As those in the safety world know, it’s not if an impact to the head will occur on the job; it’s when… and it’s only a matter of time.
One of the resulting – and most prominent – injuries to the head triggered by impact events are traumatic brain injuries (TBIs), which contribute to about 30% of all injury deaths in the United States. And despite safety helmet standards on the job, there are still incidents of TBIs that send workers to the hospital each year – or worse. Between 2003 and 2010, there were 2,200 TBI-related fatalities in construction alone.
What’s important to note here is that even with a safety helmet on, an injury to the head, neck, brain, and spinal cord is still possible.
How? It all has to do with the force of an impact.
Let’s take a look at why understanding an impact’s force (and ANSI/ISEA standards) can help you find the right head protection for your application – and reduce injury.
Force transfer during an impact event
The purpose of wearing a safety helmet is to protect against impacts to the head while on the job – but what actually happens to the force of an impact during and after an event?
The object’s physical impact is removed or mitigated from directly hitting your head due to the safety helmet shell and suspension. However, the force energy from an object’s impact is still transmitted linearly through the foam or inner suspension system toward the head, neck, and/or shoulders.
Especially for work environments where there’s a high risk of a severe impact event, such as working at height or around tall structures with falling hazards, these impact events have more potential to cause harmful trauma to the brain and nervous system in milliseconds – and the cost can be deadly, without warning.
The good news is that there are standards that test and score safety helmets against this very thing – and they’re important to get to know.
ANSI/ISEA impact standards regarding force
There are a few performance tests to pay attention to when it comes to force, specifically with the ANSI/ISEA Z89.1-2014 safety helmet standard:
- Force transmission
- Operating temperature range
Force transmission
This is one of the four performance tests that must be met in order to meet ANSI/ISEA Type 1 safety helmets.
Operating temperature range
Depending on your workers’ environment, this is a big test to pay attention to. Testing is conducted on safety helmets that are preconditioned to the following environments:
- Hot temperatures: At least 12 test samples are placed in a forced air circulating oven maintained at about 49°C (120°F) for at least two hours. Optional higher temperature testing can also be performed on test samples conditioned to approximately 60°C (140°F) for at least four hours.
- Cold temperatures: At least 12 test samples are placed in a freezer maintained at about -18°C (0°F) for at least two hours. Optional lower temperature testing can also be performed on test samples conditioned to about –30°C (-22°F) for at least four hours.
Test samples are removed from the conditioning environment one at a time and placed on a head form (a specialized dummy head). An impactor (such as an anvil or steel ball) with a mass of about 8 lbs. (3.6 kg) and a spherical striking face with a radius of about 1.9” (48 mm) is dropped from a height that yields an impact velocity of about 18 ft/s (5.50 m/s).
Individual maximum force readings and impact velocities for all test samples are recorded. The average for each group of preconditioned safety helmets is also calculated and recorded.
Safety helmets must not transmit a force to the head form that exceeds 4,450 N (1,000 lbf). The average maximum transmitted force for each preconditioning group must not exceed 3,780 N (850 lbf).
Helmets that have been tested to the basic temperature applications from -18°C (0°F) to 49°C (120°F) will not have a special marking on the helmet.
Read more on safety helmet standards here.
What does this mean for you?
Ultimately, understanding how the force of an impact event works is to solidify a few things further:
- The need for all workers to continuously don their safety helmets when in required areas
- Finding a safety helmet that works for your specific hazards and applications
- Ensuring the safety helmet you choose meets the right standards to mitigate injury best
This is where research plays a huge role in deciding what type of safety helmet will work best for you, your workers, and your specific work environment. And with several types of safety helmets to choose from, it can be challenging to find what you need.
To help, we’ve compiled criteria for the proper selection, fit, and use of your safety helmet. Read more on this here.
HexArmor’s one-of-a-kind suspension system can help
The need to meaningfully mitigate such traumatic safety hazards pushed HexArmor® to ideate, innovate, and create truly game-changing suspension technology.
Meet Kinetix®, a patented suspension system that changes the behavior of head protection by turning an accident into a dynamic event of energy dispersion.
Kinetix® works like a simple machine inside your safety helmet to absorb and divert force energy, all while elongating the moment of impact out over time.
That means instead of a linear transfer of energy straight down from an impact, Kinetix® can redirect forces around your head and neck over a slightly longer period of time.
Found only in our Ceros® XA250, Kinetix® delivers nearly twice the ANSI/ISEA requirement for impact force transmission in Type 1 safety helmets.
Learn more about safety helmet technology by HexArmor®.
Let us know if you have questions or would like to start a trial - our Solution Specialists are ready to work with you. Call 1-877-MY ARMOR or send us a message.
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