Features of choosing a welder's suit: composition and types

Basic requirements for welding suits

In the mass production of any workwear, there are a number of requirements:

Practicality and laconism of the silhouette of the jacket and trousers and the greatest comfort in movement. It is imperative that the clothes have soft padding in the area of ​​the knees and elbows in order to have additional protection against impacts in hard-to-reach places.

Treatment of workwear with water-repellent impregnation. This is a general requirement for all types of workwear.

Welder convenience is an important criterion. The jacket should not be too large and dangling, but also not impede any movement. The sleeves should also be close to the body. Otherwise, the productivity of work will be reduced.

Oil stains on workwear are excluded to prevent fire.

Torn edges (tears) of the fabric, as well as scuffs, are unacceptable. Such minor injuries are dangerous for burns. When working with welding, the employee must wear a dark, tight shirt with a collar and long sleeves with cuffs under the jacket. This will provide additional protection for your hands and throat.

The use of synthetics for special uniforms is unacceptable. They will instantly ignite and are therefore dangerous.

The form should not deform during operation, made of environmental materials. Uniforms must provide good ventilation to prevent overheating of the person.

Photo of a good welder suit

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Specialist recommendations

Experienced professionals advise you to follow these guidelines when choosing protective clothing:

In summer, for outdoor welding and for indoor work, the summer variation of tarpaulin, suede or split gear is best suited.
In the cold season, welding is allowed only in the winter version of the uniform.
Matching clothing is removed much faster in case of fire

This is its advantage over the combined one.
The comfort of the suit is important.
Ideally, the workwear will be equipped with slots to provide the best ventilation.

Modern manufacturers produce a huge range of welding suits. Before you buy this kind of workwear, you need to carefully analyze the planned working conditions.

Trying on will not be superfluous. We hope this article will help you make the right choice.

Manufacturers

Leading manufacturers of winter suits made of various materials are presented below.

Avangard-Spetsodezhda is a manufacturer and supplier of work and special clothing, footwear, personal protective equipment. The company offers its customers high-tech solutions at affordable prices.

Vostok-Service is an international company, a leading Russian developer, manufacturer and supplier of a wide range of special clothing and footwear, PPE.

The company "Ivspetsposhiv" is engaged in the manufacture of protective clothing for representatives of various industries, as well as accessories and gadgets.

Rodnikovskaya Spetsodezhda is a sewing company specializing in the manufacture and wholesale of work and corporate clothing, as well as footwear and PPE.

The company "Spets Project" is engaged in the development, production and sale of work and special clothing, hats, additional protective accessories.

Technoavia is a manufacturer of special, work and uniform clothing made of various materials, as well as footwear, accessories, hats and PPE.

"Unicom-Spetskomplekt" is a manufacturer of high-quality clothing for individual orders and mass production equipment.

The rest of the leading manufacturers of special suits for the welder are presented in a separate article.

Protection classes

Workwear manufacturers produce special markings for suits. It indicates the number of the standard and the protective class. According to the GOST regulations, there are a total of 3 such classes.

1. Such equipment is intended for workers who are at a distance of at least 2 meters from the source of splashes of hot metal, sparks. They are used for welding on specialized lines, as well as for cutting metal structures.
2. Suits with protection class 2 are designed for indoor and outdoor use. In this case, the employee must be at a distance of 50 cm from the source of sparks.
3. Class 3 overalls are used when welding in closed spaces (for example, in tanks or pipelines). The distance to the source should be about 0.5 m.

Clothing requirements for welding

Welding equipment must meet the following requirements:

The cut of the welding clothing must be concise.
Clothing should be made of flame retardant, burn-resistant fabric.
The presence of additional soft pads in the elbows and knees will protect these parts of the body from mechanical damage.
Like any workwear, uniforms for welding must be treated with a special water-repellent compound.
An important quality for a welder's suit is its convenience and lack of discomfort when worn.
The contact of exposed parts of the welding clothing to the body must be tight, otherwise the risk of hot metal droplets getting on the skin increases.
The clasp must be tight, the collar must be close to the neck.
High quality seams.

