Top ANSI Rated Puncture Resistant Gloves

Hand injuries are expensive.  The combined costs of medical bills, workers compensation, and lost productivity quickly add up - and that’s not even counting the possibility of lingering or even permanent disability.  For employers and employees alike, the best possible insurance against the damaging effects of hand injuries is the proper use of effective PPE.  In a word: gloves.

Not all gloves are created equal and no glove offers protection against all types of injury.  A glove that tries to provide the best performance for every feature all at once—heat, abrasion, cutting, impact and puncture resistance—will be too stiff and unwieldy to do any work.  The majority of workers don’t need that much protection anyway.  Plus, companies would wind up paying high costs for protection their workers didn’t need.  In a time of rising tariffs, this is the last thing any company wants to do.  

In many workplace applications, the most important consideration for protective gloves is puncture resistance.  Below, MCR Safety highlights everything you need to know regarding puncture protection.

What Is a Puncture Wound?

A puncture wound is a forceful injury caused by a sharp, pointed object that penetrates the skin.  Puncture wounds tend to be deeper and narrower than cuts or scrapes.  However, when you think of how most cut injuries and lacerations occur, they often start with a puncture. 

One thing to keep in mind is that no glove is completely puncture proof, as any material can be penetrated given sufficient force.

Even though puncture proof doesn’t exist, MCR Safety's ITC Lab provides some powerful scientific data to help you choose the best puncture-resistant gloves.  So, while puncture resistance doesn’t make anyone impervious to harm, it can significantly reduce the number of workplace injuries.

MCR Safety ITC Lab Puncture Resistance Testing

When it comes to PPE performance levels, especially puncture resistance, MCR knows users want gloves that can be trusted to perform.  So, we leave nothing to chance when it comes to puncture protection.

Our Innovations Technology Center (ITC Lab) has been in operation since 2010, testing PPE for cut, abrasion, heat, puncture, impact, and tear resistance.  In July 2016, MCR's commitment to excellence led to the ITC becoming one of the first North American testing labs to receive ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation for hand protection, an international standard that requires labs to demonstrate a high degree of accuracy and consistency in testing protective equipment.

MCR's ITC Lab tests gloves to ANSI/ISEA 105-16 for puncture resistance, while utilizing Clause 6.4 of EN388:2003 as the test method.  The Instron machine, shown in the image above, determines the amount of force exerted by a steel stylus to puncture a glove palm.  The stylus is pushed through the material at a fixed speed, providing a measurement to show the newtons of force required to puncture through the material.

Previously Featured on MCR Safety's blog.