Fireproof fabric and protective suit, in particular for motor sports, made of said fabric

Abstract

Fireproof fabric comprising a set of warp threads (C1, . . . C6) and a set of weft threads, wherein said warp threads (C1, . . . C6) are arranged on a plurality of warp levels (A, B, C); all said warp levels are bound together by at least one weft thread (T5) acting as a binding thread and arranged so as to prevent relative slipping of said levels, and at least one of the set of weft threads and the set of warp threads is formed by elasticized threads, comprising a core of elastically deformable material lined with a fireproof material.

Claims

1. A fireproof fabric comprising a set of warp threads and a set of weft threads, wherein: the warp threads are arranged on a plurality of warp levels; all the warp levels are bound together by at least one weft thread acting as a binding thread and arranged so as to prevent relative slipping of said warp levels, and at least one of the set of weft threads and the set of warp threads are elasticized threads comprising a core of elastically deformable material lined with a fireproof material.

2. The fireproof fabric according to claim 1, said elasticized threads comprising an elastomer core.

3. The fireproof fabric according to claim 2, wherein one of the set of warp threads and the set of weft threads have a glass-fiber core and a lining of fireproof material, and the other set of threads have an elastomer core and a lining of fireproof material.

4. The fireproof fabric according to claim 3, wherein the warp threads are made with a glass-fiber core and lining of fireproof material, and the weft threads are made with an elastomer core and lining of fireproof material.

5. The fireproof fabric according to claim 3, wherein the fireproof lining material is an aramid or meta-aramid material.

6. The fireproof fabric according to claim 5, wherein the threads with glass-fiber core are lined with a long-staple aramid or long-staple meta-aramid fiber; the threads with elastomer core are lined with a short-staple aramid or short-staple meta-aramid fiber.

7. The fireproof fabric according to claim 1 wherein all the warp levels are bound together by said at least one binding thread.

8. The fireproof fabric according to claim 7, wherein said at least one binding thread passes around all the warp levels for each pass of the warp.

9. The fireproof fabric according to claim 1, wherein only one of the set of warp threads and set of weft threads are elasticized threads, the fabric being then extensible only in one direction.

10. A method for manufacturing a fireproof fabric, comprising the following steps: providing warp threads on a plurality of warp levels; forming the fabric with weft threads and binding together said warp levels using at least one of the weft threads acting as a binding thread, and arranged to prevent relative slipping of said warp levels; wherein at least one of the weft threads and warp threads are elasticized threads comprising a core of elastically deformable material lined with a fireproof material, resulting in the fireproof fabric being elasticized in at least one direction.

11. A protective suit made at least partially using a fireproof fabric according to claim 1.

12. The protective suit according to claim 11, for practising motor sports.

13. The protective suit according to claim 12, wherein the motor sports is motorcycle racing or auto racing.

Description

DESCRIPTION OF AN EMBODIMENT

[0031] FIG. 1 shows in a schematic form the structure of a fireproof fabric in accordance with a preferred non-limiting mode of implementing the invention. Said figure relates to the example where the fabric comprises three layers bound by an existing weft thread.

[0032] The references C1, C2, . . . C6 denote warp threads which form three levels A, B, C. The warp threads are perpendicular to the plane of FIG. 1 and are separated by a pitch which is equivalent to the distance between the threads C1 and C4.

[0033] The references T1, T2, . . . T6 denote the path of the weft threads. At least one of the weft threads acts as a binding thread, being wound around all the warp levels A, B and C, so as to fasten them and prevent them from slipping on planes parallel to the said layers (parallel to the planes of the threads C1-C6). In FIG. 1 the weft thread T5 is the binding thread; for this purpose said weft thread T5 passes around all the threads of the warp in each passage, as can be noted from the figure, wherein the thread T5 passes around two first warp threads C4 and C5, respectively belonging to the layers A and B and then passes back around the remaining warp thread C6 of the layer C.

[0034] Preferably, the warp threads C1, . . . C6 are made with a glass-fiber core lined with aramid material. The weft threads T1, . . . T6 are instead made with an elastomer core also lined with aramid material. Consequently the fabric has a monodirectional elasticity in the direction of the weft threads.

[0035] It can be noted from FIG. 1 that the fabric leaves the loom in a triple-layer configuration, said configuration being obtained by the specific progression of the weft threads, at least one of them acting as a binding thread. The multilayered configuration is therefore an intrinsic feature of the fabric according to the invention, differently from the prior art where it is obtained subsequently by overlaying layers of different materials and stitching them together with an additional thread.