Falling objects. Heavy tools. Zero-visibility environments. These are all everyday dangers posed to the hands of workers. In fact, hand injuries are among the most frequently occurring incidents in industrial labor.
With a vast selection of impact-resistant gloves, it’s hard to know which aspects to look for and what qualities are most important. Before making your next purchase, understand the impact protection you’re paying for and what you’re getting in return.
Types of impact protection material
Foam: Foam layers provide greater dexterity but offer weak defense against common impact threats. After extended use and frequent exposure to UV rays, chemicals, and salt from sweat, foam can break down and lose its effectiveness.
Gel: Gels provide decent dexterity and sufficient protection, but like foam padding, it has the potential to break down over time from extended use and multiple impacts. Also, gel doesn’t allow for breaks or flex points, making it difficult to engineer a flexible back-of-hand protection area.
Silicone: Silicone is the main material that can be used for true flame/heat-resistant impact protection. As a far more specialized material, it can be difficult to achieve high levels of impact protection and is not widely used; though it is more practical than leather-incapsulated impact guards.
Polycarbonate: Polycarbonate is primarily used in military/police applications. It works extremely well in certain cases but because PC is so hard, it has to be molded around knuckles. This means that finger protection can't effectively be added without making a medieval knight’s metal gauntlet type of setup.
Thermo Plastic Rubber (TPR): TPR is a lightweight, moldable material that offers high dexterity and outstanding protection, and can be manufactured in a variety of levels of hardness. It can be designed in any shape, with both breaks and flex points, and lasts longer than foam or gel.
HexArmor IR-X® impact protection: HexArmor IR-X® has a softer and more lightweight feel than what is found in most competitive products. Unlike hard impact guards, HexArmor IR-X® absorbs the impact and dissipates the force, deflecting and reducing the transference of energy to the hand. Harder impact guards transfer force directly to the back of the hand. In a laboratory setting, HexArmor IR-X® is proven to reduce force transferred to the hand by over 40% more than the leading competitors.
HexArmor Cellutek® impact protection: Used in combination with IR-X®, Cellutek® impact technology takes protection to the next level with an added layer of our signature foam technology, delivering maximum level 3 impact protection.
HexArmor® can help
As an industry leader in innovative PPE, HexArmor® offers impact-resistant gloves designed with the optimal durometer and height to dampen blunt forces and redistribute energy away from the impact, for some of the best protection on the market.
Impact-resistant gloves from HexArmor® offer Level 1, 2, and 3 impact protection, giving you the options you need to match your application with the most suitable impact glove.
Learn more about our impact-resistant technology.
Download our Quick guide to the ANSI/ISEA 138 impact standard to use as a resource when evaluating your impact gloves, or let us know if you need help - our Solution Specialists are ready to work with you. Call 1.877.MY ARMOR or send us a message.
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