Characterization of Waterproofness in Ready-to-Wear Professional Garments

In the field of waterproof garments, there are commercial systems available that allow either fabrics or ready-to-wear garments to be tested, complying with existing testing standards. These standards and systems, however, do not account for some important effects, as for instance proper test ergonomics or the diagnosis of wrong sealing of seams, which are in fact very significant to the final quality of the product. In a previous work, the authors have presented the high-level design and development of a testing system that covers all aspects of waterproof garment testing. It is divided in a mechanical subsystem, consisting of a rain conditions emulator and a manikin that wears the clothes under test, and an electronic subsystem, consisting of sensors, an artificial vision environment and the associated elements in charge of all data acquisition, control and supervisory tasks. In this paper, the practical aspects of waterproofness testing are presented and discussed, with emphasis on the issues related to the set-up and integration of the electronic subsystem and, in particular, the humidity and water presence sensors