What's the real difference between ISEA and CE?

ISEA/ANSI vs CEN

According to OSHA approximately 70% of workplace hand and wrist injuries occur when workers are not wearing protective gloves. Well, what about the remaining 30%? OSHA Claims that they aren’t wearing adequate gloves—the wrong size, damaged gloves, or gloves that are inappropriate for the hazard present.

The first step in protecting your workforce from hand and wrist injuries is providing gloves. And the second step is providing the right gloves. That sounds reasonable, right? Especially with those handy cut-resistance levels to guide your decision.

It turns out, figuring out what level of protection your employees need is easier said than done. And the inadequacy of cut test standards, varying test methods, and assortment of cut test acronyms muddle the matter further. In this article we’ll attempt to cut through the confusion around cut-resistance levels and provide tips for selecting the right glove to protect your employees.

Accepted Standards: ISEA/ANSI vs. CEN

Let’s start with the basics: accepted cut resistance standards differ in the United States and Europe. The United States uses standards accepted by the International Safety Equipment Association (ISEA)/American National Standards Institute (ANSI). Europe uses the Conformité Européenne (CE) score of a glove as a certification.

Cut Test Methods: ASTM vs. EN/ISO

ISEA/ANSI accepts the ASTM cut test standard. (Try to say that five times fast.) CE, on the other hand, accepts EN and ISO test standards. And although both standards assign gloves a cut-resistance level from 1 to 5, they are NOT to be considered comparable. And here’s why.

The ASTM method uses a 50 mm (2 inch) length straight blade, which is moved one time across the glove material under a given load, at a constant speed of 2.5 mm/s. The test result is expressed as the load required to cut the glove material after the blade travels 20 mm (3/4 inch).

EN is an entirely different test method altogether. This method uses a circular blade with a constant pressure of 5 N (~ 500 grams) applied to the blade. The blade makes an alternating horizontal movement over 50 mm (2 inches) of the glove material and rotates in the opposite direction of the movement. The value measured is the number of cycles it takes to cut the material.

Now if that wasn’t unclear enough for you, it gets even more complicated. EN is not recommended for materials with high levels of cut-resistance. Why’s that? Because those materials dull the circular blade, thereby skewing the results. So for CE cut levels of 4 and 5, the ISO method is used instead. Similar to ASTM, ISO measures force need to cut the material with a straight blade.

Level Up

Now that you have a general understanding of the test methods, let’s talk results.

ANSI/ISEA (North America)

EN (Europe)

But what do all those numbers and levels and measurements really mean? Here’s a guideline to provide a general idea of what kind of tasks each level can handle.

• Level 1: Nuisance cuts, paper cuts, automotive maintenance, parts assembly, material handling
• Level 2: Construction, automotive assembly, packaging, some masonry
• Level 3: Light metal stamping, light-duty glass handling
• Level 4: Metal stamping, sheet metal handling, glass handling, food service
• Level 5: Heavy metal stamping, plate glass handling, meat and poultry, some pulp and paper

It cannot be emphasized enough, the previous guideline should be used only as a starting point in selecting the proper glove(s) to protect your workforce! Don’t run out and buy Level 4 gloves because you see “sheet metal handling” on the list and that’s what your guys are doing. There’s a lot more to consider when it comes to cut-resistance levels, starting with the cut test limitations.

Cut Test Limitations

Although they do provide a working system to compare cut-resistant products, there are a number of limitations to the cut tests.

First, there’s obvious fact that there are two completely different methods of testing, so a glove that’s a Level 4 by one standard may not be a Level 4 by another. When comparing cut resistance levels of two different gloves, you must first make sure they are using the same test standard.

We’ve already mentioned the EN method is not recommended for high cut-resistant fabrics. Another drawback of EN is that it’s not considered a good representation of the actual risks users are exposed to on the job. The pressure applied on the blade is too low and the contact time with the glove sample is too short.

Although ASTM is more representative of workplace conditions than EN, it has drawbacks as well. Specifically, microscopic sharpness of test blades varies, resulting in test result variance by as much as 27%!

Additionally, it must be noted that sudden force such as that involved in most workplace cut situations creates a much different challenge to glove material than control weight used in testing. And neither test simulates tearing, which is the primary hazard for cuts from sheet metal or sheet glass.

Creating Your Own Test

When it comes to choosing the appropriate glove for your workforce, don’t rely on cut-resistance levels alone! Banom® recommends performing your own test: “We never want the actual glove user to be a ‘guinea pig’ for any new product. When evaluating a new glove for an application, we suggest that the proposed glove be exposed to the potential hazard . . . WITHOUT anyone’s hand in the glove.”

Most importantly, work with glove manufactures that are developing gloves not simply to meet a cut test standard, but to actually protect workers from real job hazards. For example, high tenacity yarn offers better protection from tearing that might be expected from sheet metal edges, whereas fibers with hardness help protect against edge sharpness like that faced when exposed to knife blades. In both cases, the cut-resistance level isn’t as important as what the fabric is designed to protect against.

When it comes to protecting your workers from hand and wrist injuries, having the right gloves are critical. But you can’t just choose gloves based on cut standards alone.

Understanding the difference between cut test standards and what, in general, each cut-resistance level can protect against is a good first step. But you should always perform your own test against the hazards in your workplace. By creating and performing your own cut-resistance test, you can see how gloves stand up to the hazards your employees are exposed to every day and better protect them from workplace injuries.

Click HERE for all of Jendco's Cut Resistant Gloves