A few key points of EN420

EN420 has some general requirements for all work gloves, no matter what type of glove it is. There are some key points that may be worth your attention. They are:

1. When seams are included, the strength of seams shouldn’t reduce the gloves’ overall performance. It often happens to leather gloves and canvas gloves that seams is damaged at the beginning when gloves remain intact. Glove factories should take their responsibility to make strong seams.
2. The gloves themselves shouldn’t cause any harm to the user. The reality is that a very big percentage of gloves in market contains some harmful chemicals that has some impact to our hand skin. In a sense, most of them don’t bring serious outcome, but still need to be removed. PH value of the gloves should be between 3.5 – 9.5. The PH outside this scope is harmful to user.
3. If care instructions are included, the performance level should not be reduced after recommended maximum number of cleaning cycles. It is true for cut gloves that the performance level could be reduced after times of washing.
4. Each glove should have the required marks. They are manufacturer name, size, CE mark, relevant pictogram with performance level. And these marks should be legible for the life-long time. If not possible to put these marks on each piece of glove, they should be mentioned on the first packaging enclose.
5. If required, the dexterity level is classified into five levels. Each level corresponds to a certain diameter of pins. Glove producers should be familiar with this testing method and the classification of the performance level. This is an useful tool for them to improve their glove dexterity in their production.
6. If required, the glove should allow water vapour transmission at a level of 5mg/cm2.h. Water vapour can be a big problem for those workers who wear their gloves all day long. Gloves with rubber coating are typically foamed to allow water vapour transmission. The best foam coating should be able to transmit water vapour and at the same time other liquids can not come over your hands.
7. Each size has it’s minimum length requirement. Gloves below it’s length should be marked as “fit for special purpose”.