TODAY’S PATENT – FIREFIGHTER GARMENT WITH LINER INSPECTION SYSTEM

This Firefighter garment was invented by Julie A. Snedeker (Northwood, NH). It was patented by the USPTO on March 23, 1999 bearing patent number US5884332A. The current invention relates to firefighter clothing that has a built-in liner inspection system.

A jacket or pair of pants’ outer protective shell consists of a torso section and two appendage pieces attached to the torso component. Inside the shell is a liner that has an inner thermal barrier and an outside moisture barrier. The several sections that make up the moisture barrier are connected at the seams.

To create a waterproof seal at the seams, sealing tapes are placed over the seams on the interior of the moisture barrier. The lower edge parts of the thermal barrier and the moisture barrier are spaced apart and detachably attached to each other, allowing the barriers to be physically detached so that the sealing tapes at each seam may be visually inspected.

The remaining edge pieces of the barriers are permanently attached to each other within the jacket. At intervals along the remaining edge pieces, these remaining edge portions are detachably attached to the shell. The upper edge sections of the barriers in the trousers are detachably attached to the shell and permanently bonded to each other. Fasteners that are detachable are positioned at intervals around the lower edge part of the moisture barrier to link it to the shell in both the jacket and the pants.