When it comes to environments where fogging hazards are most prevalent, it's hard to beat the hot and steamy conditions experienced at a paper mill. Fogging safety eyewear has been a safety and compliance issue for as long as paper mills have been in existence. Workers are dealing with impaired vision because of the fogged eyewear, or they're taking their eyewear off completely in order to see - exposing themselves to injury while doing everyday tasks.
The challenge
A containerboard mill in Wisconsin was experiencing severe fogging issues with their current safety eyewear lenses. When working on the paper machines and under the hood, workers experienced constant environmental fogging on a daily basis making them feel that dealing with this was just part of their job. Fogged eyewear inevitably led to compliance and productivity issues - workers had to stop continually, take their safety glasses off to wipe the fogged lenses, or were taking them off indefinitely so they wouldn't have to deal with the fogging, leaving them exposed to a variety of hazards.
The process + trial
The Director of Safety at the containerboard mill first made a connection with HexArmor® at the 2018 Pulp and Paper Safety Association (PPSA) Annual Conference. After discussing his employees' severe fogging issues with the HexArmor® team, the Director of Safety walked away with four pairs of the HexArmor® VS250 safety glasses with TruShield®2SF coating to trial.
TruShield®2SF is a proprietary HexArmor® dual-action anti-fog coating that's ideal for applications where there's constant environmental fogging. This specialized coating has dual-action permanent anti-fog on the interior and exterior of the lens which is essential for the environment in a paper mill.
After only a few weeks of trialing HexArmor® eyewear, he has impressed and wanted to expand the trial to more of his team so that they could also test them and provide feedback. After an additional two months, the eyewear held up against even the team's harshest critics and conditions. The safety eyewear remained fog-free and on workers' faces.
The solution
After the trial was complete, the Director of Safety worked side-by-side with HexArmor® Solution Specialists to implement the HexArmor® VS250 and MX200 in TruShield®2SF into their safety program. These eyewear models were chosen due to the improvement experienced in anti-fogging, comfort, task suitability, and overall performance during the trial.
The feedback
"For years we have struggled with conformance to our eyewear protection policy around the paper machines because of the fogging caused by the high humidity and heat associated with the equipment. The first time we tried HexArmor with the (TruShield®) 2SF, we were impressed" the Director of Safety commented.
"They do not fog in high humidity environments around the former or around the drastic temperature change in the dryer sections. Overall, the safety glasses are stylish, effective, and do not fog. HexArmor® glasses have become a mainstay in our PPE selection," he continued.
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