What is the difference between bump caps and hard hats

Bump caps protect against small impacts that a worker may incur when bumping into or knocking against a stationary object, while hard hats offer additional protection against falling or moving objects.

Despite offering lower impact protection than hard hats, bump caps can be the best head protection in certain situations, such as confined spaces and when working horizontally. He added that bump caps are more breathable due to being much thinner and lighter than hard hats, with some weighing in at almost half the weight of an industrial hard hat. Applications generally include mechanics working in, around and under vehicles, baggage handlers or airline workers in the holds of airplanes, workers installing products in roofs or voids, food processing and some manufacturing and assembly jobs, and jobs involving moving around in confined spaces.

When choosing a hard hat — or any other PPE — he recommended always conducting a full risk assessment to determine which product suits the application and risk needs. Your Name. Your Email. Industries like manufacturing, warehousing, transportation and other services where workers often find themselves maneuvering in tight spaces. Thankfully, these folks have alternative head protection options to combat nasty dings to the dome.

Typically built around a padded, impact-resistant plastic shell, the bump cap is less obtrusive than a hard hat, looks like a basic ball cap, and is designed to provide comfortable, lightweight protection against worker-generated impact. Basically, anybody working in tight, confined spaces where hard hats are not required. While worker-generated impacts may seem less severe than object-generated impacts, they can lead to some gruesome gashes, concussions and as mentioned above, no small medical expense.

Because bump caps are tested to a different standard than hard hats, they should never be used where hard hats are required. The only bump cap standard in the world right now is the European standard: EN As the term implies, bump cap inserts can be placed inside any regular baseball cap, essentially turning your favorite hat into head protection.

A typical hard hat consists of a metal or plastic shell, with a protective suspension system inside to help the helmet spread out the force of impact over the top of the head. Anyone working in an environment where they could possibly sustain an injury to their head should wear a hard hat.

OSHA hard hat standards state that hard hats should resist penetration by objects, absorb the shock from a blow to a head by an object, be slow to burn, and be water resistant.

Type I are designed to shield workers from objects and blows that come from above and pummel the top of the hard hat. Type II are designed to protect against lateral blows and impacts, as well as impacts that land on the top of the head. Class E are designed to reduce exposure to high-voltage conductors and offer protection up to 20, volts. Class G are general hard hats made to lessen exposure to low-voltage conductors and offer protection up to 2, volts. Class C are not designed to provide protection against electrical conductors.

They only protect workers from blows to the head. Chris Cota: That is a challenge that Aaron and I deal with every single day and something that we are working on constantly to try to improve for worker safety and safety managers everywhere. Not having too much ventilation that you lose your impact or your penetration resistance, while adding as much air flow to keep it as cool as possible.

The other side of that is the weight. So those are the two biggest complaints that I think anybody would know from a bump cap, is heat and weight. So by obviously adding more ventilation, you add more, or you reduced the weight as well. Then on the hard hat side, some of the newer developments and something we just launched is a Class C style hard hat with adjustable vents.

So that is definitely the biggest challenges with both bump caps and hard hats is heat and weight, and us along with all of our competitors are thinking about it every day, how we can make it even more comfortable and keep that compliance up. Chris Cota: Absolutely, yep. So most hard hats, including ours that we just launched, will have side slots that are adapted for the use with the vast majority of the common accessories out there, and you mentioned the majority of them. Hearing protection, face shields, in some cases some will include sunglass-type visors on there as well, in order to help keep everything in one place and in one system.

Justin Scace: Very cool. Very cool. So moving back to something that you briefly touched upon in your last answer, you were talking about a standard. So one question that I have is what about the workplace safety compliance front? Are there any standards surrounding bump caps specifically, and will bump caps satisfy current workplace safety regulatory obligations as it relates to head protection?

It tests things like impact on top, front, and back. It has a penetration resistance test. It does it all at a number of different environmental factors, warm, cold, wet, that sort of stuff. Exterminators, contractors, baggage handlers, truck drivers, mechanics, and many other workers can benefit from using bump caps.

Bump caps can look like traditional cotton and nylon baseball caps with a hard plastic shell and foam on the inside, but some styles look like simplified plastic hard hats, and there are also bump cap inserts designed to fit inside of a preexisting hat to make it a little more protective.

As long as there are employees on worksites with head trauma hazards, there will always be a need for hard hats and bump caps. The PPE of the future will be more effective, comfortable, and easy to use than the gear of today as more solutions are created.

Health and safety professionals, manufacturers, dealers, and researchers are all invested in old and new head protection technology, especially as more research about the effects of head injuries comes out. Future helmets might look like climber-style hats as head protection manufacturers take notes from fall protection gear, but only time will tell.