Impact Protection:
Protecting Hands Where
the Risk Hits Hard
Understanding impact hazards, safety standards, and how to select the right impact-resistant gloves.
Your hands are your most important tools, and among the most exposed.
In heavy industries, workers routinely operate around machinery, tools, and materials that can create significant risks to the hands. Impact injuries happen in a fraction of a second, often before reflexes can react. A dropped object, unexpected contact, or a hand caught between surfaces can cause impact, crush, or pinch injuries.
Effective hand protection starts with understanding these hazards and choosing gloves for the task's actual risks.
“Impact-resistant gloves can provide an additional layer of protection by helping protect vulnerable areas of the hand while allowing workers to maintain the grip, dexterity, and control needed to do their jobs safely.” — Mathias Granberg, CEO.
Where Do Impact Injuries Happen?
Impact injuries are common in industries where workers operate around heavy equipment, materials, and moving loads:
Drilling, extraction, pipe handling, maintenance, and related operations can expose hands to heavy equipment, suspended loads, pinch points, and moving components.
Power tools, building materials, machinery, and heavy components can create a combination of impact, crush, and other mechanical hazards.
Heavy machinery, tools, rocks, equipment maintenance, and material handling can create demanding conditions requiring hand protection.
Assembly, fabrication, machine operation, maintenance, and handling components can expose workers to impact, pinch, abrasion, and cut hazards.
Pallet jacks, racking, and shifting loads frequently place hands close to moving weight, creating impact and pinch risks that can easily be overlooked.
Repair and maintenance work often brings hands close to machinery, tools, heavy components, and confined spaces, where several mechanical hazards may occur at the same time.
Impact injuries don't always result from a major incident. A glancing blow against a valve handle or a hand caught briefly between two surfaces can still cause an injury. Impact hazards can be easier to underestimate in a risk assessment because they may be less visible than sharp edges or exposed chemicals.
Impact is rarely the only hazard present. Therefore, you will need to consider the entire work environment, not just one protection rating, when choosing the right gloves.
Protection should match the hazard .
What Are Impact-Resistant Gloves?
Impact-resistant gloves help reduce the force transmitted to the hand. Protective materials such as thermoplastic rubber (TPR), foam, or other impact-absorbing materials are typically positioned over vulnerable areas, including the knuckles, fingers, and back of the hand. The aim is to absorb and distribute impact energy, helping reduce the force reaching the hand.
Effective impact-resistant gloves need to balance protection with movement and usability. A glove that provides impact protection but restricts a worker’s ability to grip or control tools safely may introduce other risks.
For this reason, you must consider impact resistance alongside dexterity, grip, fit, comfort, duration of use, and other task-specific hazards.
Impact protection should therefore be considered as part of a broader hand safety strategy, alongside risk assessment, safe working practices, and other appropriate controls.
Understanding Impact Resistance Standards
Standards provide a common framework for evaluating protective gloves. EN 388 and ANSI/ISEA 138 are two key references for impact protection.
While both address impact performance, they should not be interpreted as equivalent rating systems. They use different testing and classification methods and were developed for different purposes.
EN 388: Mechanical Risks and Impact Protection
EN 388 is the European standard for protective gloves against mechanical risks. It evaluates resistance to abrasion, cuts, tearing, and puncture. Where applicable, gloves can also be tested for impact protection, using a method adapted from EN 13594—a standard originally developed for motorcycle gloves.
The impact test involves dropping a flat-headed impactor onto the test area of the glove and measuring the force transmitted through it. The test measures the force transmitted through the protective area, expressed in kilonewtons (kN).
To pass, the average transmitted force must not exceed 7 kN, and no individual result may exceed 9 kN. If the glove model passes the test, a “P” can be marked in the sixth position of the performance levels under the EN 388 pictogram. If impact protection has not been tested, an X is shown on the pictogram (refer to the image of EN 388 with the highlighted P).
Important to know: A “P” under EN 388 confirms that the glove met the impact requirement. It is not a graduated impact rating and should not be interpreted as equivalent to an ANSI/ISEA 138 level.
ANSI/ISEA 138: Impact Protection Levels
ANSI/ISEA 138 is a North American standard developed specifically to evaluate and classify the impact performance of gloves.
The test uses a mass dropped onto the glove with an impact energy of 5 joules, applied separately across multiple points on the knuckles and on the fingers/thumb. The knuckle and the finger result are assessed independently, and the lower-performing of the two determines the glove's final rating — giving a fuller picture of protection across the back of the hand than a single knuckle test can provide.
Unlike the EN approach, ANSI/ISEA 138 provides three performance levels.
LEVEL 1: Higher transmitted force permitted—basic impact protection
LEVEL 2: Lower transmitted force permitted—intermediate impact protection
LEVEL 3: Lowest transmitted force permitted—highest impact protection within the standard
Important to know: ANSI/ISEA 138 uses Levels 1–3, with a higher level indicating lower transmitted force during testing.
Can the Ratings Be Compared?
EN 388 and ANSI/ISEA 138 use different approaches to impact testing and classification. EN 388 uses a “P” to indicate that the impact requirement has been met, while ANSI/ISEA 138 uses levels 1–3 to indicate impact performance.
The ratings are not directly equivalent and should not be converted from one to the other. Instead, consider the relevant test results alongside the task's hazards and requirements.
Standards help measure protection. Risk assessment determines what protection is needed.
How to Choose the Right Impact-Resistant Gloves
A high impact rating alone does not necessarily make a glove suitable for every application. The starting point should always be the hazards involved in the actual task.
Consider what could strike or trap the hand and which areas are most exposed. Understanding where impact is likely to occur helps determine the type of protection required.
Impact often occurs alongside other risks. Depending on the application, workers may also need protection against cuts, abrasion, puncture, cold, or chemicals. Look at the complete protection profile of the glove rather than focusing on one rating
Review the glove's certification and test results against the requirements of the workplace and region. Understanding what the markings represent helps prevent assumptions based on a certification symbol alone.
Protection should support the task, not make it unnecessarily difficult. Workers should be able to grip tools securely, control equipment, and perform the required movements while wearing the glove.
Correct sizing is an important part of hand protection. A glove that is too loose may reduce control and dexterity, while a glove that is too tight can restrict movement and become uncomfortable during extended use.
Temperature, moisture, oil, dirt, duration of use, and the type of equipment being handled can all influence which glove is most appropriate.
Validate glove selection under realistic working conditions.
Impact Protection Is Part of the Bigger Picture
There is no single glove that is right for every impact hazard.
Effective hand protection starts with understanding the task, the hazards involved, and the level and combination of protection required. Standards such as EN 388 and ANSI/ISEA 138 provide valuable guidance, but ratings should always be considered alongside the real working environment.
At Granberg, we believe better hand protection starts with knowledge. Understanding hazards, standards, working conditions, and user needs supports better-informed decisions and ultimately helps workers perform with greater protection and confidence.