Watson Blog

In 2016, the European Standard for Protective Gloves (EN388:2016) added an impact test. This was the first time that a standard was used for impact resistance in the industrial market.

Why was the impact standard created?

There are a lot of gloves that claim they provide impact resistance and this can be confusing for an end user to navigate through. The impact standard was created because all gloves with thermal plastic rubber on the back of the hand were viewed equally when realistically one glove could provide you with more protection then the other.
Having a back of hand standard will help educate customers about impact protection and which gloves are best suited for use in specific applications.

What does the impact test involve?
The new EN388 impact test is based on the EN13594:2015 Standard for Protective gloves for motorcycle riders. This test is optional and only applies to gloves claiming impact protection.

The test consists of:

•The Glove being tested is cut, opened out flat and laid out over a domed anvil w/ sensors underneath
•The glove surface is struck with a 2.5kg striker at a distance sufficient enough to provide an impact energy of 5J
•If the average transmitted force is less than or equal to 7kN, then the gloves will receive a Level 1 Pass rating
•If the average transmitted force is higher than 9kN, then the gloves will receive a Level 0 Fail rating

The video below will show you our #025 Overtime glove being tested under the EN388 impact standard.

Updated EN388 Marking

You will start to see a revised EN388:2016 glove marking on all of our marketing material. A “P” or “F” will be found at the end of the EN388 shield for impact gloves that have been tested, shown below. The “P” stands for gloves that have passed the impact test and the “F” will be for the gloves that failed.

What’s next?
We have started to test all of our impact gloves and under the new PPE regulation. Satra announced that all manufactures who wish to market their gloves as having impact protection have until April 2019 to have their gloves tested.

We are happy to announce that #578 Drill Sergeant and #025 Overtime have been tested under the new impact standard and have passed. We will keep you updated on all of the test results on our other impact gloves.

Click to download the #578 Drill Sergeant spec sheet

Click to download the #025 Overtime spec sheet

Sneak Peak

ANSI (American National Standards Institute) has also announced that they are working on an impact standard for the North American market which will be launched later this year.

As Watson Gloves gets ready to head into our 100th year of business, we say goodbye to our 2017 fiscal year. A year where we achieved all of our corporate objectives as we continue to grow to be the most successful glove distributor in Canada. All of our departments are aligned and pulling in the same direction to give you, our valued customers, unsurpassed customer service, and innovative, high quality product. Our goal for fiscal 2018 is to develop procedural improvements by implementing automation and technology. By doing so, we will streamline efficiency and increase productivity to further enhance our already strong Watson experience for both our valued customers and all of our employees coast to coast. I personally want to thank each one of our 128 incredible staff members and celebrate them for embracing our Watson Core values: family spirit, integrity, fun and authentic to help make our company what it is. I also want to thank you, our loyal customer for your partnership with us to make Watsons the 100 year Canadian icon it has become.

It is with profound regret that we note the death of our friend and colleague Harry Hargreaves (1934-2017).
His stories, jokes and friendship will be missed, as will his outstanding karaoke rendition of New York, New York.
Harry was indeed a true character, he lit up the room. He will be missed by the Watson Glove family.

In January 2016 the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) introduced a new standard called the ANSI/ISEA 105. The goal for updating this standard was to create consistency between ANSI and EN388 methods as well as to account of the recent advances in cut resistant yarns and technologies. The European Norm (EN) standard is still in the revision process and will be released later in 2016.

What are the changes that are being made to the 2016 Cut Resistance standards?

• Both ANSI & EN 388 standards will now be required to measure cut resistance using the same machine: the TDM-100 machine
• The new 2016 ANSI cut test standard is called ASTM F2992-15
• In the 2016 En388 standard, it will be required that the EN ISO 13997 must also referenced on the En388 score as it
also uses the TDM-100 Machine

Because both the new ANSI F2992-15 cut test method and EN ISO 13997 use the TDM-100 machines,
their scores now will roughly correlate as you can see illustrated in the chart below.

The 2016 Cut Resistance Ratings System

The 2016 revision of the ANSI/ISEA 105 standard is a more expanded level of classification of cut resistance:
• The ANSI ASTM F2992-15 cut test method will feature 9 levels of cut resistance: A1-A9 with smaller increments
between levels
• Additional levels have also been added to the higher end of the cut resistance scale to account for new cut resistant materials and technologies coming on to the market.

