![Cologne Germany Industrial-work-with-Personal-Protective-Equipment-04](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b6/Cologne_Germany_Industrial-work-with-Personal-Protective-Equipment-04.jpg)
A hard hat is a type of
helmet predominantly used in workplace environments such as industrial or
construction
Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Press 2009 and com ...
sites to protect the
head
A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple animals may ...
from injury due to falling objects, impact with other objects, debris, rain, and electric shock. Suspension bands inside the helmet spread the helmet's weight and the force of any impact over the top of the head. A suspension also provides space of approximately 30 mm (1.2 inches) between the helmet's shell and the wearer's head, so that if an object strikes the shell, the impact is less likely to be transmitted directly to the skull. Some helmet shells have a mid-line reinforcement ridge to improve impact resistance. The
rock climbing helmet fulfills a very similar role in a different context and has a very similar design.
A bump cap is a lightweight hard hat using a simplified suspension or padding and a chin strap. Bump caps are used where there is a possibility of scraping or bumping one's head on equipment or structure projections but are not sufficient to absorb large impacts, such as that from a tool dropped from several stories.
History
In the early years of the shipbuilding industry, workers covered their hats with pitch (tar), and set them in the sun to cure, a common practice for dock workers in constant danger of being hit on the head by objects dropped from ship decks.
Management professor
Peter Drucker credited writer
Franz Kafka
Franz Kafka (3 July 1883 – 3 June 1924) was a German-speaking Bohemian novelist and short-story writer, widely regarded as one of the major figures of 20th-century literature. His work fuses elements of realism and the fantastic. It ...
with developing the first civilian hard hat while employed at the Worker's Accident Insurance Institute for the
Kingdom of Bohemia
The Kingdom of Bohemia ( cs, České království),; la, link=no, Regnum Bohemiae sometimes in English literature referred to as the Czech Kingdom, was a medieval and early modern monarchy in Central Europe, the predecessor of the modern Czec ...
(1912), but this information is not supported by any document from his employer.
In the United States, the E.D. Bullard Company was a mining equipment firm in California created by Edward Dickinson Bullard in 1898, a veteran of the industrial safety business for 20 years. The company sold protective hats made of leather. His son, E. W. Bullard, returned home from
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
with a steel helmet that provided him with ideas to improve industrial safety. In 1919 Bullard patented a "hard-boiled hat" made of steamed canvas, glue and black paint. That same year, the U.S. Navy commissioned Bullard to create a
shipyard
A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance a ...
protective cap that began the widespread use of hard hats. Not long after, Bullard developed an internal suspension to provide a more effective hat. These early designs bore a resemblance to the steel
M1917 "Brodie" military helmet that served as their inspiration.
MSA introduced the new
non-conductive thermoplastic
A thermoplastic, or thermosoft plastic, is any plastic polymer material that becomes pliable or moldable at a certain elevated temperature and solidifies upon cooling.
Most thermoplastics have a high molecular weight. The polymer chains associate ...
, reinforced
Bakelite
Polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride, better known as Bakelite ( ), is a thermosetting phenol formaldehyde resin, formed from a condensation reaction of phenol with formaldehyde. The first plastic made from synthetic components, it was developed ...
-base
"Skullguard"Helmet in 1930. Able to withstand high temperatures and radiant heat loads in the metals industry up to 350 °F (177 °C) without burning the wearer, it was also safe around high-voltage electricity. Bakelite was used to provide protection rigid enough to withstand hard sudden impacts within a high-heat environment but still be light enough for practical use. Made of a Bakelite resin reinforced with wire screen and linen, the Skullgard Helmet is still manufactured in nearly two dozen models in 2021. MSA also produced a low-crown version for coal miners known as Comfo-Cap Headgear, likewise offered with fittings for a headlamp and battery.
On the
Hoover Dam
Hoover Dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam in the Black Canyon of the Colorado River, on the border between the U.S. states of Nevada and Arizona. It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression and was dedicated on Se ...
project in 1931, hard hat use was mandated by
Six Companies, Inc.
