Chainsaw Safety Clothing

Regulations generally recommend that chainsaw users wear protective clothing, also known as Personal Protective Equipment or PPE, while operating chainsaws. There is general agreement worldwide on what clothing is suitable, but local jurisdictions have specific rules and recommendations.

Clothing Types

Helmet

The helmet attempts to protect the user's head against impact with the cutter bar of the chainsaw should a kickback occur. This can only be successful if the chain brake has operated to stop the cutter chain. A chain running at full speed easily cuts the helmet.

The helmet also protects against impacts from small falling objects, such as a dead branch from a tree being felled.

The image shows a helmet which integrates visor and ear defenders into one unit. This is a very popular arrangement with chainsaw users.

In the EU, the helmet must meet the requirements of EN397.

Visor or Goggles

A visor or goggles reduce the chance of chips penetrating the user's eyes.

The relatively flimsy visor, with imperfect coverage of the face, is considered acceptable because the chips produced by chainsaws are of relatively uniform size and speed. Unlike other woodworking tools, a chainsaw produces little or no sawdust, only chips. The chips are too large to fit through the visor's mesh.

Some chainsaw users prefer conventional safety goggles. The choice may depend on the environment. The visor provides better ventilation for hard work in hot weather.

In the EU, a visor must comply with EN1731, or goggles must comply with EN166.

Ear defenders

Ear defenders and ear plugs attenuate noise to levels that cause little or no damage to the user's hearing. The chainsaw is very loud, typically 115 dB.

In the EU, ear defenders must comply with EN352.

Trousers

Special fabrics have been developed for chainsaw clothing, and this development is still very active. Conventional fabric is useless at protecting against a running chainsaw, being immediately cut through.

There is a real struggle between making a fabric proof against more violent impact, and making it light, flexible and comfortable enough for the user. Clothes which make the user too hot, or which prevent the user moving easily, are a safety problem in themselves. A worker suffering from heat exhaustion is not safe. Extra fabric layers can be added to clothing to improve cut resistance, but clothes which cannot be cut at all by a powerful saw are impractical, even with modern fibres. What is worse saw and chain technology seems to be outstripping fabric technology. High power saws with aggressively cutting chains are almost impossible to protect against.

A classification scheme has been developed in the EU to rate trousers, and fabric in general, for protection against cutting.

Chainsaw Fabric Classification
Class	Max chain speed m/s
0	16
1	20
2	24
3	28

The chain speed is specified in the manual for a chainsaw. Higher class trousers cost more and are heavier, so there is an advantage to choosing the trousers to match the saw.

There are two standard types of trousers, Type A and Type C. Type A protects only the front of the legs, and can be supplied not as full trousers but as chaps, worn over conventional work clothes. Types C gives protection all round the legs and are almost always worn as ordinary trousers; not over another garment. In the EU, most workers choose to wear type C trousers.

Chainsaw protective fabric works on a number of principles. The outermost layer can be made both tough and slippery, so that the chain skids across it rather than cutting in. Lower layers of fabric can be tough to cut, absorbing saw power. The final defence is that long fibres of the protective fabric (commonly Kevlar) are drawn out by the running saw, not cut through. These long fibres travel with the chain to the saw drive sprocket, where they jam the mechanism and stall the saw. After this, the saw has to be taken apart for cleaning out. Chainsaw protective trousers in the EU must comply with EN381-5.

Gloves

Chainsaw gloves have cut-proof fabric protection like that for trousers, but only on the back of the left hand. It's especially important that work gloves are flexible, which limits how much padding they can have. Experience has shown that most chainsaw injuries to the hands occur on the back of the left hand.

In the EU, chainsaw gloves must comply with EN381-7.

Boots

Chainsaw boots are based on ordinary steel-toe boots, but have layers of chainsaw protective fabric on the exposed front surfaces. They are available in lace-up leather or rubber Wellington boot versions.

In the EU, chainsaw boots must comply with EN345-2.

