Working clothes or uniforms provide esential protection from electric risks at work. And the safety footwear is a basic as it’s full time in contact with the ground.
Which are the main differences between antistatic and electrically insulated footwear?
We can find 2 different kinds of footwear that will protect us against this kind of threat, dielectric or electrically insulated boots and conductive or antistatic footwear. On the following lines we’ll discuss about their main differences.
Which kind of safety footwear protect us against electricity?
Their main purpose is to protect against electrical shocks. We always have to bear in mind that the electrical strength is the main danger that will hurt the body. Not the voltage.
-Dielectric or electrically insulated footwear.
This kind of footwear have a great electrical resistance and should be based on the EN ISO 20345 standard.
-Conductive or antistatic footwear.
This kind of footwear will help us to dissipate static charge. This kind of energy is not dangerous at all except if we handle pyrotechnic stuff or if our job takes place inside a static discharge protected area as it may cause flaws on the different manufacturing stages.
Its goal is to dispell static charge in your body, they have low electric resistance to let the energy flow through your body and discharge on to the ground.
The main difference between them is the electrical resistance, the conductive footwear resistance is lower than 100 KΩ, the antistatic ones should resist from 100 KΩ to 1 GΩ, and so the insulated boots resistance should be above 1 GΩ.
We hope now you will bear in mind all this tips when choosing the right electrically protected safety footwear.
