Protective clothing seminar attracts hundreds

Between 8th and 14th March, around 600 delegates from all over Europe traveled to Ardooie, Belgium to attend a series of ER and industry-specific seminars hosted by DuPont Personal Protection (DPP) in association with Sioen.

The programme, organised by Johan Sabbe, ER Product Manager at Sioen, was aimed at clothing purchasers, ER personnel and health and safety officers in organisations where certain applications demand the use of high performance clothing to protect against burn injury. Throughout the six-day programme, delegates gleaned an in-depth understanding of European Standards and were given a fascinating insight into market trends and the global development of protective clothing technologies.

Highlights of the seminar were : a comprehensive presentation on current European Standards for protective clothing, delivered by Sioen's Technical Director, Ivan Deceuninck ; and captivating burn comparison tests on some 45 garments, carried out on the DuPontâ„¢ THERMO-MAN® facility.

Sioen and DuPont : a powerful partnership in the NQP Programme
From the outset of the partnership between DPP and Sioen in 2005, DPP believed that Sioen's use of Nomex® in its technical and innovative initiatives would reach a higher level, and in July 2007 Sioen was invited to join DuPont as a partner in the NOMEX® Quality Programme (NQP).
This has helped to increase Sioen's presence and success in different market segments, of which an example is the recently won national tender to provide fire-protective clothing to the Belgian Fire Brigade. Bart Vervaecke, the CEO from Sioen's Apparel division, was pleased to accept the 2008 NQP certificate on behalf of the company on the last day of the seminar.

The NQP is unique partnership between DuPont and selected spinners, weavers, knitters and garment manufacturers that ensures that garments bearing NQP identification match end-users' requirements for inherent thermal protective apparel. The aim of the partnership is to anticipate and respond to market developments with greater speed and intuition, and essentially, give customers a consistent assurance of quality, protection, comfort, durability and cost effectiveness. The shared vision of the partners is that through the NQP programme, the winners will be the men and women their products protect.

With 47 years of experience in the clothing sector, Sioen Industries is the world market leader in coated technical textiles, the European market leader in industrial protective clothing, a niche specialist in fine chemicals and one of the biggest global players in the processing of technical textiles into semi-manufactured goods and technical end products. Sioen Industries has 39 subsidiaries, 4,600 employees and a turnover of 380m euros (2007).

Sioen's Coating Division specialises in the integrated coating of technical textiles and controls the entire production process, from the extrusion of yarns (spinning), via the weaving of technical fabric and the production of pigment pastes and granulates through to coating with various materials. Its Apparel Division designs and produces high-quality protective clothing for both industrial and recreational applications.

The mutual benefits of NQP membership are many, as Véronique Bernat, EMEA Nomex® Thermal Industrial Marketing Manager from DPP explained. "Like all our NQP partners, Sioen has long-standing relationships with key end users across Europe. Through the NQP partnership DuPont can better understand industry requirements and continue to develop technology that enables the creation of optimum protective clothing solutions. DuPont brings to the NQP a global overview of technology and product development. As an NQP member, Sioen will have privileged access to DuPontTM Nomex® fibre and fabric innovation, technical expertise and state-of-the art product testing facilities. This includes our unique THERMO-MAN® and ARC-MAN® rigs that enable the quality and performance of finished garments to be precisely monitored. We are delighted to welcome Sioen on board the programme."