Logos for Fabric

Chainsaw Logo

In the EU, chainsaw trousers, boots and gloves (the items containing chainsaw protective fabric) must carry a special chainsaw logo. This shows that the fabric is of a type tested to protect properly, and also shows the class of protection, the rated maximum chain speed.

Additional Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

First Aid Kit

In the UK, workers are required to carry a first aid kit containing at least a large wound dressing.

Whistle

In the UK, workers are recommended to carry a whistle to call for help if they are injured. Colleagues may be close by, but unable to hear over the noise of chainsaw(s) still running. The whistle tends to overcome this.

Formal business wear is key to promotion says UK workers

A recent survey of 3200 staff

• 51% believe that dressing smartly helps win promotions
• 87% wear suits for Interviews

It seems that Richard Branson’s ban on his employees at Virgin from wearing jeans is not unusual. According to a Reed Employment survey of 3200 office workers registered on that database, jeans and comedy ties are banned from the majority of offices, with 47% of workers wearing smart casual business wear to work every day and 40% wearing formal office attire such as suits. What’s more, the majority of people questioned felt that dressing smartly will advance their careers, with 51% believing it will help them win a promotion.

85% feel that in today’s office environment having a dress code is still highly relevant; 87% would always wear a suit to an interview and 62% also believe that wearing a suit is important to create the right impression on the first day at a new job.

Office workers seem to like their work uniforms believing it creates a separation from their office and home lives (37%), whilst 37% stated that they feel proud to wear a uniform as it represents their company’s brand image. We are not a rebellious lot either – 90% of respondents stated that they strictly adhere to their work dress codes every day.

‘Dress down Fridays’ is still quite popular and a third of respondents claimed that their company had a policy in place to allow more casual business wear on Fridays.

Lewis Woodward, Head of Network Marketing at Reed stated, “The old adage ‘dress for success’ clearly rings true, with the majority of office workers happily embracing their company’s dress code and feeling proud to represent their brand. It is however, surprising that so many people feel that wearing smart office attire is still highly relevant in today’s business climate and that it is key to advancing their careers.”

At Granite Workwear we feel the same feeling applies outside the office as well. Staff want to look the part whether they are a one man plumber or a member of a large organisation. Staff are often proud of their company and are happy to wear a logo on their workwear.

How do embroidery designs get onto caps, pullovers or pockets?

Most companies have a logo or at least a name they want on their workwear. This design is first digitised so a computer can read it and then converted into vector graphics rather than pixels so there is no distortion of the image whatever the size.

These vector graphics are loaded into the punch program. The puncher on the software decisively determines the quality of the finished stitch content. Here there are dozens of parameters such as, stitch direction, stitch distance, stitch density, stitch pattern and the precedence of stitch work correctly on the motif, the embroidery machine and the textiles to be embroidered. Thus a leather jacket requires a different embroidery program than a cap , even if it concerns the same embroidery motif.

Understandably there are companies which have specialized in the production of the embroidery motifs.

When the embroidery program is ready, it is transmitted to the embroidery machine. Again also in the embroidery machine there are different parameters which can improve the embroidery or make it worse, such as thread tension and embroidery speed.

The embroidery machine is made, in principle, just like a normal house sewing machine, many components look very similar.The essential difference is the amount of needles, which reaches from 6 up to 18 automatically changing needles and therefore usable colours in one motif. Then when the motif is constructed, a quick change of the embroidery piece can be done, which makes the embroidery very interesting especially for bigger works orders.

Multi head machines can do up to 24 embroideries at the same time. This increases the economic efficiency and therefore makes the price per piece lower. With the use of the finished product there are hardly any restrictions. Therefore, work clothes are a favourite for embroidery. Also clothes that needs chlorine laundry, like for example doctor's smocks can be permanently improved with special sewing cotton.

Most of our clients prefer embroidered logos and these modern techniques allow just about any design to be embroidered. Costs do increase according to the size, density and number of colours in the design for the desired article of workwear.

Workwear | Safety Boots | Protective Equipment
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