Safety Helmets—What they are, and How to Choose the Best?

Head injury is one of the primary occupational accidents, especially on construction sites. Every year many of the workers get injured or are even killed because of head injuries. Some of the main reasons for a head injury risk at a workplace involve:

● Place where there is a possibility of a worker stuck on his head by a flying or a falling object

● A workplace where a worker may strike their head against a protruded or a swinging object

● Where a worker may happen to strike their head against an object during or at the end of a fall

Using an appropriate safety helmet can effectively reduce the risks of serious head injuries.

Choosing the Best Safety Helmet

Go through the article further to understand more about safety helmets and how to choose the one to suit your requirement.

Know More about Safety Helmets

Safety helmets are crucial and even mandatory on many worksites where human labor is involved. These are one of the basic forms of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). While buying, knowing about safety helmet price is critical, but understanding more about this protective gear is even more important to help you make the best choice.

● Safety Helmet’s Method of Protection: Basically a safety helmet protects the top of a head from various falling objects, or striking against objects by absorbing through:
– Partial destruction or damage of the helmet’s shell
– By stretching the helmet’s harness
– By crushing the protective paddings
After the impact, the residual force gets spread over the surface of the helmet lessening the chance of a serious injury.

● Safety Helmet’s General Design: Most of these hard caps are made from three primary parts:
– Shell: A dome-shaped covering for the head made of hard and durable material.
– Harness: It maintains the correct wearing position, and also absorbs shock in case of an impact.
– Chin Strap: This is connected to the shell as part of the retention system. It fits under the chin and helps secure the helmet on the head of the wearer.

Heapro Red Nape Hard Helmet HSD-001 Pack of 5

● Safety Helmet’s Constructional Features: Safety helmets need to fulfill certain requirements as per international and national standards. Some of the most critical standards are:
– Elliptical shell configuration above the headband.
– The vertical clearance between the harness and the shell needs to be greater than 25 mm and lesser than 50 mm.
– The horizontal clearance between the harness and the shell needs to be greater than 5 mm and lesser than 20 mm.
– The Chin strap should be 10 mm wide minimum and should be securely attached to the shell or the headband.
– There should be provisions for ventilation gaps between the shell and the headband.

● Safety Helmet’s (Material): The material used for these helmets should be of high and durable quality, and should withstand extreme climatic conditions. A good industrial safety helmet is made of:
– Shell: High-Density Polyethylene (HDPE), ABS, or Polycarbonate
– Harness: Nylon, Vinyl, Sponge foam for cushioning
– Chin Strap: Nylon, Polyester

Types of Safety Helmets
Safety helmets can be categorized according to the tasks carried out by the worker, and the level of protection required. Some of the main categories of these hard hats are described below:

1. Bump Caps
These types of safety helmets are a close-fitting baseball cap style and offer a low level of head protection. Its main function is to provide padded protection against sudden knocks primarily from static objects.
These consist of a chinstrap that fits under the chin to secure the bump cap. These can also be equipped with light as per the demand of an industry. Bump caps are most suited for vehicle manufacturing and maintenance industries, loft insulation, plumbing works, warehouses, and others.

Heapro Blue Nape Hard Helmet VLD-0011

2. Lightweight Safety Helmets
These are the most popular form of safety helmets and are useful when there is a low risk of something falling over the head. Being light, lesser material is used while designing these helmets, and they are most convenient to wear.
They are suited for working on the side of the roadways, telephone or electrical workers inspecting a cabinet, low-rise construction sites, utilities, warehouses, and places where there is less danger of something falling but a helmet is needed to mitigate the risk of a loose object.

Mallcom Yellow Hard Safety Helmet Diamond I

3. Standard Safety Helmets
Another common type of safety helmet used in the workplace, these are generally covered with all safety equipment. These can especially be customized with hearing, face-visor, and eye ware as other attachments. These are good for construction sites, manufacturing industries, and other applications.

BELLSTONE Safety Helmet With Rachet & Ear Muff Yellow Color

4. Industrial Safety Helmets
Made with a robust shell, these helmets usually weigh around 400 gm to 500 gm. These are ideal for the workers where there is a chance of something falling on them from the top and sides as well. They are used mostly at construction sites, manufacturing, highways, excavations, mines, etc.

Metro SH-1207 Metro Nape with Light Industrial Safety Helmet

5. Climbing or Mountaineering Safety Helmets
These are primarily used by mountaineers and are the supporters to protect them from various hazards including any swinging materials. They can be secured by a chin strap to help keep the helmet on the head of the wearer from a height. These are used for rigging, high-rise construction sites, building sites, tower climbing, network sites, etc. They are also supplied with impact protection material with extra padding to mitigate side impacts.

Karam Shelmet Safety Helmet Violet UA501

6. Anti-Static Safety Helmets
For use in potentially explosive surroundings, these have safety visors along with ear defenders. Anti-static helmets are good for demolition, mining, tunneling, heavy construction, refinery, marine, and other industrial uses.

MI Safe Safety Helmet with Shield

Conclusion
When selecting a proper safety helmet, the primary factor to be considered is potential hazard anticipation. You can choose a safety helmet from Industrybuying where a range of headgears is available at the most competitive price.

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