Six Companies, Inc. was a joint venture of construction companies that was formed to build the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River in Nevada and Arizona.
They later built Parker Dam, a portion of the Grand Coulee Dam, the Colorado River Aqueduct ...
In 1933, construction began on the
Golden Gate Bridge
The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the strait connecting San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean. The structure links the U.S. city of San Francisco, California—the northern tip of the San Francisco Pen ...
in San Francisco California. Construction workers were required to wear hard hats, by order of
Joseph Strauss, project chief engineer. Strauss strove to create a safe workplace; hence, he installed safety nets and required hard hats to be worn while on the job site. Strauss also asked Bullard to create a hard hat to protect workers who performed
sandblasting. Bullard produced a design that covered the worker's face, provided a window for vision and a supply of fresh air via a hose connected to an air compressor. The MSA Skullgard was the best, but quite expensive. Many hard hats were made of cheaper steel.
![Men in Work Clothes](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/Men_in_Work_Clothes.jpg)
Lighter affordable
aluminum
Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It has ...
became popular for hard hats around 1938, except for electrical applications.
Fiberglass
Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cloth ...
came into use in the 1940s.
![V-GardProtectiveCap](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/60/V-GardProtectiveCap.png)
Injection molded
thermoplastics
A thermoplastic, or thermosoft plastic, is any plastic polymer material that becomes pliable or moldable at a certain elevated temperature and solidifies upon cooling.
Most thermoplastics have a high molecular weight. The polymer chains associate ...
appeared in the 1950s, and began to dominate in the 1960s. Easy shape with heat, it is cost-effective to manufacture. In 1952, MSA offered the Shockgard Helmet to protect
linemen from electrical shock of up to 10,000 volts. In 1961, MSA released the Topgard Helmet, the first
polycarbonate
Polycarbonates (PC) are a group of thermoplastic polymers containing carbonate groups in their chemical structures. Polycarbonates used in engineering are strong, tough materials, and some grades are optically transparent. They are easily work ...
hard hat. 1962 brought the V-Gard Helmet, which today is the most widely used hardhat in the United States. Today, most hard hats are made from
high-density polyethylene
High-density polyethylene (HDPE) or polyethylene high-density (PEHD) is a thermoplastic polymer produced from the monomer ethylene. It is sometimes called "alkathene" or "polythene" when used for HDPE pipes. With a high strength-to-density ratio, ...
(HDPE) or advanced engineering resins, such as
Ultem
Polyetherimide (PEI) is an amorphous, amber-to-transparent thermoplastic with characteristics similar to the related plastic PEEK. When comparing PEI to PEEK, the former is cheaper but has lower impact strength and a tighter temperature range.
D ...
.
In 1997,
ANSI allowed the development of a ventilated hard hat to keep wearers cooler. Accessories such as
face shield
A face shield, an item of personal protective equipment (PPE), aims to protect the wearer's entire face (or part of it) from hazards such as flying objects and road debris, chemical splashes (in laboratories or in industry), or potentially ...
s,
sun visors,
earmuffs
Earmuffs are clothing accessories or personal protective equipment designed to cover a person's ears for hearing protection or warmth. They consist of a thermoplastic or metal head-band that fits over the top or back of the head, and a cushion o ...
, and
perspiration
Perspiration, also known as sweating, is the production of fluids secreted by the sweat glands in the skin of mammals.
Two types of sweat glands can be found in humans: eccrine glands and apocrine glands. The eccrine sweat glands are distrib ...
-absorbing lining cloths could also be used; today, attachments include
radio
Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...
s,
walkie-talkies,
pagers, and
camera
A camera is an Optics, optical instrument that can capture an image. Most cameras can capture 2D images, with some more advanced models being able to capture 3D images. At a basic level, most cameras consist of sealed boxes (the camera body), ...
s..
Design
Because hard hats are intended to protect the wearer's head from impacts, hats are made from durable materials, originally from
metal
A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...
