniFirst will repair damaged garments, reducing costs, manages the procurement and receiving process of these expensive garments.

Tips on Finding the Best Carbon Fiber Helmet

Executive summary about Tips on Finding the Best Carbon Fiber Helmet by Joshua M Larson

A motorcycle helmet serves two important goals:

1. It protects your head in a crash.

2. It protects your head and keeps you comfortable while riding.

Some riders have multiple helmets, and they choose which helmet to wear based mostly on the riding they are doing. 3/4 helmets are much more comfortable, although they reveal your chin and face. Often referred to as open face helmets, 3/4 helmets cover the back of your skull, but they omit the lower chin protection and face shield. 3/4 motorcycle helmets are efficient in rear protection, just like a full face motorcycle helmet, but they don't protect the face of the rider. Some riders wish to have different helmets for different rides, for example a 3/4 helmet for easier rides and a full face helmet for longer trips. I prefer discount motorcycle helmets.

What Kind of Clothes Did the Romans Wear?

All people living in Rome mainly wore tunics due to its simplicity. Togas were only allowed to be worn by free citizens of Rome. Sandals were also worn, but were mainly worn indoors.

The Founding of the City of Rome - 753 BC

According to legend, the god of War, Mars, had two baby sons called Romulus and Remus. They had a wicked uncle Amulius who was very jealous of them and wanted to kill them, so he put them in a basket in the River Tiber hoping that they would drown. The basket floated off down the river and stopped at a place near seven hills. A she-wolf whose cubs had been killed found the babies as she walked past and so she used her milk to feed them. The boys were picked up by a shepherd called Faustulus who took them home.

Romulus and Remus grew up to be very strong and big. They decided to build a city on one of the seven hills. After a while they had an argument about who should be the King of the new city. Romulus dud a ditch all around the hill and when Remus came over the ditch Romulus attacked him and they had a HUGE fight. Remus was killed and Romulus called the town Rome after himself.

A Thousand Years of English Dresses

Executive Summary about English Dresses by Affreca McNaven

Do you think of flowing pink dresses with pointed princess hats? Customs often create a demand for new fashions. Saxon custom "decreed that the locks of the fair Saxon woman be entirely concealed".

During the ninth and tenth centuries, the tunica began to change. The sleeves flared out extravagently. The ideea was for elegance, simple yet expensive.

One thing the invasion changed was the name of the overdress. It was now called a bliaut, the sleeves were still very wide. The top, was sewn to the skirt.

The late twelfth century introduced parti-coloring, lasted until the end of the Middle Ages and is often considered to be a typical Medieval fashion. The fourteenth century, are remarkable for their tight and fitted styles.

Brought back by the Crusaders, buttons made it not necessary foir dresses to be loose enough to be pulled over the head. The waist could be tighter than the shoulders with buttons.

As a result, the cotehardie became the fashion, was a fitted dress that flared out at the hips. It was a style designed to show off how tight your tailor could sew your dresses.

Over the cotehardie was sometimes worn a sideless surcoat. It consisted of a narrow bib attached to a full skirt. This ephasized one of the major parts of this period, slim hips.

From 1350 to 1380 all women of fashion were to be seen with tippets at their elbows. Tippets were not little dogs, they were strips of fabric attached at the elbow to the sleeves of cotehardies, emphasized another focus of this period, the vertical line.

In the fifteenth century, width was now the emphasis, not slim and vertical. The new style of dress was called a houppeland. The bodice had a deep V-neck that showed off the shoulders. Wealth was shown by how much material you could waste in baggy sleeves. The edges of sleeves often had scalloped edges called dags.

English fashion in the Middle Ages ranged from gunnas to houppelands, and many things in between. Flowing pink dresses with cone shaped princess hats was clearly not the case.
A Short Tutorial on Cartridge Pleating a Skirt
Cartridge pleating is a method of gathering large amounts of fabric to a small waistband without adding bulk to the seam, makes the fabric spring away from the waist more than normal box-pleating, knife-pleating does.
This way you can work out the optimum stitch size, gathering tightness, etc. for this particular fabric.

1. Take the edge of your skirt which you plan to attach to a waistband and fold over the edge to the inside 2 to 3 inches.

2. Using a strong thread,sew a largish running stitch half an inch away from the folded edge of the fabric. The size of the stitches depends on the thickness and body of the fabric you're pleating. If you're using a brocade or other thinner fabric, make the stitches 1/4 to 1/2 inch wide.
3. Knot the three threads together at each end. Once you've gathered the fabric, and measured it to see that it fits the waist, knot the threads you used to gather the pleats together so that they stay properly gathered.
4. Sew the pleats to the waistband. Instead of sewing the waistband and the edge of the fabric together as you do with normal pleats, with cartridge pleats, you whipstitch the gathered edge of your fabric to a finished waistband, armscye or other seam edge. Lay the outside of the waistband against the outside of the pleats, with the waist edge matching the edge of the cartridge-pleated fabric. Using a strong thread, stitch the waistband to the top of each pleat with two stitches.

