High altitude clothing: 

• High altitude clothing are used for protection against extreme weather conditions like extremely low temperature, high velocity winds, snow fall etc. especially in critical combat areas like Siachen.
• The clothing at high altitudes needs to meet both functional and comfort properties. High altitude clothing is also known as Extreme cold climate clothing (ECC).

Product characteristics:

• The high altitude clothing consists of
  1. Jacket,
  2. Waist coat,
  3. Trousers,
  4. Glacier cap,
  5. Rappelling gloves and
  6. Glacier gloves.
• The gear typically weight of special clothing is around nine to ten kilograms.
• The typical characteristics of high altitude clothing are:
  1. Hydrophilic - Waterproof and moisture resistant
  2. Breathable
  3. Abrasion resistance
  4. Maintain high integrity
  5. Resistance to quick wear and tear.
• The material used for these clothing is typically hydrophilic polyurethane coating, Gore-Tex coating or Sympatex coating.
• The hydrophilic properties are introduced by these coatings or laminates.
• Micro porous coatings or laminates can be produced by mechanical fibrillation, phase separation, solvent extraction or solvent exchange.

Raw materials

• Outermost garment is made of a three layer fabric having PTFE sandwiched between two layers of Nylon Fabric, which acts as Breathable Membrane.

Technology used

• Weaving
• Knitting