Gore, a leading company. Visit establishments Miesbach (GER)

Bavarian guest does not produce the Gore tex, or rather, it produces only at the end of the internal testing: it is here that a product receives the go-to production.
The building, which by 'exterior is an anonymous factory, the inside is very cozy, very recently renovated has a reception room with iPad technology made anywhere to read the latest experiences and activities supported by Gore around the world. All surrounded by a look of glass and wood, very luminoso.Ma is not the appearance that we are interested in what the substance.
We are sent in the test product, which is divided into two sections, and encouraged to photograph everything and ask any question. A good start, a sign of transparency and belief in their products.
As you know Gore is a manufacturer that provides the laminates to third parties that form the finished garment, but also produces his own with two brands: Gore Running and Gore Bike.
The test area is then divided into tests to check the resistance of the laminate in about thirty different tests and tests of finished product (with the definitive leaders sent by the partner companies) to test the strength of seams zip and welds.
The first part of the test is of vital importance. The Gore-tex membrane is in fact a very white, very waterproof but breathable (is porous, it has holes that are thousands of times smaller than the drops and hundreds of times larger than the steam, allowing the exit of the same ). However, the membrane is not very resistant and therefore must be inserted between two materials: one external and one internal.
Gore produces about 90% of the finished fabric for manufacturers (there are currently 42 houses in the clothing and footwear to use it), thus realizing not only the Gore-tex but also the external and internal parts of the material.
This entails the need to test each time that the product has the necessary characteristics for apporgli the trademark Gore.
Among the laboratory tests have shown that there is very interesting to check the seal to the pressure of the tissue: it is kept packed with jets of water exceeding 1 bar (hundreds of kilograms per square centimeter) and the fabric does not break. But we tried to puncture it with a needle and, if from every hole, the water flowed, the excellent thing is that the hole, despite the pressure, did not extend

Other tests included the density of the weave of the fabric, check with an electronic counter that counts how many there are individual wires in the fabric, color fastness to sun exposure, washing and weathering, resistance to stress with a machine that simulates hundreds of movements per minute, the test of breathability and impermeability test, what you see in the picture here, which is well understood already at first glance the difference between impermeability (as seen in the photo) and simple water-repellent (which is slipping away slowly but the water is wet).

Yet another test that has particularly impressed me is the wash. Gore requires that materials are not only waterproof at the time of sale, but even after hundreds of washes. It is simulated in a particular machine (with the blades in order to simulate the friction due to the use of the product, as you see at left) are washed clothes for 24 hours straight and then analyzed and so rilavati.E dozens of times. This simulates so many washes and scanned his head (which meanwhile has been reduced to tatters by the counter-rotating blades inside the washing machine) must give the same results of waterproofing and breathability.

In continuation of the test has since been able to verify what does the slogan "Guaranteed to keep you dry" written on each product sold. That is, you are guaranteed to keep you dry. To my amazement, not a slogan but a promise true, with plenty of opportunity to return the product even after ten years, if well preserved and not torn, if it proves permeable.

But of this I speak in the second part of the article.

Gore, una azienda all'avanguardia. (2° parte) Continua il resoconto del nostro viaggio all'interno dei laboratori Gore a Miesbach in Germania sulle alpi bavaresi, alla scoperta dei segreti e le tecnologie ... >> Leggi