The welder's clothing must comply with all the provisions of GOST welding suits, only then can welding work be started.

Protective functions

The profession of a welder is considered one of the most dangerous in the production of arc welding electrodes.

Therefore, every performer should have a comfortable welding suit and mask for protection from the above negative effects on the human body. In addition, work often has to be performed at a height and in other, not very comfortable conditions, where there is a high risk of injury from accidental falling of tools and devices.

Kit Contents

The choice of clothing for welding is a serious and painstaking business:

1. Firstly, it is necessary to protect the face and hands; for this, mittens, gloves, a shield or a comfortable helmet have been developed.
2. Secondly, you need to take care of protecting the entire body of the performer.
3. And the third option is a respirator that protects the respiratory system from harmful gases.

If the performer is wearing goggles, then it is necessary to use a headdress made of dense and refractory material in the form of a cap that covers the entire head and ears.

The basic welder's suit consists of a jacket, trousers and shoes made of thick leather, a common material is tarpaulin, from which boots or boots are sewn. Trousers are sewn with an even cover, and only patch pockets with Velcro or Velcro flaps are allowed on the welder's jacket. This style eliminates the delay of sparks or hot particles of slag on the surface of protective clothing.

Additional items of workwear

Since welders often have to work in a sitting and standing position, a leather apron that can cover almost the entire body is useful for the welding suit they use. If metal or slag particles accidentally hit the apron, they will not damage the workwear. The set of winter clothes for the welder should contain warm gloves or gloves with leggings. The robe must have special ventilation holes. The fact is that it is made of high density material and it can be hot in it.

Welding shoes must meet special requirements. As it is usually shoes or boots, the soles of which must be made using special non-stick rubber, which can protect the shoes from the effects of fire and electricity.

Shields and masks

From the above, it becomes clear that a suit is necessary for a welder to protect the body. What about the eyes, which can be seriously affected by burns and radiation? To this end, manufacturers offer special shields, which were eventually replaced by special masks made of cardboard and Chameleon masks. Special glasses can also be used to protect the eyes.

• Today, shields are used very rarely due to the fact that they are very inconvenient to use during operation. The worker has to hold the shield with one hand and do the work with the other.
• Much better for this is a mask made of thick cardboard with a viewing window made of a light filter. But she also has a serious drawback - first, a person must look at the place of work and only after that lower the mask with a nod of the head or hand. However, even in those few seconds, his eyesight can be seriously affected.
• The Chameleon mask is a more practical way to protect your eyes, as it does not need to be lifted before use. Here glass is used as a replacement for the light filter, which darkens when the arc is ignited. If necessary, the employee can customize such a mask to suit his needs. Thus, he will be able to create the most comfortable working conditions for himself.

The work of welders poses a high health risk as they are regularly exposed to high temperatures, metal splashes, slag particles and sparks that can cause severe burns and injuries. In order to protect against such phenomena, they must perform their work only in a special welding suit.

However, these clothes must meet certain requirements and take into account their working conditions.

Particular attention should be paid here to the material from which the welder's overalls are sewn. It should not only provide reliable protection against adverse factors, but also provide the employee with rather comfortable conditions for welding.

The quality of the suit for welding is equally important. To increase strength, the weakest points should be reinforced to reduce the risk of damage and thereby increase worker safety

It is also important to ensure that not only the body but also the eyes are protected during work. For this, a set of welding clothes must include a special mask.

Moreover, it should not only provide a high level of protection, but also be easy to use. Only if the worker is equipped with the most reliable items of clothing can his safety be guaranteed.

Types of Welding Suits

Most often, for work, welders use the following types of overalls:

• tarpaulin;
• suede;
• leather;
• woolen;
• split.

Each of the costumes listed above has its own merits and demerits.

If we talk about a leather suit, then it provides good protection against scales, but is not very convenient for use in the summer, since in extreme heat conditions the skin quickly becomes hot and the worker becomes hot.

A tarpaulin suit has a fairly high margin of safety due to the density of the material, and also has good ventilation. But this material is not designed for high temperatures, when exposed to it, it burns out very quickly.