, then
Bakelite
Polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride, better known as Bakelite ( ), is a thermosetting phenol formaldehyde resin, formed from a condensation reaction of phenol with formaldehyde. The first plastic made from synthetic components, it was developed ...
composite,
fiberglass
Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cloth ...
, and most-commonly (from the 1950s onward) molded
thermoplastic
A thermoplastic, or thermosoft plastic, is any plastic polymer material that becomes pliable or moldable at a certain elevated temperature and solidifies upon cooling.
Most thermoplastics have a high molecular weight. The polymer chains associate ...
.
Some contemporary cap-style hard hats feature a rolled edge that acts as a
rain gutter to channel rainwater to the front, allowing water to drain off the bill, instead of running down the wearer's neck. A wide-brimmed
cowboy hat-style hard hat is made, although some organizations disallow their use.
![Ameriza-entilated safety helmet](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/56/Ameriza-entilated_safety_helmet.jpg)
Organizations issuing hard hats often include their name, logo, or some other message (as for a ceremonial corner stone laying) on the front.
Accessories
Hard hats may also be fitted with:
* A
visor:
** As in a
welding helmet, or
** A safety
visor.
* An extra-wide brim attachment for additional shade.
*
Ear protectors.
*
Mirror
A mirror or looking glass is an object that Reflection (physics), reflects an image. Light that bounces off a mirror will show an image of whatever is in front of it, when focused through the lens of the eye or a camera. Mirrors reverse the ...
s for increased rear field-of-view.
* A small device that is used to mount a
headlamp or
flashlight
A flashlight ( US, Canada) or torch ( UK, Australia) is a portable hand-held electric lamp. Formerly, the light source typically was a miniature incandescent light bulb, but these have been displaced by light-emitting diodes (LEDs) since the ...
to a hard hat. The mounting device frees hands to continue working rather than having to hold a flashlight.
* A
chinstrap
Chinstrap may refer to:
* Chinstrap, a strap fixed to a helmet or other headgear which passes beneath the chin and holds the headgear in place
* Chinstrap penguin, a species of penguin with markings resembling a chinstrap
*Chinstrap beard, a type ...
to keep the helmet from falling off if the wearer leans over.
* Thick insulating side pads to keep sides of the head warm. Examples are seen in ''
Ice Road Truckers
''Ice Road Truckers'' (commercially abbreviated ''IRT'') is a reality television series that premiered on History Channel, on June 17, 2007. It features the activities of drivers who operate trucks on seasonal routes crossing frozen lakes and ...
''.
*
Silicone
A silicone or polysiloxane is a polymer made up of siloxane (−R2Si−O−SiR2−, where R = organic group). They are typically colorless oils or rubber-like substances. Silicones are used in sealants, adhesives, lubricants, medicine, cooking ...
bands stretched around the brim for color worker
ID and
Hi Viz night retro-reflectivity.
Colors and identification
![011217-N-9769S-207 Ready for Working Party](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/011217-N-9769S-207_Ready_for_Working_Party.jpg)
Hard hat colors can signify different roles on construction sites. These color designations vary from company to company and worksite to worksite. Government agencies such as the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
and
DOT have their own hard hat color scheme that may apply to subcontractors. On very large projects involving a number of companies, employees of the same company may wear the same color hat.
Stickers
Stickers, labels and markers are used to mark hard hats so that important information can be shared. As some paints or permanent markers can degrade the plastic in hard hats, adhesive labels or tape are often used instead. Stickers with company logos, and those that indicate a worker's training, qualifications, or security level, are also common. Many companies provide ready-made stickers to indicate that a worker has been trained in electrical, confined space, or excavation trench safety, as well as operation of specialized equipment. Environmental monitors often make stickers to indicate that the worker has been educated on the risk of unexploded ordnance or the archaeological/biological sensitivity of a given area. Unions may offer hard hat stickers to their members to promote the union, encourage safety, and commemorate significant milestones.
A hard hat also provides workers with a distinctive profile, readily identifiable even in peripheral vision, for safety around equipment or traffic. Reflective tape can increase visibility both day and night.
