Norms & regulations for heat & flame protection

What is EN ISO 11612 / EN ISO 11611?

ISO 11612 (EN ISO 11612) Standard for Protective Clothing to protect against Heat and Flame

This International Standard provides minimum performance requirements for clothing used to protect the wearer’s body, excluding the hands, feet and head against heat and flame. This applies to clothing which could be worn for a wide range of end uses – where in addition to limited flame spread properties, protection is required against one of the following: exposure to radiant, convective or contact heat; or exposure to molten metal splashes (aluminium or iron). In addition to this broader Standard, there are others which refer to quite specific products or end uses.

For each of the hazards listed in this Standard, there are three performance levels which indicate if exposure is low, medium or high risk. There is also a fourth performance level to take into account for protection against extreme exposure to radiant heat. This level applies to high performance materials such as aluminized materials. Within ISO11612 there is an optional manikin flame engulfment test according to ISO 13506-1 or-2 with a minimum of 4 seconds exposure. To choose the right level of protection, a risk assessment should be conducted.

ISO 11611 Standard for Protective Clothing for use in Welding and Allied processes

This Standard applies to clothing which is intended to protect the wearer against:

• spatter (small splashes of molten metal) simulating various welding technologies
• short contact time with flame
• radiant heat from an electric arc used for welding and allied processes, 
• and that minimizes the possibility of electrical shock by short-term, accidental contact with live electrical conductors at voltages up to approximately 100 V d. c. in normal conditions of welding.

The ISO 11611 specifies minimum performance requirements for protective clothing designed to protect the wearer’s body, such as aprons, sleeves based on two classes that reflect exposure to two levels of splashes. It does not cover requirements for feet, hands, face, and/or eye protectors – specifications for these are detailed in other International Standards.

EN 14560 Guidance for solution use, care and maintenance of protective clothing against heat and flame

This standard has been developed to accompany all the EN and most ISO standards relating to clothing to help the end user select the correct heat and flame clothing. It provides information on hazard and risk assessment, what information various heat and flame tests provide, as well as a summary of all the product clothing standard requirements.

What is NFPA 2112 / 2113? NFPA 2112:

NFPA 2112: Standard on Flame-Resistant Clothing for Protection of Industrial Personnel against short duration thermal exposure from fire.

This Standard specifies minimum requirements for flame-resistant fabrics used to protect workers from exposure to short duration fire.  In specific this includes the design, construction, evaluation, of a standardised garment made from the fabric to be tested.

To comply with NFPA 2112, the standard garments, when tested to a short exposure fire of 3 sec at 84 KW, must:

• Achieve a 50% or less predicted body burn
• Defy melting, dripping or after-flame burning

In addition the final garment must comply with the following:

• Have appropriate labelling in a visible location
•  Meet each requirement and test specified in the NFPA 2112
•  Have UL certification label attached to the flame-resistant garment label or positioned directly next to it.

 NFPA 2113: Standards to ensure Selection, Use, Care and Maintenance of PPE to protect against short duration thermal exposure from fire.

This Standard has been developed to minimise health and safety risks associated with incorrect selection, use, and maintenance, as well as contamination and damage of flame-resistant garments that are compliant with NFPA 2112.

Under NFPA 2113 a hazard assessment is still very important and must be conducted to deliver a quantified energy level for the various tasks that workers perform.

What is ISO 13506-1/ ISO 13506-2?

DuPont^™ Thermo-Man^® invented by DuPont, was developed in the 1970's with the US government to protect the military from burns, and was subsequently the basis for the ASTM and ISO test methods. DuPont has been active in the development of the standards but also their revisions.  This ISO Standard is split into two parts – the test method for complete garments and skin burn injury prediction.

ISO 13506-1 Standard for Protective Clothing against Heat and Flame

Part 1:Test method for complete garments - Measurement of transferred energy using an instrumented manikin

This Standard specifies the overall requirements, equipment and calculation methods needed to provide results that can be used to evaluate performance of complete garments or combinations of protective clothing exposed to flash fire.

This test method establishes a rating system to depict the thermal protection provided by single-layer and multi-layer garments made of flame resistant materials. The rating is based on the measurement of heat transfer to a life-size test mannequin, when exposed to gas flame engulfment of 84 kW for a specified time, using at least 110 sensors to measure the heat transferred. The heat transfer data is captured over a prescribed period of time to determine total transferred energy. The result is a prediction of the garment’s protective performance and integrity against heat, flame and fire during such a typical fire incident.

ISO 13506-2 Standard for Protective Clothing against Heat and Flame

Part 2: Skin burn injury prediction - Calculation requirements and test cases

ISO 13506-2:2017 provides technical details for calculating predicted skin burn injury following exposure to heat and flame when wearing specific protective garments. This is based on the specification and data from ISO 13506-1.

The burn injury prediction calculation method is verified with a series of test cases provided.

This test method does not include terms for predicting burn injuries caused through exposure to short wavelength radiation that may penetrate the skin e.g. arc flash, some types of fire exposures with liquid or solid fuels, and nuclear sources.