Page 66 - Occupational Health & Safety, June 2018

OIL & GAS
In Gas and Oil, It All Starts from the Ground Up
Different footwear materials have different pros and cons for workers in this industry. BY COLIN CLARK
62 Occupational Health & Safety | JUNE 2018
www.ohsonline.com
The oil and gas business was built from the ground up, from the feet of the roughneck. It’s a demanding industry that asks people to venture out, conquering hazardous ter- rain and working long hours in constantly changing climates. Advancements in oil rig and drill site tech- nologies have been made to increase productivity and safety, but a fundamental component of the indus- try has been left relatively untouched until now. The roughneck boot has undergone a long-overdue trans- formation in recent years with the introduction of the Purofort® boot.
There are truly three different materials that best serve the OGM marketplace: You have the classic leather boot that has been worn in the USA since oil was found centuries ago, the rubber or neoprene boot that went out to the field at the turn of the 20th century, and the PuroFort® or high-pressure polyure- thane or PU boot. Each boot has its own set of pros and cons. Understanding the work environment and what elements your team will face are important fac- tors in deciding which boot is the best solution for your workforce.
You should always make sure that your footwear has the right safety components—protective toe cap, protective mid-plate, and the right EH properties. As all of the boots listed below provide models with these components, we will leave this out of our comparison.
The Materials
Polyurethane
Polyurethane is the latest in footwear innovation. PU boots are created by combining Polyol and Iso- cyanate and other ingredients depending on the end users’ needs with millions of air bubbles, creating a lightweight, thermo-regulating, long-lasting boot. PU boots can be created through two different processes; the basic way is a low-pressure system that creates a good boot, and the optimal is a high-pressure system that will produce a lighter, stronger, and more flexible boot. For our purposes we will focus on high-pressure PU boots.
Waterproof: PU boots are inherently waterproof, no treatment added or coating needs to be added, which means the waterproof properties never fade and cannot be washed away.
Temperature: PU boots provide thermo regula- tion, not just insulation. The air bubbles help keep hot and cold air out of the boot, keeping your foot at the temperature as when you put it in. For example, these boots can be worn in the oil sands of Canada all year round, keeping your feet warm in the winter and cool in the summer.
Weight: Being engineered of air bubbles makes for an extremely light weight. PU boots are on average 40 percent lighter than neoprene boots, 45 percent light- er than PVC boots. On average, they help to keep over 500 pounds of walking weight off your feet through- out the work day vs. leather boots.
Comfort: High pressure PU boots are extremely flexible yet amazingly abrasion resistant. PU boots are 40 percent more flexible than neoprene boots, almost 80 percent more flexible than PVC, and 55 percent more flexible than leather. That flexibility, combined with its light weight, provides a boot that moves and flexes with every step, providing extreme comfort.
Slip: These boots carry the vaunted SRC slip rat- ing. SRC is the most stringent specification for safety footwear and slip resistance. SRC tests the product under two separate conditions: ceramic tile wetted with dilute soap solution and tested on smooth steel with glycerol. These represent the oil rig and drill site floor conditions. You can find some PU boots’ Vibram rubber outsole that is also SRC rated, providing some of the best slip resistance on the planet in any surface.
Recommended end user applications: upstream oil
DUNLOP PROTECTIVE FOOTWEAR USA