“Personal protective equipment” covers a wide range of ever-advancing products. Safety+Health, with help from the International Safety Equipment Association, recently reached out to PPE manufacturers with three questions: What trends are happening now, what challenges are your customers reaching out to you with, and what technological innovations are here or on the horizon?precision die cutting
“Since OSHA regulation 1910.133(a)(2) went into effect, more thorough eye protection – that now includes side protection in specs – became required. Foamed eyewear quickly became the industry’s go-to solution for meeting this new standard. The unintended downside of the foam fix, however, turned out to be the increased fogging of specs due to body heat and the extreme working environment in which workers use them. Anti-fog-resistant technology is now the latest product trend emerging in our industry.”
“We are seeing a consolidation of suppliers as well as an emergence of private-label safety gear from large distributors who require more general purpose PPE. Innovations on specialized PPE are coming from the major manufacturers of safety equipment. One example is hand protection. The new ANSI/ISEA 138 impact standard for safety gloves went into effect recently, requiring a more stringent test method, classification and labeling for gloves that promise impact protection. Impact glove manufacturers are now held accountable for their claims, where in the past claims were made with very little to back them up.”
“In the respiratory protective equipment market, we’re seeing more companies reassessing their respiratory protection to comply with the OSHA standard regarding facial hair and tight-fitting respirators. Employers and employees alike are coming to understand that even just minimal stubble is enough to break the seal on a tight-fitting respirator, rendering it ineffective. This has led to increased interest in loose-fitting respirators, which do not require fit testing and allow the operator to maintain whatever facial hair they like without compromising their protection.”