Investigation of molten metal protection properties of workwear fabrics

Foundry industry has big slice that plays a crucial role at development of countries and provides employment for many people at whole manufacturing industry. Profession of casting is full of vital dangers from the beginning of process; melting metal and moving it to molds, until the end of process; pouring this molten metal to molds. Thus, it is very significant to protect workers providing them with the proper protective clothes they need. There are quite a few foundry workers and each one of them has to use protective clothes while working. Regarding this issue, a quastionnare including 32 questions was prepared and it was performed by 30 different companies in different cities of Turkey. Aim of this questionnare is to evaluate the general situation in foundry sector and about usage of protective clothes among industry workers around the country. Furthermore, fabrics of the most preferred protective clothes in foundry sector were obtained and tested. A study was maintained to measure the performance and physical characteristics of these fabrics. In order to measure how much these fabrics could protect againist molten metal, a machine was built according to TS EN ISO 9185. This of molten metal protection level measurement machine was the first in Turkey. As a consequence, all of questionnare results are applied to participant of foundry firms, performance and physical test results of fabrics with these fabrics molten metal protective level that evaluate together, purpose of the most suitable fabric was determined.