Labor Protective Clothing Industry: Take the Road of Independent Innovation by Taking International Standards

In the field of labor protection in China, protective clothing is the most used product. China is the world’s largest producer of protective clothing. In the past 40 years of reform and opening up, China’s protective clothing has undergone earth-shaking changes.

In the past, the common “silly black” work clothes have long disappeared, and the functionality and comfort of protective clothing have been continuously improved. Compared with the world’s advanced level, the gap has been continuously narrowed.

However, due to the gap between the company’s cognitive level and economic strength, many companies still have obvious deficiencies in the provision of protective clothing compared with developed countries.

So, what are the bottlenecks in the development of protective clothing in China, how to break through? On May 21, the China Labor Protective Equipment Alliance (hereinafter referred to as the Alliance) held the "2018 Protective Clothing Day" in Shanghai.

"5.21" and "My Love Clothes", the dates and their homonyms, made people have some expectations and reverie about this event. In fact, this event day really brought some new feelings to the participants -

Interconnection with international standards

To explore the prospects for the development of protective clothing, we need to broaden our horizons and release ideas. On the event day, invited guests included: heads of protective clothing production companies, large-scale distributor representatives, heads of large central enterprises and multinational foreign companies' safety and occupational health departments, and professional technicians of labor protection products inspection and inspection agencies. Wait.

In this way, a clearly visible industry "chain" can be almost reached within the protective clothing.

(Right is Li Cui, Chairman of China Labor Protection Federation)

At the invitation of the Alliance, the other end of this "chain" has also been connected with the head of an international professional organization - Mr. Eric Van Wely, Secretary General of the ISO Protective Clothing Branch (ISO TC94/SC13) and the internationally renowned name of the International Organization for Standardization Organization. The accreditation body, Mr. Chris Hasbrook, Senior Vice President of UL, USA. Both of them spoke at the meeting and introduced the general situation of international protective clothing standards and related product certifications.

Mr. Chris Hasbrook, Senior Vice President of UL, USA, stated that the topic “Exploring the Global Market is facing unprecedented risks and uncertainties”. He elaborated on the necessity of safety certification from the perspective of safety production and stated that he would like to be China. Safety production and certification services.

The two speakers have attracted the attention and interest of many participants. A lot of people keep lifting their mobile phones and make a stop at the PPT on the screen in front of the venue. During the meeting, there were three or five groups of guests participating in the meeting and there was a lively exchange. Several international guests were even more publicized by many people.

On the same day, the coalition signed an agreement with the International Organization for Standardization Personal Protective Equipment Committee Protective Clothing Branch and the United States UL to establish a comprehensive strategic partnership. In the field of protective clothing, this is the first time China has established contact with international agencies. The two international professionals also stated that it is the first time that they have cooperated with a country’s labor protection organization because they are optimistic about China’s development and strength and believe that deepening cooperation between the two sides will promote each other and make progress together.

Evaluation by domestic professionals, this activity led by China’s coalition and responded to by international agencies is a manifestation of the strength of our protective clothing; the establishment of a strategic partnership with two international agencies, and the interoperability of international standards and product standards Recognition can be seen as a major opportunity for China's individual protection products to stick to the road of independent innovation and to move their own brands to the world.

Explosive video and roundtable dialogue

On the same day, the "protection clothing round table dialogue" allowed participants to enjoy a great meal of professional exchanges.

"Host, I would like to take a look at the little video of the chemical company when it exploded. This is the 'gift' brought to the meeting." Someone made suggestions. Then, that video was played again. Participants breath-hold to watch and seem to want to capture a flash of detail through the screen:

In March 2017, at a petrochemical company, a patrolling officer came to an area where pipelines were interlaced. This may be a routine inspection. When he stopped by a pipe and bent his arm to reach out and tried to touch or turn a valve, the explosion suddenly occurred: The flames formed in a moment formed a fire group and the figure of the inspector could not be seen. . After the flame lasted for five or six seconds, the video stopped short.

