Safety Glove Tests & Standards

EN420:2003

 

EN420 is the general requirements for most protective gloves to ensure that the gloves themselves do not cause any harm to wearer and are comfortable to wear. Tests included in this standard are: sizing, dexterity, pH value, and chrome VI.

 

EN388:2016

 

The EN388 sets standards for five types of protection: abrasion resistance, cut resistance, tear resistance, puncture resistance, and impact protection through 6 tests:

 

 

 

TDM test is given when the material dulls the knife during Coup test.

 

EN511

 

EN511 sets standards for low temperature protection gloves.

 

The first figure shows the level of protection against convective cold from 0-4. 

The second figure shows the level of protection against contact cold from 0-4. 

The third figure shows whether the glove is water penetration after 30 minutes. 1 stands for no water penetration after 30 minutes.

 

EN407

 

EN407 is the heat protection standard for protective gloves. 6 numbers stand for 6 types of heat hazard protection level.

 

Type	Level	Measurement
Flammability	0-4	Material damage after burning
Contact heat	0-4	The rate of temperature rise while contacting with a hot probe
Convective heat	0-4	The rate of temperature rise while contacting with a gas flame
Radiant heat	0-4	The rate of temperature rise while contacting with radiant heat
Small drops of molten metal	0-4	The rate of temperature rise while contacting small drops of molten metal
Large drops of molten metal	0-4	Grams of molten iron needed to damage the PVC film on the back of the glove material.

 

EN374-1

EN374 gives directives of how to test permeation and degradation by the 18 chemicals that would lead to cracking or holing.

 

Three specimens are taken from the palm (another three specimens are also taken from the cuff if gloves are longer than 400mm and claimed to provide protection) to test in the following 18 chemical, but not the mixture of any two.

 

Code letter	Chemical	CAS No.	Class
A	Methanol	67-56-1	Primary alcohol
B	Acetone	67-64-1	Ketone
C	Acetonitrile	1975/5/8	Nitrile compound
D	Dichloromethane	1975/9/2	Chlorinated paraffin
E	Carbon disulphide	75-15-0	Organic compound containing sulphur
F	Toluene	108-88-3	Aromatic hydrocarbon
G	Diethylamine	109-89-7	Amine
H	Tetrahydrofuran	109-99-9	Heterocyclic and ether compound
I	Ethyl acetate	141-78-6	Ester
J	n-heptane	142-82-5	Saturated hydrocarbon
K	40% Sodium hydroxide	1310-73-2	Inorganic base
L	96% Sulphuric acid	7664-93-9	Inorganic mineral acid
M	65% nitric acid	7697-37-2	Inorganic mineral acid
N	99% acetic acid	64-19-7	Organic acid
O	25% ammonium hydroxide	1336-21-6	Organic base
P	30% hydrogen peroxide	7722-84-1	Peroxide
S	40% hydrofluoric acid	7664-39-3	Inorganic mineral acid
T	37% formaldehyde	50-00-0	Aldehyde

 

Type A gloves have a breakthrough time of 30min or more against minimum 6 test chemicals.  
Type B gloves have a breakthrough time of 30min or more against minimum 3 test chemicals.  
Type C gloves have a breakthrough time of 10min or more against minimum 1 test chemical.  

OEKO - Tex® Standard 100 

OEKO - Tex® Standard 100 is a textile tested standard for harmful substances. Testing subjects include prohibited azo dyes, formaldehyde, nickel, chemicals harmful to health, etc. Around 100 test parameters are taken into account.