Chemical-resistant footwear

There seems are no safety shoes which can provide protection for all hazards like electric shocks, slippery, chemical hazard and etc… All footwear manufactured to ANSI specifications will be marked with the specific portion of the standard with which it complies.

Customs who want buy cheap safety shoes should match safety footwear to a specific environment or hazard, other factors include traction, chemical exposure, cold and heat. Burns resulting from chemical and molten metal splashes or other flammable and explosive materials are frequent in the mining and manufacture of heavy metals and the production of chemicals. The following I’ll take a introduction for chemical-resistant footwear.

Chemical-resistant footwear as the name implies should be worn in areas with potential chemical or corrosive splashes. Unfortunately, there are more chemical compounds than types of shoes, and matching footwear material to a chemical hazard can be a challenge.

Generally, there are three types of chemical-resistant footwear material: rubber, neoprene or PVC. Seek a chemical resistance comparison guide to find out which one is best for a chemical.

1. Rubber is suitable for some chemical environments and is rated excellent for many acids and ammonias.

2. Neoprene, lighter in weight than rubber, is rated excellent for most acids, oils, petroleum and many other chemicals. This compound can be used in environments where rubber will not work: meat and poultry processing, petrochemical, agrichemical, oil drilling and refining, dairy and food processing, fishing, breweries and bottling, farming and waste disposal.

"Blood and animal fats are serious enemies to rubber and would deteriorate the boot very quickly. Neoprene has tremendous resistance to attack by blood and animal fats and also has tremendous resistance properties to petroleum and petrochemical products."

3. PVC is rated excellent for some acids and some oils. Its compounding is relatively convenient in determining blends to resist specific chemicals.

PVC products range from general industrial applications with no serious chemicals, to moderate blends to resist chemicals in poultry or animal waste environments, to serious compounds for hazmat technicians, site remediation and emergency responders. The latter meets the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) 1991 chemical permeation-resistant and flame-resistant requirements. It is permeation tested to resist NFPA 1991's list of 21 challenge chemicals.

While we should do not rely on matching footwear material to a chemical hazard solely, the best way to make sure a particular material will work in a specific chemical environment is to have the high quality working shoes tested.

The proper chemical-resistant shoe or boot is to check the worksite's material safety data sheets to match footwear with individual chemicals. Even that may not be good enough, because we need also consider a maker of boots for chemical and weather environments. wholesale working gloves