Suede suits have excellent waterproof characteristics, but they cannot be used for a long time for welding work because of the high risk of fire.

The whole variety of suits for welders can also be divided based on the climatic conditions in which the welding work can be carried out. On the basis of this feature, two types of workwear are distinguished: summer and winter. There are also mix and match suits.

If we talk about the first version, then his set consists only of overalls. The jumpsuits include a jacket and pants. A good example of matching suits for a welder is the Zeus welding robe, made using the Proban fire-resistant technology. This workwear includes items such as trousers with an elastic band at the waist and a jacket with a turn-down collar. In the knee area there are special pockets for cushioning inserts.

Split welding

Recently, more and more often welders choose split welding suits for welding work. The reason for their high popularity is associated with their high level of protection and the possibility of their use for hazardous work. The peculiarity of this workwear is that it is made using split leather - a special substance that is obtained as a result of special processing of the leather.

A few decades ago, ordinary batting served as the main insulation for welding suits. Now the overalls are made on the basis of a multi-layer padding polyester. The main advantages of this material are that it is very light and has the ability to "breathe", in other words, it is good for air permeability and repels moisture. To provide workers with the maximum level of protection in the manufacture of workwear, a combination of materials from padding polyester, split cloth and thick tarpaulin is used.

Insulated

Considering the fact that welders have to do their job all year round, manufacturers produce winter and summer welding suits to create the most comfortable conditions. It is enough to familiarize yourself with the photos of the proposed types of workwear to make sure how diverse they can be. For example, for winter operation, firms produce insulated suits that are sewn from several layers of basic material using various types of insulation.

A separate line of suits is formed by overalls designed for work in the Far North in extremely low temperatures. In this region, welders must wear exceptional heat insulating clothing as the welding process can take quite a long time.

In this type of workwear, the front part of the jacket is covered with a split, and in some models, the back and yoke can be covered with this material. Welder's trousers must have split pads. In addition to them, the suit must have hidden fasteners.Some workwear options can be additionally equipped with a hood and windproof flaps.

Browse brands and models

There are many worthy manufacturers on the modern market. They produce both solid-grain and combined, summer and insulated models. The products meet all modern requirements.

• For example, the products of the Ursus company are in demand. The brand not only produces overalls, work shoes, personal protective equipment, but also supplies its products. One of the company's products is the Welder suit. This is a winter combo model, its purpose is to protect against sparks and molten metal particles. The top is made of 530 g / m2 tarpaulin impregnated with a fire retardant substance. On the front, the garment is equipped with 1.3 mm split pads. Cotton lining. The jacket is insulated with three layers of batting, trousers - with two. The jacket has a hidden fastener, there are pockets in the side seams.
• For any welding summer and demi-season work, the product "Bastion" from the brand "Vostok-Service" is perfect. This major brand is one of the leaders in the development and production of specialty products. The costume is made of canvas with a fire-resistant impregnation. The fabric has a density of 550 g / m2. The front parts of the suit are reinforced with split leather pads. The loops and buttons on the jacket are in a hidden fastener, the trousers are fastened at the side. There are internal pockets in the seams of the jacket and the invoice in the trousers. In order not to rub the skin of the neck, there is a coarse calico patch on the collar. Since the suit is designed for summer work, it has ventilation holes. Their placement is the yoke of the back and the lower part of the armhole.
• The Belarusian company "Labor Safety" has been on the market for more than 10 years. Among its partners is the well-known Russian brand Technoavia. One of the company's products is a one-piece suit. For it, a material with a thickness of 0.9-1.2 mm is used, the lining is made of coarse calico. The suit provides 3 class of protection. If the storage conditions are observed, the manufacturer gives a 5-year warranty.

Characteristic

A welder's suit must meet many requirements:

• in addition to strength and resistance to mechanical stress, it must be moisture resistant;
• he must create comfort while performing complex work, not hinder movement;
• one of the main requirements is the ability to provide a high level of protection against high temperatures in the presence of open flames, sparks and hot metal particles;
• it should not be affected by chemicals;
• it is necessary to preserve the protective properties during the entire period of operation.

