Impact Resistant Gloves: Protect Yourself, and Others, from the Crushing Dangers of the Industry
Choosing a Reliable Pair of Impact-Resistant Safety Gloves
As mentioned in the previous Cut Resistant Hand Protection blog post, when it comes to the safety of you and your workers, no shortcuts are worth taking. With hand and wrist injuries being the most common work-related injuries in the industry, ensuring safety, before all else, is essential.
Safety Choices that Make an Impact
Protecting your hand, often means much more than protecting the palms from risks such as cuts and abrasions, as mentioned in the previous blog. In some industries, such as the Oil, Gas, and Mining industries, impact injuries to the top of the hand are particularly prevalent, however, the risk still exists in many general manual handling situations as well. When working with hazardous tools such as tongs, wrenches, winches, and wire ropes, as well as building materials such as bricks, timber, machinery and specific equipment, the risk of injury is always present. Mec-Flex High-Performance Gloves incorporate a K-Guard® Exoskeleton, which provides top-of-the-hand protection. This “armour” provides metacarpal, knuckle, and finger protection, as the soft and high impact absorbing Thermo Plastic Rubber (TPR) components of the exoskeleton are engineered to provide padding and reduce the force of impact directed onto the hand.
How do I know if a product meets AS and NZ standards?
At Elliotts, we pride ourselves on ensuring that, where possible, our products are certified by SAI Global to AS/NZ standards. Without this certification, buyers are taking a chance on the unknown. We provide our buyers with impact-resistant products because when it comes to impact resistance, we don’t settle for “good enough”. It’s either resistant, or it isn’t.
In 2016, an impact protection verification was added to the EN388 standard. If the requirements are fulfilled, after rigorous testing, the glove will be marked with a P (Pass), as can be seen in the EN388 shield image on the right. If a product fails testing, there will be no marking or an X. When you’re in the market for impact resistant gloves, simply locate an Elliotts product with this marking, and you can feel confident in knowing you, and your workers, are fully protected from impact-related injuries.
Impact Testing to EN 13594:2015
EN 13594:2015 is the standard used to test gloves that are designed to provide impact protection. The standard is also used for testing motorcycle gloves and must not crack when a 2.5 kg load with an impact energy of 5 Joule drops on the tested material - peak transmitted shall also be < 7kN. The result is either a Pass or Fail. If the glove passes a “P” is added to the other levels under the hammer pictogram.
Elliotts Mec-Flex gloves listed below have been independently tested and pass these requirements.
Where does it protect?
K-Guard® Exoskeleton protection is provided on the orange shaded areas of the image below:
Elliotts products with Impact Resistance:
◉ Mec-Flex® Oiler
◉ Mec-Flex® Oiler LX
◉ Mec-Flex® Oiler Pro C5
For more information on our safety work glove products with full impact resistance, Mec-Flex Gloves products page.
CONTACT US
Contact us today to speak to one of our team members about the best safety products for your workplace. Call us on 07 3265 2944 or send us a message through our Contact page.
