This safety standard is the most common safety standard for industrial safety helmets, this safety helmet standard ensures that the wearer is protected from falling objects and is required to be worn by users when they operated in an environment where there is a risk of falling objects.
By wearing a EN397 safety helmets you are protecting and reducing the risk of serious injury to the head, injuries such as brain injuries and skull fractures.
In addition, this safety standard ensures that the safety helmet provides protection against lateral deformation of the helmet, providing further safety to the wearer.
Here is an example of a EN397 safety helmets from OAKEYS online store - Link here:
To comply to this safety standard, you are required to meet several performance levels all designed to ensure the wearer is safe. The testing carried out looks at a number of elements such as impact performance, performance in different temperatures, field of vision, electrical voltage tests plus many more.
Below are some images showing these types of tests
Vertical impact test
Penetration test
Flame resistance test
Chinstrap test
How does a EN397 safety helmet differ?
Putting the overall performance of a EN397 safety helmet to one side, you can see a wide range of safety helmet styles in the marketplace with many manufactures looking to make there EN397 helmet stand out from the crowd.
Differences between EN397 safety helmets can be as per the below:
Vented or non-vented
Colour options
Adjustable ratchet style, slip ratchet or wheel ratchet options
Sweatband material
Inner cradle quality and material
Peak lengths
Eye/face visor attachments
The marketplace is full of different variations so it’s important to consider past the safety standard and consider your environment and durations within these environments.
This is still an EN397 safety helmet:
What industries can I work in with a EN397 safety helmet?
This answer isn’t quite that simply with jobs in specific industries requiring different levels of protection and different hazards. Let's take construction for instance, if you are working on the ground with a risk of objects falling on your head then an EN397 safety would be suitable, however if you are required to work at height such as a roofer then it would be suggested that a working from height helmet EN12492 would be more suitable due to its improved side impact protection and invaluable chinstrap to reduce the risk of the helmet falling of your head and being unprotected at height.
Conclusion
To conclude a EN397 safety helmet is a type of head protection equipment designed to protect workers in various industries from head injuries. This helmet complies with the European standard EN397, which sets requirements for the construction, materials, and performance of industrial safety helmets.
These helmets typically feature a hard outer shell made of high density polyethylene, a suspension system that provides shock absorption, and an adjustable chinstrap for a secure fit.
They are designed to withstand impacts from falling objects, debris, and other hazards commonly found in industrial environments. By wearing an EN397 safety helmet, workers can reduce the risk of head injuries and stay safe on the job.
To determine what safety helmet you need, you should have a risk assessment carried out to determine the correct safety helmet for your specific risks and specific environment.
For more on choosing the correct safety helmet - check out our blog covering this topic HERE
Safety Helmets & Bump Caps
Do you require a supplier that offers a wide range of head protection suitable for numerous different industries?
OAKEYS provides a wide range of differing head protection products. Different styles, colours, sizes, quality and performance.
Our range of head protection offers safety helmets/hard hats, bump caps, climbing helmets and safety helmets which offer more than one level of protection. We work with the industry leading manufactures such as Centurion safety helmets , Portwest safety helmets , Delta Plus safety helmets , Beeswift safety helmets , MSA safety helmets and KASK safety helmets.
We know it's important to be able to supply a range of safety helmets conforming to different standards, that's why we supply products conforming to safety standards such as EN397, EN12492 & EN182.
Within our range of hard hats there is hard hats with visors, hard hats with chinstraps and safety helmets with retractable visors. This ensures that no matter the hard hat required, we have got you covered.
Our range of safety bump caps or safety baseball caps provides enough options to choose from with market leaders such as 3M bump caps, Portwest bump caps, Centurion bump caps and Delta plus bump caps all available at the best UK prices online.
For new innovations, popular products and head protection that stands out for the crowd. Take a look at our full head protection range at OAKEYS.