The split welder's suit fully meets the stated characteristics. Usually it has the highest level 3 of protection, that is, it can work at a distance of 0.5 m from the fire source, it can be used in closed rooms, welded seams in a tank, container, pipeline. Natural material is used for its manufacture, which is obtained in the leather industry by dividing the leather into several layers. The split section is located under the face layer. After special processing, work shoes, gloves, overalls are made from the split.

As a rule, a set consists of a jacket and pants. Since work can be carried out not only indoors, but also outdoors, in different climatic conditions, summer and winter models are distinguished. The insulated suit allows you to work at very low temperatures, it perfectly withstands atmospheric precipitation. A one-piece suit with padding polyester insulation provides excellent protection from both hot metal and weather conditions.

But split is a dense, heavy material, so a combination suit is often used for indoor or outdoor work in summer. Split leather covers the front of the jacket and trousers.A set of tarpaulin or other material in combination with split wood also provides a high level of protection.

Complete set of welding suit

Required as part of a welding suit: face shield (special glasses) with light filters to protect the eyes.

Even summer overalls are a thick jacket with pants, and closed boots made of genuine leather are on the feet. Gloves or leggings with a bell are required so that you can quickly free your hands if necessary. They cover the wrists, and are made of beef (pork) skin.

Leggings for winter have a fur layer inside.

Reference! Gloves are produced 5,2,3-finger. With five fingers, gloves are essential for precision work, others for the rest.

Closed boots with a metal toe and a polyurethane sole are required. If work is carried out in hazardous conditions, it is better to choose boots with nitrile soles for enhanced protection.

Additional elements

For the welder, a leather apron that covers the body will be useful, since hot scale will not harm a suit, for example, from a tarpaulin. For the winter version of the robe, warm mittens or a warmed version of gloves with long sockets are put, holes for ventilation are made in places inaccessible to sparks.

Shoes for welders are boots or shoes made of tarpaulin with non-stick rubber soles, which will not only protect from high temperatures, but also exclude electric shock.

Shields and masks

To protect the head and organs of vision, the industry produces special helmets, and shields and masks made of thick cardboard or light metal with a darkened window are already considered an atavism. The Chameleon mask has a window that darkens a fraction of a second before the bright arc is activated, and after the end of welding it becomes transparent again, so that the performer can process the seam without removing the helmet.

Tarpaulin for welding overalls: pros and cons, features

For many years, canvas suits have been in high demand among welders of various levels and qualifications. This material is produced from natural raw materials: cotton and linen yarn - using plain weave technology, the ratio of fabrics is 51% to 49%.

To ensure high protection against harmful (heat radiation, high temperatures) and hazardous (sparks, splashes, scale) effects of welding, the fabric is treated with a special agent that ensures fire resistance. Sets of tarpaulin without impregnation are recommended for short-term, periodic, light and auxiliary work.

The main features of the tarpaulin: the density and rigidity of the material. In addition, the tarpaulin has a whole range of advantages:

• sufficiently reliable protection of the performer;
• providing an excellent level of ventilation;
• low cost;
• high strength;
• robe care is easy, dirt should be removed by cleaning;
• the possibility of using sets of tarpaulin in any season; winter and insulated models should be lined with fur, wool or other warm material.

The main disadvantages of tarpaulin are the possibility of burn-throughs on the fabric as a result of prolonged exposure, the need for self-shaking off the scale, can hinder movement.

All types of suits have these disadvantages, regardless of the season of operation.

In winter

When considering tarpaulin as a material for winter models of suits, the following advantages should be highlighted: the density of the material provides good thermal insulation, which excludes hypothermia.

Summer

The materials used for sewing summer workwear should have the following advantages: providing excellent ventilation, which guarantees comfort and convenience, as well as an optimal microclimate. Tarpaulin is characterized by all these advantages, which makes this fabric an excellent option for summer dress.

In the demi-season

Summer and winter models can also be operated in spring and autumn, depending on the ambient temperature

It should also be noted that the tarpaulin must be treated with a moisture-repellent compound, which will ensure the fabric's resistance to precipitation.