With the recent acquisition of Ringers, Ansell consolidates its impact expertise, especially regarding workers’ hands. All Ansell gloves are tested and certified by third-party laboratories to ensure they meet the demanding expectations of workers in various industries, such as construction and fire prevention. All models are taking into account the shape of the hand and the intended function to ensure the gloves remain in place and the hands are always adequately protected.
But how can we evaluate the protection level of gloves?
The new ISEA standard for impact protection
The proper evaluation of impact protection products offered on the market represented a challenge as no standard existed to efficiently measure impact protection performance. Now, things have changed as the ISEA (International Safety Equipment Association) adopted a new standard for impact protection, establishing a reliable method to evaluate the quality of an impact-protection glove.
The standard states the minimum requirements for the performance, classification and labeling regarding the impact force against workers’ fingers and knuckles when performing their professional duties.
Simple performance scale
There are three performance levels to designate the impact protection of a glove.
The rating indicates the lowest performance level recorded during the many resistance tests. Level one is corresponding to the lowest rating for impact protection, and level three is the highest rating.
How to calculate the resistance
The test methodology calls for specific preparation and conditioning of the gloves. The test utilizes a flat striking face. The palm side is removed from the glove and impact locations. The samples are mounted centrally on an anvil while 2.5 kg mass is dropped with an impact energy of 5 J. Peak transmitted force will be recorded by a force transducer beneath the anvil.
The lower the transmitted force, the greater the degree of protection. The impact test will be performed on the knuckles and fingers separately. The highest mean transmitted force between the tests is recorded. For example, if the knuckle rating is two, but the fingers rating is one, one will be assigned to the glove.
The Ringers impact protection system
With strong roots in the Oil and Gas Industry where crushing and pinching injuries are common, the people at Ringers have spent years refining their impact protection products.
The signature impact protection system uses thermoplastic rubber (TPR) as the primary method for protecting hands from impact injuries. TPR is ideal because of its elastic, rubber-like attributes that effectively disperse impact energy away from the bone, reducing the force of the impact.
Thermoplastic rubber (TPR) used on protective gloves is a proprietary formula that reduces the force of impact in key areas including on fingers and knuckles, while also maintaining a level of softness for flexibility. Case studies show that our gloves reduce the rate of incident and severity of hand injuries as well as overall spend when compared to the competition.
TPR cross section
Each piece of TPR is securely stitched to the dorsal side of the hand. Our TPR designs follow the anatomy of the hand so that a full range of motion is maintained. TPR is molded in a variety of shapes and sizes to fit the purpose and function of the glove. Heavy-duty tasks require impact protection covering more area of the hand than lighter duty tasks.
To find out more about the new ISEA impact protection standard, or on the Ringers or Ansell products, contact our experts.
