stupidity personified

The following article talks about a concept that in my educated opinion can be potentially very dangerous. Heated clothing products do not perform very well and when applied to arctic situations not at all! The cold temperatures render batteries useless in a very short time. In years past I have made several hundred insulated cases for the military in the Alaskan command to keep batteries warm for as long as possible.

Heat able electric fabric could keep soldiers warm and dry

High-tech fabric intended for gloves and other military clothing contains silver nanowires that could be heated to keep soldiers warm, while a hydrogel layer would absorb sweat (Credit: US Army Natick Soldier Research Development and Engineering Center)

When you wear gloves you are separating your fingers and in doing so they cannot help each other stay warm as is the case with mittens. When you wear Lamilite insulated mittens any sweat is driven out of the mitten so it is never a problem. Getting the sweat to this “hydrogel” layer will not happen. Electrical heating of the gloves is a meaningless exercise.

Keeping safe and comfortable in arctic conditions is a precarious balancing act between protecting one's self against the cold without overheating. This is particularly true of a soldier's hands and feet while working in the cold, so scientists from Stanford University and the US Army Natick Soldier Research, Development & Engineering Center are working on energized fabrics that heat up when powered, yet wick away sweat and dry easily.

I have been making hand-wear and footwear that have proven over and over again how well they perform keeping hands and feet comfortable in temperatures as low as 80 degrees below zero F. A number of years ago I was supplying the L-12 Lamilite to Belleville Boot Company and they made hundreds of pairs of arctic boots and over boots that the U.S. Army field tested and the U.S. Army reported back to Belleville who reported back to me that NOT ONE TESTER HAD COLD FEET IN -50 DEGREE TEMPERATURES. Wicking is not a problem!!! Of course it is true of soldier’s hands and feet as it is true for everyone. Maybe the scientists should go into the field to test what they think (I do not think they actually think) works.

If there's one constant in military life, it's that the issued kit isn't all that should be – especially when it comes to gloves and boots. It's for this reason that many armed services allow their members to buy items of kit commercially that are better suited, yet still meet military specifications.

The issue kits don’t work nor do the products that they buy, since what they buy as far as I have seen in solicitations is no different than the issue products.

According to Paola D'Angelo at Natick, the US Army has a particular problem because the cold weather gloves used by its soldiers were designed 30 years ago and often leave personnel with cold, numbed hands. The same is true of the footwear, and the cold-weather gear in general suffers from the problem of how to keep soldiers warm in bitterly cold conditions, yet not overheat and cause them to sweat while exerting themselves. The latter is of particular importance because damp, sweaty arctic gear can be fatal in subzero temperatures.

Cold weather gloves designed and made today are still gloves that separate the fingers so they do not perform any better than cold weather gloves of any time period. There is no problem keeping soldiers warm just like there is no problem keeping the oil field workers in Alaska warm during the winter. Dress the soldier in Lamilite insulated clothing from head to foot and the problem is solved. If Lamilite (Climashield) clothing keeps people all over Alaska warm it will also keep the soldiers warm, after all they too are people. Since the Lamilite does not retain ANY MOISTURE the arctic gear will not get or stay wet.

To help alleviate this, the US Army-funded basic research project is looking into developing new fabric with a focus on cold-weather gloves. The idea is to incorporate very fine silver nanowires set in military-grade fabrics, like polyester and a cotton/nylon blend. By applying three volts to a 1 x 1 in (2.5 x 2.5 cm) test swatch, the temperature of the swatch can be raised by 100° F (56° C) in one minute.

What happens when the electrical source dies away, you freeze. You fool the body at first with the heat. When the heat source stops working without proper insulation that is when you are in serious trouble. There are no new fabrics, but old tried and proven fabrics that are used today such as Lamilite insulation that can be combined with any fabric and yopu will have warm hands because you are wearing mittens. Gloves are guaranteed to allow your hands to be cold.

The ultimate goal is to produce uniforms that can withstand repeated washings and that soldiers could adjust the temperature of by simply dialing up and down the voltage. This would not only provide better warmth with less sweating, but would also make the garments lighter. To further lighten the load, the researchers are looking at alternative power sources to reduce the need for batteries.

Lamilite clothing can be laundered an almost infinite number of times. Again no power source required. They want the soldier to micro manage the heat is lunacy. In extreme cold, if you do start to sweat open your neckline for about 2 minutes and all excess heat leaves very quickly. What will the soldier do when he turns the dial all the way to high and nothing happens? He might get really angry because he is flat out cold.

As another refinement, the team is also including a layer of hydrogel particles consisting of polyethylene glycol or poly (N-isopropylacrylamide). This hydrogel might be able to absorb sweat and keep moisture from migrating from one layer of fabric to another, keeping soldiers drier and more comfortable. On return to base, the sweat could be allowed to evaporate by simply hanging the uniforms up to dry.

With Lamilite insulation all of the sweat is effectively driven out of the garments, I am living proof of that as can be seen and read when I was lost. How about the hydrogel “might” be able to absorb sweat! You would think they would know if this could happen but then again I do not think they are able to think.

Though the silver nanowires are able to handle repeat laundering, the team still needs to determine the durability of the hydrogel layer and its compatibility with the nanowires. After completing work on energized gloves, the next step will be to apply the fabric to other articles of clothing for the torso and legs. Eventually, the technology may even end up in consumer goods.

Can you imagine the cost of making the fabric with all of those nanowires, I can’t, but I do know it would be a gross waste of money. I hope that this program dies quickly because it will not serve the soldier in any manner in a positive way. It makes my stomach churn having read this stupidity!

The research was presented at the 254th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS).

Source: American Chemical Society

<div class="GalleryImages__image gallery__image"> <figure itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject"> <img class="is--visible" src="https://img.newatlas.com/electric-fabric-2.jpg?auto=format%2Ccompress&fit=max&h=670&q=60&w=1000&s=c43006b03a514099b8b40bea05b6a492" alt="High-tech fabric intended for gloves and other military clothing contains silver nanowires that could be heated to keep soldiers warm, while a hydrogel layer would absorb sweat" /> <figcaption class="caption caption--inline" itemprop="caption"> <p> <span>High-tech fabric intended for gloves and other military clothing contains silver nanowires that could be heated to keep soldiers warm, while a hydrogel layer would absorb sweat</span> <span>(Credit: US Army Natick Soldier Research Development and Engineering Center)</span> </p> </figcaption> </figure> </div>

The American Chemical Society employees have been breathing to many of the fumes they create.