Drivers are familiar with this situation: a pedestrian suddenly appears out of nowhere at the side of the road in the rainy night. The reason they are noticed at the last second is often their dark clothing. "If you're wearing a black sweater and turn off the lights, you won't be visible," says Wolfgang Quednau. Sounds banal, but for the textile engineer this simple truth outlines exactly how high-performance high-visibility clothing works. Their fluorescent yellow or orange-red make the clothing glow and make the wearer visible. The reflective strips, which are attached to the clothing according to clearly defined specifications, ensure that the wearer can be recognized from afar: Attention! A person is moving here. "We intuitively perceive this without thinking when reflective stripes on the sleeves, torso and trouser legs signal the shape "human"," explains Wolfgang Quednau, who is involved in several standardization committees, including the ISO 20471 committee for high-visibility protective clothing.

Optimum visibility

ISO 20471 defines in detail the requirements for clothing for people who are exposed to a high risk in terms of visibility and recognizability during their work, e.g. during road work, waste collection, rescue operations or on railroad tracks. It is mandatory for them to wear high-visibility protective clothing that is certified in accordance with the international ISO 20471 standard. "The criteria defined there include 360-degree visibility and the definition of retroreflection in terms of quality and quantity that comes back. This is ensured by the reflective strips, among other things," says Wolfgang Quednau, addressing a consequential problem, as clothing is subject to heavy wear and tear during physical work: "When I'm laying asphalt or cleaning the road, my clothing gets dirty. That can mean I'm no longer clearly visible."

Full-service system with function test

Soiled fluorescent fabrics and reflective strips reduce visibility and therefore safety. Incorrect washing can also reduce retroreflection. Regular inspections of high-visibility clothing are therefore literally vital. At Mewa, professional care and functional testing of high-visibility clothing are part of the service. "We offer certified high-visibility clothing exclusively as a full-service system. This means that everyone we dress has several items of clothing ready to hand in their wardrobe. We collect the soiled clothing at agreed times, it is professionally washed and - if necessary - repaired," reports Silvia Mertens, Head of Product Management at Mewa. The service also includes a functional check of the clothing. "High-visibility clothing that leaves our factories after the care process is safe," confirms Silvia Mertens. "So everyone who wears them can be sure that they will be noticed from afar: Watch out! A person is working there."