Design Feature Analysis and Pilot Ergonomic Evaluation for Protective Fire Gear

Well established fire suit is usually constructed by several layers to provide protection against many hazards on fire ground. This kind of fire gear system has some side-effects such as lowering the operating efficiency and flexibility of firefighters. Fire gear manufacturers have been continuously trying to improve the mobility and comfort of fire suits without sacrificing protective performance by optimizing designs, structures and materials etc. Many attempts have been made to understand human body structure and movements and further optimize the designs to improve the flexibility and mobility of firefighters. As partial results of a comparative study, the ergonomic design features such as “tail coat”, “ergonomic under arm bellow”, “contoured knees”, and “F. R. O. M crotch” that theoretically benefits the movements of firefighters were analyzed in this paper. The differences and benefits of those ergonomic designs were analyzed and evaluated by comparing with traditional cut design. Distinguished ergonomic design features improved the range of motion (ROM) - mobility and flexibility of the wearers.