Asbestos Clothing

ASBESTOS CLOTHING. Asbestos fabrics are currently the only ones that provide reliable protection against direct or very close exposure to flame and hot or molten metal. Asbestos is a mineral consisting of elongated rhomboidal prismatic crystals, very thin and resembling silk fibers. From these crystals, due to their softness, flexibility, and elasticity, yarn suitable for fabrics can be produced. This spinning, however, is significantly more difficult than in the case of plant and animal fibers, because asbestos crystals are completely smooth, do not allow for drafting, and require very strong twisting of the fibers for their binding. When working in hot shops, the main advantages of asbestos fabrics are their fire resistance and poor thermal conductivity. The negative aspects of A. c. (weight, thickness, relatively low strength) cannot be of great importance, since the harmful factors mentioned at the beginning (exposure to flame and hot metal) last for a short time (for several seconds, very rarely for several minutes), and asbestos special clothing is used only for these intervals of time. The most common forms of asbestos special clothing: a robe (less often a suit), an apron with a bib, a hood, mittens, armlets, gaiters (covering the entire back of the foot). The acid- and alkali-resistant properties of asbestos are usually not used for the purposes of special clothing, since liquids would penetrate through the pores of the fabric anyway, and the problem of applying to the fabric an impermeable, firmly bonded, thin and flexible layer of asbestos has not yet been resolved.