Standards
OSHA regulation 1910.135 states that the employer shall ensure that each affected employee wears a protective helmet when working in areas where there is a potential for injury to the head from falling objects. Additionally, the employer shall ensure that a protective helmet designed to reduce electrical shock hazard is worn by each such affected employee when near exposed electrical conductors which could contact the head.
The OSHA regulation does not specifically cover any criteria for the protective helmets, instead OSHA requires that protective helmets comply with ANSI/ISEA Z89.1-2014 – American National Standard for Industrial Head Protection.
Each hard hat is specified by both Type and Class.
Types include:
*
ANSI Type I /
CSA
CSA may refer to:
Arts and media
* Canadian Screen Awards, annual awards given by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television
* Commission on Superhuman Activities, a fictional American government agency in Marvel Comics
* Crime Syndicate of Amer ...
Type 1 hard hats meet stringent vertical impact and penetration requirements.
*ANSI Type II / CSA Type 2 hard hats meet both vertical and lateral impact and penetration requirements and have a foam inner liner made of
expanded polystyrene
Polystyrene (PS) is a synthetic polymer made from monomers of the aromatic hydrocarbon styrene. Polystyrene can be solid or foamed. General-purpose polystyrene is clear, hard, and brittle. It is an inexpensive resin per unit weight. It is a ...
(EPS).
Classes:
* Class E (Electrical) provides dielectric protection up to 20,000 volts.
* Class G (General) provides dielectric protection up to 2,200 volts.
* Class C (Conductive) provides no dielectric protection.
A hard hat is specified by both Type and Class; for example: ''Type I Class G.''
ANSI standards for hard hats set
combustibility
A combustible material is something that can burn (i.e., ''combust'') in air. A combustible material is flammable if it ignites easily at ambient temperatures. In other words, a combustible material ignites with some effort and a flammable mat ...
or
flammability criteria.
ANSI Z89 standard was significantly revised in 1986, 1997 and 2003. The current American standard for hard hats is ISEA Z89.1-2009, by the
International Safety Equipment Association
The International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA) is a trade association of manufacturers of personal protective equipment and other safety equipment, with its offices in Arlington, Virginia. More than 100 companies are members. The ISEA is t ...
that took over publication of the Z89 standard from ANSI. The ISO standard for industrial protective headgear is ISO 3873, first published in 1977.
In the UK, the Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Regulations 1992 specifies that hard hats are a component of PPE and, by law, all those working on construction sites or within hazardous environments are required to wear hard hats.
In Europe all hard hats must have a manufacturer set lifespan, this can be determined from the expiry date or a set period from the manufacture date, which is either stuck to the inside or embossed in the hard hat's material.
Examples
Image:HardHatHarryTruman.jpg, Full-brimmed hard hat
Image:Aa safetyhelmet 00.jpg, Baseball cap style safety helmet with visor and chin strap
File:Cologne Germany Safety-helmet-with-headset-01.jpg, With headset
Image:Mine helmet.jpg, With a light mount
Image:Mine helmet 2.jpg, Shock-absorbing suspension system inside a typical hard hat
image:HardHat.jpg, An example of an early leather hard hat.
See also
*
Firefighter's helmet
*
Goggles
*
Hardhat mounted mirror A hard hat mounted mirror is a safety device attached to a hard hat that provides an increased field-of-view.
History
Headgear mounted mirrors were first developed in the early 1970s as a bicycle safety accessory by a dentist, Dr. Jack Greenlaw, ...
*
Protective clothing
Personal protective equipment (PPE) is protective clothing, helmets, goggles, or other garments or equipment designed to protect the wearer's body from injury or infection. The hazards addressed by protective equipment include physical, ele ...
*
Safety engineering
Safety engineering is an engineering discipline which assures that engineered systems provide acceptable levels of safety. It is strongly related to industrial engineering/systems engineering, and the subset system safety engineering. Safety en ...
*
Steel-toe boots
References
{{Authority control
Construction equipment
Helmets
Hats
Safety clothing