According to the person in charge of the company's HSE department, the patrolling personnel encountered a lot of explosions, and the protective equipment of the whole body was well-dressed, so that they could get out of the fire group in a very short time. In particular, the key is that they wear a Siamese flame retardant clothing, which can effectively withstand the explosion of a few seconds. After examination by the hospital, only bare fingers were designated as second-degree burns on the worker's body.

This example of using flame-retardant protective clothing that effectively protects the safety of operators at the time of a fire explosion not only causes all viewers to be vibrated. It also prompted several professionals who participated in high-level round table conversations to open their minds. They carried out multi-angle exchanges and discussions around the production, use, product standards, quality inspection and traceability of protective clothing.

The person responsible for providing the video is the HSE department of a petrochemical company. Someone asked him: How did the company implement personal protection better in workplaces where there is a greater risk?

He introduced that the company inherited the company's safety management system in 2004 and continued to improve. The company has a strict rule that anyone who enters the company's flammable and explosive places must wear flame retardant protective clothing.

“For some positions, fire-retardant clothing must use flame-retardant materials, and some posts can be used after finishing the fabric, but the flame-retardant performance must reach more than 50 times.” The person in charge was quite proud to say: “Our Siamese flame-retardant protective clothing is specially designed by the manufacturer based on the characteristics of our company. We have been wearing it for more than ten years and have not changed.”

Some people ask questions, can fire-retardant protective clothing quality be guaranteed? Has the product undergoing a fiery burning test? The other fire-retardant protective clothing manufacturer on the site, Zhang Qia, general manager of Chunhui (China) Garment Company, replied: “The fire-retardant garments we produce are all sent to related professional laboratories after a rigorous “dumb fire”. experiment."

Yang Wenfen, director of the National Labor Protection Products Quality Supervision and Inspection Center (Beijing), gave detailed explanations on the standardization of personal protective equipment in China. She also introduced the progress of the “Construction of New Personal Protective Equipment Standard System”. The person in charge of the protective clothing production enterprises attending the meeting is more concerned with the formulation of the equipment standards. They hope that the protective clothing can achieve a greater leap forward in the promotion of standards.

I hope to equip the standard and I can take advantage of the new high

The small video mentioned above will undoubtedly become a convincing case for some companies to have fire-retardant protective clothing. However, the fact is that there are some debts owed to our company's work in the protection of heat protection and chemical protective clothing. Of course, the most owed items are fire-retardant protective clothing.

Some responsible persons of protective clothing production enterprises have reflected in unison that companies that use personal protective equipment in the tendering process have generally kept their bid prices low, and many orders for protective clothing have little profit. In this context, how can an average company purchase more expensive flame retardant protective clothing? The lack of related standards or generalization and principles make it easy for users to use borderline barriers, and the relevant government regulators have difficulty in effectively regulating the use of companies.

Some companies are reluctant to increase the cost for the purchase of flame-retardant protective clothing. Low-price competition has also made some fake and shoddy products popular. This has made China's flame-retardant protective clothing repeatedly "casing" in the promotion, and the development is faltering. Although the production of flame-retardant fibers in China is very large, the total amount of flame-retardant protective clothing used in China is not high.

It is gratifying that after the lesson of blood, the dawn of favorable development of flame-retardant protective clothing has emerged. With the attention of the relevant departments of the state, the “General Standards for the Provision of Personal Protective Equipment” has been completed and will be submitted for approval soon. Under this general rule, 12 criteria for the allocation of key areas should also be prepared. Among them, the mandatory standards for the “oil, chemical, natural gas,” “non-coal mines,” “metallurgy, and non-ferrous metals” industries will be introduced first. Individual protective equipment such as “flame-retardant protective clothing” has been included in the list of mandatory equipment in some key industry sectors.

By leveraging on the implementation of the "compulsory equipment standards," China's protective clothing will win rare opportunities for development. The entire industrial chain of protective clothing will benefit, and practitioners in industries with risks such as flammability and explosives will also be Get more security on your job. (Feng Huaihe)