Review of fibers and fabrics used for special services’ protective clothing in terms of their mechanical and thermal properties

In the paper, special clothing is understood as protective clothing used by services, in particular fire services, but also military and police, working in fire hazard conditions, where the main risk factors for the user are: a high temperature, a contact with hot objects, and a mechanical damage. The presented study deals with the review of special clothing industry and discusses cloths structure for compliance with national and European regulations. The parameters of technical fibers used for production of the above-mentioned clothes used during firefighting in open spaces, made of flame retardant yarns, e.g., aramid yarns or mixtures of flame retardant yarns, were analysed. Keywords: mechanical engineering, fibers, special fabrics, fire resistance, mechanical strength, national and EU standards