Men's Underwear

Executive Summary about Men’s Underwear by Rahul K Pathak

Men's underwear is not discussed by men compared to women discussing lingerie.
1. Man’s Briefs
Men's Briefs offer outstanding support for the genitals and is a good choice for men who sit all day. There have been design advances with Men's Briefs.

2. Men's Boxers
Another style of Men's Underwear is men's boxers, are constructed with straight-cut leg openings and a front fly, have a wide selection of fabric and color choices.

3. Thongs
Thongs are another type of Men's Underwear. Some men have adjusted well to this current trend while others still prefer boxers. The thong is one of the hottest articles of clothing that you can wear on a beach. Both men and women nowadays wear thongs though traditionally the thong is used by women to flaunt their forms.
a Traditional Thong- This kind of thong is definitely the most common and consists of a strip of fabric in varying widths on the rear of the garment connecting the front pouch to the waistband.
b G-string-This style is made up of a string of fabric connecting the pouch and the waistband in the rear. It is also called the Rio thong.

The Worst-Dressed Women Warriors in Fantasy

Executive summary about The Worst-Dressed Women Warriors in Fantasy by Mary Robinette Kowal

Today we are going to talk about the wildly inappropriate clothing that female fighters wear in fantasy movies.
1. Red Sonja, Red Sonja (1985)
The titular character (Brigitte Nielsen) here is a strong willed young woman endowed with supernatural strength, skill with a sword... and judging by her costume, other attributes as well.

2. Zulu, Conan the Destroyer (1984)
Zulu (Grace Jones) at least has a sensible hair cut. The rest of it is... basketwoven leather?

3. Guinevere, King Arthur (2004)
She saw the The Fifth Element and thought that the fantasy version of the Ace Bandage Leeloo (Milla Jovovich) wears would be leather straps. I have news for you: If that group of women were actually facing male warriors dressed only in mud and straps of leather, they'd get slaughtered.

4. The White Witch, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (2005)
The White Witch's (Tilda Swinton) costume is both savage and graceful, and yet completely daft for combat -- a recurring theme, you'll notice, because wearing sensible clothing looks too masculine and clearly a woman's primary onscreen value is sexiness. The Witch has bare arms and is prone to striking poses instead of actually fighting. As if that weren't enough, she's wearing a chainmail skirt.

5. Elektra, Elektra (2005)
Three words: Red Silk Teddy.

Granted, fantasy doesn't have a total lock-down on the stupid clothes for women warriors. Check out the worst that scifi has to offer:
1. Barbarella (1968) - Four words: Undressing in zero gravity.
2. Blade Runner (1982) - Pris's (Darryl Hannah) garb consists of netting, a dog collar and mime makeup.
3. Sin City (2005) - Will someone please tell Gail (Rosario Dawson) that a thong will not be her friend during a shootout?
4. Watchmen (2009) - How tall are Jupiter's (Malin Ackerman) heels?
5. Transporter 2 (2005) - There's a reason garters went out of style, Lola (Kate Nauta). It's because they aren't practical.

Muslim woman 'abused' over dress by Christian hotelier

A Muslim woman was asked by a Christian hotelier if she was a terrorist and a murderer because she was wearing Islamic dress, a court has been told.

Ericka Tazi told Liverpool magistrates she faced a tirade of abuse from Benjamin Vogelenzang and his wife Sharon, at their hotel on Merseyside.

Mr and Mrs Vogelenzang deny using threatening, abusive words which were religiously aggravated.

Prosecutor Anya Horwood told the court Mr Vogelenzang, 53, called the Prophet Muhammad a "warlord" and likened him to Saddam Hussein and Hitler. And his 54-year-old wife told Mrs Tazi her Islamic dress represented "oppression" and was a form of "bondage", the court heard.

Giving evidence, Mrs Tazi told the bench that dressing in her hijab seemed to "trigger something" in the hotelier. Later that night Mrs Tazi contacted Merseyside Police.

Mrs Tazi said: "My journey has been a long, long journey, it was a very difficult decision to wear these clothes... Guests at the hotel told the court that Mrs Tazi was left distraught by the row.

Brazilian student expelled over dress

Executive summary about Brazilian Student Expelled Over Dress by Tales Azzoni

SAO PAULO — A Brazilian university expelled a woman who was heckled by hundreds of fellow students when she wore a short, pink dress to class.

Bandeirante University published advertisements accusing Arruda of attending class with "inadequate clothing" and having a provocative attitude that was "incompatible with the university environment."

In the ad, titled "Educational Responsibility," the college said it had warned Arruda to change her behaviour and decided to expel her after talking to students, staff and Arruda herself.

Arruda told Folha Online she was appalled. Some students had complained that Arruda seemed out of place in her revealing clothes, Brazilian media reported.