What is the standard for safety shoes?

Whether you or your employees ， Before you buy new shoes, you need to understand effective safety standards to ensure foot safety.

Of course, these standards depend on the intended use of the shoes and your area of activity, there are the most suitable safety shoes for every risk, let's immediately find out what standards these shoes must meet.

The importance of safety shoes

Whether protecting your feet, ankles or calves, safety shoes are essential, they allow you to protect yourself from various risks.

First of all, these shoes ensure safety while driving by preventing falls, incorrect movements and slipping, while also taking into account biological and thermal risks that can protect you from extremely high or low temperatures.

In addition to the risks listed above, there are chemical, electrical and mechanical risks, so these shoes must protect you from corrosive liquids, perforations or bruises, and even electrostatic discharge.

To really rule out these risks, safety shoes must meet certain specific standards.

Different protection standards for safety shoes

The standardization of safety shoes is divided into different categories depending on the needs and risks associated with the work. 

The general standard EN ISO 20345: 2011 is binding in France and applies to Europe, in which case they differ in different standards: SB, S1, S1 P, S2, S2 P, S3, S4, S5 and SBH.

These standards will help you understand the different forms of safety footwear, whether low or high, boots or ankle boots, safety boots or wading boots.

Let's take a closer look at these standards:

S indicate safety shoes

Therefore, the S mark depends on different protection requirements and includes different standards:

• SB standard safety shoes benefit from a number of basic features. These basic characteristics include protective toe caps, slip resistance, wear resistance and the question of whether the back is closed.
• S1: This standard includes basic properties as well as antistatic properties (A), resistance to hydrocarbons (FO), heel (E) and energy absorption in the closed back
• The SIP standard adds an anti-perforation sole (P) to the S1 standard. These safety shoes must be worn in a dry environment or indoors. They mainly affect the machine industry, the craft industry, the light industry or the logistics industry.
• S2 shoes are mainly used in logistics, the food industry and by chefs. They have S1 properties related to hydrophobic (WRU) parts.
• These safety shoes combine S2 standards, crampons and anti-perforation soles (P). They are suitable for many areas including outdoors and in wetlands (industrial, green, construction, etc.).
• This includes S1 standards and water resistance.
• Standard S4 safety shoes have an anti-perforation sole (P) and water resistance, the safety shoes of this type provide protection from the harshest environments by preventing cold, damp, muddy ground and even various protrusions.

Additional marking

In addition to the previous standards, additional markings can also increase and adapt the protection of shoes.

 

The other markers present are as follows. Your choice depends on your area of activity and the tasks assigned to you:

• This standard enables shoes to have shock absorption in the heel area.
• Antistatic security.
• There are perforated soles.
• Hydrocarbon resistant sole.
• Cold insulation.
• H Provides thermal insulation.
• Presence of a sole that allows heat resistance of up to 300 ° C in direct contact.
• Dissipates electrostatic charges.
• Benefit from a water-repellent upper material.
• Protects the metatarsal bone.
• Provides protection for the malleoli.
• Features an upper that resists cuts.

EN ISO 20347Standard

This standard applies to safety shoes without protective toe caps.

The different categories available include OB, O1, O1P, O2, O3, O4, and O5.

EN ISO 13281 Standard

The shoes that pass this test are specially designed to avoid the risk of slipping.

The different categories are listed below:

 

• Using SLS can make the tiled floor non-slip.
• It offers the best spin performance against glycerine steel.
• The use of SLS as well as steel and glycerine can prevent slipping on the tile floor.

How are safety shoes constructed?

According to safety footwear standards The composition of the safety footwear may vary, each part of the safety boot structure offers you comprehensive protection in order to avoid the associated risks.

The protective cover can be made of metal, composite, aluminum or fiberglass; the anti-perforation midsole can be made of fabric to provide comprehensive foot protection and the best thermal insulation, or it can be made of metal to improve penetration resistance, but the cover is very small.

The outsole of safety shoes can be made of polyurethane, thermoplastic polyurethane or rubber / nitrile to ensure greater resistance to chemical and thermal risks; the upper material can be made of full grain leather, velvet leather or synthetic fiber to reduce the weight of the shoe. 

That is why there are many options and standards for safety shoe management. All you have to do is identify the product that best suits your needs!