This week's question is very straight forward.

How old is your arc rated clothing/PPE?

Less than 1 year old
1 to 3 years old
Older than 3 years
We don't need PPE

We did some testing via our Canadian potash sites. The video is amazing.

Everyone is required to wear 8 cal/cm^2 coveralls at the potash sites. They took coveralls that had been in service for 2 straight years (about 26 washings per year, so over 50 washings). The material is Indura Ultrasoft if that matters. Then they ran several tests against the worn overalls.

Simply "worn" had the same 8 cal/cm^2 rating.
Soaking in a brine solution to simulate either sweat or exposure to brine solutions from the process had not effect on rating.
Similar soaking with all kinds of stuff, dirt, oil, what have you (dirty uniforms) had no effect on rating.

The only case that had any effect at all was rather interesting. They took a big handful of grease and smeared it on the coveralls. When subjected to an arc flash, the grease lit on fire and burned for quite a while after the arc had ceased then extinguished. The PPE itself was intact but it "failed" the test because the heat generated from the burning grease increased the incident energy to where it exceeded the Stoll curve.

I forgot how many combinations and different tests were done but the end result is that most of our concerns about contamination and long and short term use and abuse of arc flash PPE were unfounded. I know the video is more or less "public domain". Wish I could find it and share it again.

I have a couple shirts that are less than a year old (to replace an older shirt that fell apart) but most of my AR clothing is more than three years old.

I've started listing the calculated incident energy values, and leaving it up to the trained, qualified worker to know what the number means.

I've started listing the calculated incident energy values, and leaving it up to the trained, qualified worker to know what the number means.




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I have some rarely worn Nomex coveralls, not arc rated but known to be HRC 1 that are in great shape at approximately 17 years of age. Because they are not "arc Rated" I also have some FR cotton coveralls HRC 2, noticeably heavier protection; that are perhaps 4 years old, that will probably not last as long as the nomex (the Nomex is very light and were issued for general refinery wear before arc flash safety was a known threat).