Page 45 - OHS, January/February 2021

protection market was rife for innovation that would meet level 3, the standard’s highest protection level, while outperforming existing technologies on the other key product attributes to support compliance—namely those related to wearer comfort.
Adding the Benefits of Proven Protection
PPE standards enable manufacturers to determine the performance requirements for the products they design and the procedures to test them with. They also help health and safety managers make informed choices about the right product for any given job.
Like all standards, ANSI/ISEA 138 sets minimum performance, classification and labelling requirements for occupational hand protection products. However, this particular standard goes further by incorporating performance levels from one to three, clearly identified with mandatory pictograms to help health and safety managers select the most appropriate product for a task.
“The revolution in back-of-hand impact performance through recent material advances has made ANSI/ISEA 138 practicable and facilitated a standard that is a major advance in terms of PPE protection,” says Kevin Fleer, D3O’s Head of Product. “The performance levels identified in the standard can be achieved more easily through next-generation tech.”
Promoting Behaviour Change Through Innovation
Traditional TPR or injection-molded manufacturing methods require the bumper geometry of a glove to be a large, solid, joined surface, which hinders dexterity and comfort. Printing directly onto a fabric enables intricate, open geometries with many small, individual modules, so flexibility is only constrained by the material itself.
By making it possible for protection to be printed throughout a glove rather than occupying only the sections which would allow stitching or gluing, up to 26 percent more hand coverage can be achieved compared to other gloves on the market. For the first time, the fingers and knuckles are connected and protection is extended towards the wrist.
This protection is also up to almost 50 percent thinner than other products, enhancing comfort over an extended period of wear. In short, it offers all the advantages of impact protection without any of its limitations.
Impact Print will make its industry debut in January 2021 as part of Mechanix Wear’s SpeedKnit line of coated work gloves. The key benefits will be no stitched parts, delivering increased comfort and flexibility while achieving the highest ANSI/ISEA 138 impact performance level 3 with a lighter-weight, lower-profile design that has tremendous dexterity advantages over most of the ANSI/ISEA 138 impact protection level 1 options available in today’s market.
To take advantage of these dexterity and performance gains, Mechanix Wear is utilizing the new touch screen compatible technology on its new SpeedKnit high performance dip knit line.
The Mechanix Wear gloves also meet the EN420 standard, which defines the general requirements and relevant test procedures for glove design and construction. This includes resistance to water penetration, comfort and dexterity, marking and information supplied by the manufacturer.
“The ability to print directly onto a fabric enables the creation of an industrial work glove that delivers breathability, comfort and dexterity compared to traditionally chunky and restrictive
TPR products, without any compromise on impact protection,” concluded Fleer. “This technology pushes boundaries and the design opportunities are limitless.”
Furthermore, health and safety managers can be confident that the combined benefit of greater comfort and ANSI/ISEA 138 level 3 protection will increase levels of PPE compliance, reduce the chances of worker hand injuries and enhance productivity—all positive contributions to a business’s bottom line.
The technology also has potential applications beyond hand protection. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data for 2018 showed that the upper extremities, including the arms, accounted for 31.9 percent of all injuries involving days away from work. The lower extremities, including the legs, accounted for 23.9 percent.4 In the future, innovative industrial sleeves and limb protectors that incorporate printed impact protection could lead to even safer workplaces.
Andrew Shields is an award-winning journalist and editor for D3O.
REFERENCES
1. https://www.bls.gov/web/osh/cd_r19.htm
2. https://www.iadc.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/2018-Annual-
Report-for-Industry-Totals.pdf
3. https://blog.ansi.org/2019/03/ansi-isea-138-2019-standard-impact- gloves/#gref
4. https://www.bls.gov/web/osh/cd_r19.htm
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