STEAM CONDITIONING & FILL POWER
Max J. Lieber - IDFB TC Meeting Moscow 2004
IDFL proposed the tumble dry method for fill power conditioning first in 1998. Since then IDFL has stated in all of its literature that for some products, especially jackets and sleeping bags, even tumble dry conditioning did not fully restore fill power to its original state. IDFL has researched “Water Rinse” conditioning for several years.
Last year, the Japan Down Corporative Association proposed a Steam Conditioning Method for Fill Power. During the TC meeting in January they gave good evidence that the steam conditioning method is even more effective than tumble dry in determining the actual fill power potential which represents the fill power value at the time the down was processed.
Shortly thereafter, the German journal “Alpin” published results of fill power testing on 13 down sleeping bags. The fill power in all 13 bags was tested using tumble dry conditioning. The results of the testing show that tumble dry fill power was far below declared fill for all sleeping bags. Hohenstein tested the material. IDFL re-tested some of the material and found the Hohenstein results to be accurate.
IDFL believes that the higher claimed fill power and the lower tested fill power both might be accurate.
The wide range of fill power results is neither a mistake in the testing regulation, nor an oversight of the testing laboratories -- it is plain and simply one of the unique qualities of the natural product that we call down. Down can be aggressively compressed and washed and dried and shipped and stored. After the consumer uses and cares for a down product – fill power returns close to its original state.
The problem for testing institutes is how to simulate the use and care of the product by the consumer to determine the original fill power. The original fill power is the maximum potential fill power.
The problem with fill power, therefore lies with the laboratory conditioning methods.
After reviewing the work in Japan, IDFL has completed over 1,000 tests of steam conditioning fill power.
Our conclusions are as follows:
- The Japanese Association data is correct. Steam Conditioning for fill power testing is likely the most accurate and fastest way of determining consistent fill power.
- Steam Conditioning simulates the human interaction with down products by adding the
following to the down in the conditioning box:
- Air circulation
- Moisture/humidity
- Warmth
- Steam Conditioning is the best way of determining fill power for jackets, vests and sleeping bags. IDFL has stated on every occasion that tumble dry fill power does not always give a fair and accurate representation of fill power for jackets and sleeping bags. Therefore, IDFL has recommended that “Water Rinse” conditioning be used for such products. Steam Conditioning is possibly a better and less complicated conditioning method than Water Rinse Conditioning
- Steam Conditioning has very little effect on down that comes straight from a processing plant. This demonstrates that Steam Conditioning will not artificially increase fill power.
- Steam Conditioning is also useful in testing bulk down that has been compressed in overseas shipments. Tumble dry helps also, but steam conditioning appears to return the fill power much closer to the original value and in a shorter period of time.
- After Steam Conditioning, the sample must remain in a conditioning box for at least 72- hours before testing (just as in tumble dry conditioning). We have passed out some additional information titled Warm and Soft. Also included in the handouts are a few charts.
We have passed out some additional information titled Warm and Soft. Also included in the handouts are a few charts.
Together with collegues in other test institutes we hope that further research will confirm the promising results of steam conditioning and therefore improve the reproducibility of fill power testing.
Objectives of Further Research
- Measure the effect of steam conditioning on a variety of down products.
- Measure the effect of steam conditioning on down that has been compressed and shipped in a variety of methods.
- Determine the reproducibility of steam conditioning in a series of round robin tests with several independent and in-house company laboratories.
Request to IDFB
IDFL requests that the Technical Commission approve a technical research project expanding on the work that the Japanese Association and IDFL have completed thus far. We would propose a series of round-robin tests with other selected IDFB-recognized labs (much like the research completed for specie and other revised test methods.) We recommend that the evaluation team be composed of Hohenstein, the Japanese Association, IDFL and a Chinese laboratory.
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