BFRL: Turnout Gear Selector

Turnout Gear Selector (ToGS ™) Software Tool

Turnout Gear Selector (ToGS) helps the manufacturers, purchasers and users of fire turnout gear evaluate and select the turnout coat and pants ensemble that best meets their needs. There are a total of 41 ensembles available for evaluation. Each ensemble is a system of components: there are 9 different outer shells, 5 moisture barriers, 8 thermal liners and 7 face cloth materials. Data on Performance Attributes of these ensembles are based on performance tests conducted and published by DuPont in its Internet-based “EZ Spec Machine.”

ToGS ranks all turnout coat and pants ensembles by their user-weighted performance test scores to identify which ensemble system has the best overall performance independent of cost. These results help you determine which ensembles warrant a request for bids.

ToGS consists of four tabbed panels which can each be brought to the foreground for display in the main window. The panels are: Overview, Importance Weights, Ensemble Performance Data, and Results. All of the functions of ToGS are accessible in these four panels.

The Importance Weights panel allows you to specify the relative value that you place on each of the Performance Attributes. For guidance, ToGS offers a set of initial, default Importance Weights established by a group of twelve experts, including firefighters and manufacturers of turnout gear convened for this purpose in 2005.

The Ensemble Performance Data panel displays the actual performance test data for the 41 ensemble systems used in ToGS.

Composition of Turnout Coat System

The Results panel displays a bar chart ranking all ensembles included in the analysis. ToGS combines the Ensemble Performance Data with the Importance Weights to calculate the Performance Score results. The calculation is based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) as described in the ASTM Standard E 1765-02, “Standard Practice for Applying Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to Multiattribute Decision Analysis of Investments Related to Buildings and Building Systems.”

Version 1.0

Version 1.0 of the software is now available for download. Version 1.0 runs on Windows 2000 and XP on a computer that has at least a 600MHZ Pentium-level processor, 64MB of RAM, and 10MB of available hard disk space.

Please send your comments about Version 1.0 to togs@nist.gov. If you experience an error in the software, please include in your email information about the steps that led up to the error, any error screens that showed, and information about your system including operating system, processor speed, and amount of RAM.

"This software was developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology by employees of the Federal Government in the course of their official duties and is in the public domain. NIST assumes no responsibility whatsoever for its use by other parties, and makes no guarantees, expressed or implied, about its quality, reliability, or any other characteristic. We would appreciate acknowledgement if the software is used."