Worst Case Scenarios Come Alive With Thermo-Man®

DuPont™ Thermo-Man® enables us to help manufacturers offer better, safer products.

Fires are unpredictable. So to test fabrics and garments under the most extreme conditions, DuPont turns to independently certified Thermo-Man® for help. This life-sized, instrumented mannequin system is one of the most advanced thermal burn injury evaluation devices in the world. Covered with 122 heat sensors and dressed in test garments, Thermo-Man® helps manufacturers ensure optimal product performance. Thermo-Man® is a test mannequin – the first of its kind developed in conjunction with the US Government to help protect combat personnel from burns.

With this type of testing, DuPont works closely together with spinners, weavers and garment makers, to help them supply safe personal protective clothing, and improve the personal protective equipment available today. Since the 1970s, Thermo-Man® tests have been conducted for a broad range of fields, including the petroleum, petrochemical, and chemical industries, electric and gas utilities and fire services. 

As different as these industries may be, they all have one common goal: protecting people from fires. And we’re happy to help these industries with their hazard assessments so they have the protection they need for their specific hazard.

Thermo-Man® tests are conducted at the leading edge technical center in Meyrin, Switzerland and throughout Europe. Thermo-Man® is the only mobile test mannequin that measures the protective performance of a variety of garments and clothing systems for firefighters, industrial workers, military and police under simulated flash fire conditions that can reach temperatures as high as those of molten lava rock. Since the first European fire exposure test in Meyrin, Switzerland in 1989, more than 8,000 tests have been carried out on Thermo-Man® – the equivalent of more than one test per day.

A second Thermo-Man® unit is in preparation for the Middle East region and will be inaugurated in September 2012. The unit will be based in Dubai but will also travel around the region.

DuPont™ Nomex® partners can have privileged access to DuPont technical expertise and the leading edge product testing facilities, including Thermo-Man® and DuPont™ Arc-Man® rigs that help enable the quality and performance of their finished garments to be precisely monitored.