July/August 2007
The Uniform Laboratory
a testing ground for the uniforms of the future.
By Jay Gordon
It is just 8' x 10', with an 8' ceiling - smaller than the walk-in closets in many newer homes. There's just enough room for two, maybe three people, some exercise equipment and a thermal camera.
Yet this tiny space, tucked away in the engineering building on the campus of Central Michigan University, is having a huge impact on the design and testing of uniforms and performance apparel.
It's the university's new $80,000 environmental chamber, and it can simulate temperatures between minus 20 and 200 degrees Fahrenheit and from 5% to 95% percent relative humidity. In other words, the chamber is equally at home pretending to be a frigid meat locker or a parched desert battlefield.
Which is why companies like Reebok, Brooks Brothers and Malden Mills have come to CMU for help in designing next-generation uniforms and apparel.
"We're using a combination of technologies, including body scanners, thermal cameras and the environmental chamber to research the impact of exercise and environment on heat transfer," says Dr. Maureen MacGillivray, professor of apparel merchandising and design at CMU's Department of Human Environmental Studies. "The work we do with the chamber has applications for both the uniform market and the 'mass customization' apparel market, in terms of looking at differences in thermal profi les by age, gender, and BMI [body mass index]. It will help us design garments specifi c to those differences."
Body mapping?
The kind of testing MacGillivray and her
colleagues and students are doing also
helps them see through some of the claims
made with regard to today's performance
fabrics. Body mapping is a good example.
"That is the term du jour in apparel,"
she says. "But some of the companies that
are doing what they call 'body mapping'
are simply using thinner knits in those
areas of the garment that require the most
air permeability," such as under the arms.
By contrast, her research team - which
includes apparel designer Tanya Domina,
computer scientist Patrick Kinnicut and
engineer Terry Lerch - is taking data from
its thermal camera and mapping it onto 3-D
body topography. The result, she says, is real
body mapping based on human physiology
- and it shows that assumptions about areas
of high heat transfer aren't always correct.
Research the CMU lab did for Reebok's
new NHL uniforms proved the point.
"We wouldn't have guessed that the garment would retain so much heat in the shoulders," says MacGillivray. "But it's a highcontact area where the fabric makes closest contact with the body. We had to fi gure out how to maximize heat transfer in that area, maybe even more so than the underarm."
It's always gratifying when the professor and her students can see the practical applications of their research. "It's great to work on a real-world project," says MacGillivray of the Reebok project. "This technology is so new that companies aren't really aware of it and how it can be utilized to improve apparel design."
Research being done in the environmental chamber is helping companies evaluate whether new fi nishes really do provide thermoregulation - dissipating heat in hot weather, retaining heat when it's cold. Ultimately, the technology will help uniform buyers - and consumers - make more informed decisions about the garments they purchase.
"I bought an expensive ski jacket for my daughter that had a phase change material embedded in one of the layers, and I didn't even realize it," says MacGillivray. "What we're doing in the lab will help buyers answer important questions about whether a technology actually does what it says it can do. If we can perceive that, and the wearer can tell, then it's worth every penny."
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