We are exposed to highly variable environments including high temps and convective and radiant thermal flux, which can put a significant burden on our PPE-especially our SCBA facepiece. Thermally degraded and melted SCBA facepieces have been identified as a contributing factor in some FF LODD’s and injuries in the USA. The SCBA facepiece lens is often the weakest component of a fire fighter’s ensemble in high heat conditions, but the level of thermal performance of the facepiece lens is not well understood.
Resulting from the USFA and the NIST study of the thermal performance of SCBA face pieces:
http://www.usfa.fema.gov/fireservice/research/safety/scba_thermal.shtm, ….the following report detailing findings of this study NIST Technical Note 1724 – Fire Exposures of Fire Fighter Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus Facepiece Lenses has been released : http://www.nist.gov/customcf/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=909917
Once again, good science to help us understand stuff.
