EPI non-magnetic, ESD, antistatic... what's the difference?
Your PPE has properties tailored to your working environment. To help you make the right choice and protect yourself in the best possible way, we'll explain the technical terms involved.
Your PPE has properties tailored to your working environment. To help you make the right choice and protect yourself in the best possible way, we'll explain the technical terms involved.
Your PPE has properties tailored to your working environment. To help you make the right choice and protect yourself in the best possible way, we'll explain the technical terms involved.
Expertise, Products
Update 06.11.24
Historically, safety footwear designed to protect against impact and crushing was fitted with metal toecaps. Although particularly effective, this type of shoe has two disadvantages: its weight and the fact that it rings under security gates, which can represent a significant loss of time for people working in logistics at airports, for example.
Over the last twenty years or so, shoes with plastic or composite toecaps have appeared on the market. Similarly, lace eyelets have been replaced by metal free materials.
These metal-free shoes are described asnon-magnetic.
"Delta Plus now has around ten models of non-magnetic shock-absorbing footwear, representing around 60% of the range. However, in terms of sales volume, shoes with steel toecaps are still in the majority, mainly for cost reasons, but also for aesthetic reasons, as the steel toecaps are thinner", explains Boris Dodin, GPL Manager Foot protection at Delta Plus.
You've probably already experienced that little jolt of static electricity when you take off your cap or shake hands with a colleague!
Static electricity is generally caused by friction between certain materials. Mobile electrons move around, changing the electric charge of the material and leading to this phenomenon. Because all matter - including the human body - is made up of atoms composed of electrical particles, static electricity is present everywhere.
A static electricity discharge is of low power and does not normally present any danger, except in a high-risk environment, known as an ATEX (Explosive Atmosphere).
These include environments where flammable products are handled, such as in the chemical or petrochemical industries.
That's why Delta Plus has developed a whole range of antistatic PPE designed to prevent the risk of explosion :
‘ As far as safety footwear is concerned, European standard EN iso 20345 requires all models to be antistatic. Additives are incorporated into the sole materials to help disperse the charges,’ explains Boris Dodin.
This type of PPE is designed to protect sensitive electronic products. ‘ ESD provides greater protection because the resistance criteria are stricter. So an ESD shoe is necessarily antistatic, but an antistatic shoe is not necessarily ESD,’ explains Boris Dodin.
Delta Plus now has 4 ESD shoe models and 4 ESD glove models in its catalogue .
A Sault ESD shoe model > but this is not the ESD version, nor is it an ESD environment.
Finally, discover the contribution of insulating PPE, known as ‘dielectric’ , whose role is to protect operators from the risks of electrocution.
You're a professional and you're not sure what type of product to choose to equip your employees. Contact our sales teams to find out more.