Orange, high visibility and Flame Retardant

Producing a Flame Retardant fabric with a highly intense orange colour that meets the requirement of standard EN ISO 20471 is hard to achieve, without adding polyester to the fibre blend. As polyester is not a Flame Retardant fibre, the challenge is to combine High Visibility and Flame Retardancy in the same garment.

Whereas High Visibility textiles in yellow are easier to produce, because the inherent Flame Retardant Modacrylic fibre in combination with cotton can be used, instead of polyester. At Tranemo, we have managed to develop a fabric with only 29% polyester, compared to the 50% that is common in orange High Visibility clothing. This reduction decreases the risk of ignition and increases the ability to withstand high energies in the event of an Arc Flash. A carefully balanced combination of Flame Retardant fibres has been required to meet the high safety and performance requirements.

”Developing Flame Retardant High Visibility textiles in orange has been a technical challenge”

The fabric is designed with Flame Retardant fibres on the inside, closest to the skin, to provide both safety and comfort. At the same time, the outside fulfils the High Visibility requirements. To balance protection and wearability, we chose a fabric weight of 220 g/m² which is slightly heavier than our yellow High Visibility T-shirts at 180 g/m². This was necessary to pass the Flame Retardant and Arc Flash tests. The result is an orange Flame Retardant Hi-Vis T-shirt that combines maximum safety, with high comfort and durability.