For the EN 388 cut test ratings, both the Coup Test cut score and ISO 13997 rating will be required to be represented on the En 388 score
• The new ISO 13997 rating will be represented by the letters A-F at the end of the score
• The current Coup Test ratings of 1-5 will remain for now
• The European norm EN 388 standard is in the revision process and will be released in 2016

New EN 388 and ANSI Shields:

2016 EN388 Pictogram:
The new EN 388 rating will be scored from (A-F)

2016 ANSI F2992-15 Icon:
The new ANSI ratings will be scored from A1-A9

How Watson Gloves are changing

As leaders in the industry, most of the gloves in the Watson cut resistant line have already been tested in accordance to the new 2016 ANSI F2992-15 and ISO 13997 standards using the TDM-100 machine. In fact, 90% our cut resistant gloves have been compliant with this standard since 2011.
Over the next few months, we will start to transition the glove markings on our products to represent these new standards. To make the transition easier for you, our glove markings will for now include the old ANSI rating as well as the new rating shown below. The new EN388 TDM cut test will not be on our glove markings until the standard has been released which is set for the end of 2016.

All of our marketing material as well as our website have been updated to reflect the new ANSI scores for easy reference.

Our trained sales team are here to help you make informed decisions when selecting the proper cut resistant gloves.
Please do not hesitate to ask us if you have any questions.

Download a PDF of this blog

Check out our Cut Resistant Gloves

We here at Watson Gloves have just completed our 2015 fiscal year end and are proudly into our 97^th year of successful glove manufacturing and distribution. For fiscal year 2016, our corporate agenda is to strive for 100% accuracy in all of our various departments. Our goal is to deliver to you, our valued customer, an unparalleled experience when dealing with us.  We have introduced matrixes and measurement tools internally to ensure that we are doing it right to meet your expectations. You deserve the very best from every facet of our organization.  We appreciate that you have chosen to do business with us and we will not let you down.

Our mantra for fiscal 2016 comes from Brandon Webb.  He is an innovative US Navy Seal trainer/instructor and CEO of Force 12 media: “In times of difficulty your team doesn’t rise to the task but rather sinks to its level of training”.

Thank you for your continuous support over the past 97 years.  We will live up to our corporate agenda,
you have my word on it.

Marty Moore

Wow! Thank you everyone for the tremendous effort and hard work over the past few months. At our last AGM the word momentum was mentioned and how important it is in our growth strategy. Well with the results we’ve seen in 2014, we have momentum baby! Watson is growing rapidly and it is thanks to the effort put in by all members of the team. Don’t take my word for it look at these numbers:

• Averaged double digit growth year over year for the last 5 years
• September was our largest shipping month ever in our 96 year history. Which included 823 orders shipped in one day! Also a Watson record
• 2500 SKU with 2000 of those on hand
• Over one hundred thousand square feet of warehouse space in three locations across Canada to serve our 2652 active accounts (and growing)

All of this couldn’t have happened without our dedicated staff. The Watson family has grown and grown, to 134 employees across three branches. With twenty five office staff to keep this place humming. Thirty plus in our sale and marketing team to serve our customers country wide. Over forty fine folks in the warehouse breaking records.

And our factory which is on fire (not literally) with 24 sewers and a team that is 40 strong, pumping out some of the finest Canadian made gloves around. The factory has seen an 18% increase in output over the last year producing an average of 583 gloves a day. The factory has also seen heavy investment for its future with 60% of the equipment having been upgraded or replaced.

Momentum is on our side lets keep it that way.

“The Watson experience means striving to supply perfect quality products and services and cuts across all facets of the organization. Hats off to the crazy ones, the ones who see things differently, and the ones who get it. At Watson we get it, and so do our customers”

Marty Moore

Watson Gloves has just completed it’s fiscal year end and is well into it’s 96th year of successful glove manufacturing and distribution. I would like to pass on a heartfelt thanks to our fantastic staff, their families, our suppliers and our loyal customers. Working daily with our staff and customers reminded me of an article in Fortune Magazine where they interviewed great leaders from the past 20 years. One quote that stood out in particular was from the Four Star General Joe Dunford, leader of the Nato Coalition in Afghanistan. He was asked what he felt were the three rules to success and dynamic leadership. He replied by saying that the first rule would be “surround yourself with good people”. As for the second and third rule, Dunford said that “over the years he had forgotton the other two”.

These are great words to live by and an article I won’t forget.

Thanks everyone for another great year.

Sincerely,
Martin Moore
President – Watson Gloves