You work for longer than 30 minutes in hot environments? You go up and down from a hot surface in your job and the outsoles of your shoes outsoles melt fast? You feel the heat inside your footwear and need insulation from the ground? Well, you surely need to know more about safety shoes for hot environments.
This is a very frequent situation, many people work either on hot surfaces or hot environments, all these types of workers should care about having the right safety shoes for hot environments for their feet.
The legislation on safety footwear helps to prevent damages caused by heat, to the feet or to the shoes:
-
The direct damages are related to the heat to the feet, in case of excess of heat into the shoe you could develop blisters on the bottom of the feet or between the fingers, that’s not good because after some time they’ll start hurting when walking. You definitely need an “HI” safety shoe.
-
The indirect damage in case of hot surfaces is that the outsole of your shoes will melt and they will not last as long as you planned and they will also become unsafe, they will lose slip resistance and will become unstable. You definitely need “HRO” safety shoes.
So you need to know more about a couple of features of safety shoes for hot environments , the HI and the HRO.
After knowing them, I bet you’ll be surprised by how easy it is to find the product for yourself!
Now I’ll technically explain to you what exists on the market and what technical specifications you have to look at for the perfect safety shoes for hot environments for your needs. I strongly recommend to you to make a good search of safety shoes for hot temperatures
The best solutions to protect your feet and your shoes from hot temperatures are: “HI” heat insulation and “HRO” heat resistant outsole:
-
FIRST SOLUTION: “HI” heat insulation
You have the European legislation in your favor. In the UNI EN ISO 20345 and in the UNI EN ISO 20347 it is included a technical plus called:
-
“HI” means “HEAT INSULATION” and it is the marking for outsoles with a feature of heat insulation from the ground. After being tested at 150 Celsius degrees for 30 minutes the internal temperature inside the footwear shall be less than 42 Celsius degrees. The degradation of the footwear is then tested in the same 30 minutes test and has to comply with the standards.
Best “HI” pick by SafetyShoesToday
Amazon.co.uk
-
SECOND SOLUTION: “HRO” heat resistant outsole
In this case too, you have the European legislation in your favor. In the UNI EN ISO 20345 and in the UNI EN ISO 20347 it is included a technical plus called:
“HRO” means “HEAT RESISTANT OUTSOLE” and it is the marking for outsoles with a feature of resisting to contact with hot surfaces (the test is made at 300ºC on a sand bath). When tested, rubber and polymeric outsoles should not melt or crack when bent.
There is a material that brings the outsoles this HRO performance, it is a rubber containing Nitrile, usually called Nitrile Rubber or just Nitrile by some manufacturers. Have a look at the different types of outsoles carrying rubber:
- PU/RUBBER: the outsole is made of rubber and the midsole of polyurethane
- SINGLE RUBBER DENSITY: the full piece of outsole is made of rubber
- EVA RUBBER: the outsole is made of rubber and the midsole, or part of it, is made of EVA
Best “HRO” pick by SafetyShoesToday
Amazon.co.uk
Amazon.co.uk
There are work activities that take place in very hot environments, for example in a foundry or in a very hot climatic environment. Then there are activities that take place on very hot floors, for example in foundries. The two working situations sometimes coincide, for example in a foundry the floor is very hot and the microclimatic environment is very hot. But it is important to separate and identify the two needs well: if you need to isolate your foot from external heat then the solution for you is to find a shoe that gives you the right foot insulation, in this case you will need to check if the shoes are equipped with the additional “HI” marking which means “heat insulation”. If instead you need your safety shoes to have a sole that does not melt due to the heat of the floor you will have to look for shoes with the additional “HRO” marking which means “heat insulation outsole”. Needless to say that if you have both needs then the perfect choice for you will be a safety shoe with both the additional markings HI and HRO, for example you could look for S1P HI HRO or S3 HI HRO.
Those are the solutions I suggest to you when you’re looking for safety shoes for hot temperatures.
In this article I have also shown you some safety shoes for hot environments. They are just an example, but trust me, there is a ton of products on the market that are identified as safety shoes for hot environments to help you get protected from heat in the work place.
When you’ll have selected over the many safety shoes for hot environments your problem will be solved, because these safety shoes for hot environments will protect you from heat, from direct damage to your feet or affecting the safety of your safety footwear.
The result? Fewer blisters, more comfort, more stability, more safety.
I guarantee that if you use the right safety shoes for hot environments you’ll live a better working experience.
What do you think about safety shoes for hot temperatures?
Do you have points to add?
Write your comments below!
