TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to personal protective equipment and personal protective equipment fabrics for use in production of this personal protective equipment.

PRIOR ART

Personal protective equipment is used for protecting persons from external effects in various fields. The most frequent ones among these are the dust masks for protecting the user from dust and particles and medical masks used particularly for preventing spreading of infectious diseases.

Medical masks can be essentially made from cloth or paper materials. Various variables like the quality of the material, production type, number of layers, pore dimension determine the quality and efficiency of the mask. The common characteristic of said medical masks is that they are single-use.

On the other hand, fabric masks which can be used again are also known in the art. Said fabric masks can be used in a stand-alone manner or they can be turned into antibacterial or antiviral form by means of various additive substances applied thereon. The general problem with these masks is the resistance shown by the fabric masks against the passage of virus and bacteria thanks to the permanence of the bond formed between said fabric masks and the additive substances added thereon. In other words, it is desired that said additive substance is not eliminated after washing of the re-usable masks. Moreover, the permeability of the re-usable masks against virus and bacteria has been determined by standards. Thus, these masks should successfully pass type 1 and type 2 tests defined in the standard EN 14683. Additionally, the masks should also be compliant to the standards TSE K 599.

As a result, because of the abovementioned problems, an improvement is required in the related technical field. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a personal protective equipment fabric and personal protective equipment made from said fabric, for eliminating the abovementioned disadvantages and for bringing new advantages to the related technical field.

An object of the present invention is to provide a fabric which can be used in the production of washable personal protective equipment with antiviral characteristics and compliant to the standards EN 14683 and TSE K 599.

In order to realize the abovementioned objects and the objects which are to be deducted from the detailed description below, the present invention is a personal protective equipment fabric to be used in production of personal protective equipment. Accordingly, the improvement is that the loop dimension of the fabric knitted by means of round knitting method is between 2.2 mm and 2.9 mm. Thus, a fabric with substantially small pores is produced in order to facilitate binding of a chemical, which will provide antiviral characteristic, to the fabric.

In a possible embodiment of the present invention, the loop dimension in single plate fabric structures is between 2.5 mm and 2.9 mm.

In a possible embodiment of the present invention, the loop dimension in double plate fabric structures is between 2.2 mm and 2.6 mm.

In a possible embodiment of the present invention, the loop dimension for intermediate yarn, provided between the front and rear plates in double plate fabric structure, is between 2.4 mm and 2.9 mm.

In a possible embodiment of the present invention, the fiber length is between 30 mm and 50 mm.

In a possible embodiment of the present invention, the number of rows for 1 cm is between 18 and 25 and the number of rods is between 15 and 20. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In this detailed description, the subject matter personal protective equipment fabric and personal protective equipment made from said fabric is explained with references to examples without forming any restrictive effect only in order to make the subject more understandable.

The subject matter personal protective equipment fabric can be produced from yarns including cotton, amorphyl, Kevlar, bamboo, acrylic, nylon, polyester, polyamide, viscose, polypropylene and silver and copper.

The subject matter personal protective equipment fabric is knitted by using round knitting method. In possible embodiments of the present invention, the knitted personal protective equipment fabric can be provided in a single-layered or double-layered form. In a possible embodiment, the knitted personal protective equipment fabric structure has single plate or double plate, and micro-filament is used for reducing pores in order for the personal protective equipment fabric to pass medical tests. Accordingly, the loop dimension of the fabric knitted by means of round knitting method is between 2.2 mm and 2.9 mm.

In a possible embodiment of the present invention, the personal protective equipment fabric is provided in a single-layered manner. In this case, the loop dimension of the knitted fabric is between 2.5 mm and 2.9 mm.

In another possible embodiment of the present invention, the personal protective equipment fabric is provided in a double-layered manner. In this case, the loop dimension of the knitted fabric is between 2.2 mm and 2.6 mm.

Optimum parameters are determined for the number of synthetic yarns with high filaments (50-150 filaments) in between, the number of filaments and the humidity conductance.

Long fiber yarn has been used for the front and rear surfaces, and thanks to this fiber, a good-touch structure is obtained, and advantage is provided in terms of bacteria passage and filtration. Moreover, another advantage of long fiber usage is that pilling formation against washing is retarded. The length of the used fiber is between 30 mm and 50 mm. Besides all of these characteristics, the loop length, the used yarn and steel structure are kept at the optimum level and hanger structure is used for binding the intermediate yarn. The length of the used loop is between 2.2 mm and 2.6 mm for the front and rear surfaces for double plate, and it is between 2.4 mm and 2.9 mm for the intermediate yarn. The loop length for single plate is between 2.5 mm and 2.9 mm. Thanks to this characteristic, the intermediate yarn which binds the two surfaces do not reflect to the front and rear surfaces and support the filtration characteristic. The wall thickness of the fabric is 0.851 mm. Moreover, thanks to the space which remains between the two surfaces, static air area remains. Thanks to the loop dimension and the steel structure, the distance between the two surfaces is considered as optimum for the differential pressure and bacterial filtration. The used fabric structure does not deteriorate in the finish process in terms of row and rod numbers and preserves its filtration characteristic. The number of rows for 1 cm is between 18 and 25, and the number of rods is between 15 and 20. Fabrics with different weights are made, and optimum fabric weight is selected. The gram ranges of the weights of the developed fabrics are between 140 g/m ² and 280 g/m ² . The selected fabric weight and the wall thickness of the fabric are important for bacteria filtration and prevent bacteria passage. Thanks to the developed loop length and steel structure, the width and length flexibility of the fabric is increased, and bio-compliancy is provided in terms of ergonomics. The elongation in the length direction of the fabric is between 5% and 10% and the elongation in the width direction is between 10% and 20%. The flexibility of the fabric in length direction is between 55% and 65%, and the flexibility of the fabric in width direction is between 15% and 25%. The resistance of the selected fabric is resistant as 50 Kpa and 750 Kpa*. The formed steel structure is a structure formed by hanger, knitting and feet which are compliant to the nullifying system. The needle has been adjusted in a compliant manner to the steel structure. *750 Kpa is the final force of the measurement device and sometimes, the fabric does not tear at these values.

The subject matter personal protective equipment fabric passes type 1 and type 2 tests in standard EN 14683 thanks to said structure. Besides, it is produced in a compliant manner with standards TSE K 599.

Moreover, an additive substance can be used for providing antiviral characteristic to the subject matter personal protective equipment fabric and the personal protective equipment to be made from this fabric. In a possible embodiment of the present invention, said additive substance is preferred as quaternary ammonium compound. The physical structure of the personal protective equipment provides increase of the binding characteristic between the additive substance and the fabric. Thus, the continuation of the antiviral characteristic of the subject matter personal protective equipment fabric and the personal protective equipment made from this fabric over 20 washing processes is provided. The protection scope of the present invention is set forth in the annexed claims and cannot be restricted to the illustrative disclosures given above, under the detailed description. It is because a person skilled in the relevant art can obviously produce similar embodiments under the light of the foregoing disclosures, without departing from the main principles of the present invention.