Hard hat colours

[little_lampie]

Hi

This may sound strange but I was recently told that all WAH hard hats for rigging have to be yellow in colour. Is this correct or is it just a myth. Most of the guys I work with have red/orange/black ones.

 

Just thought I'd check before I get a new one.

Cheers.

Fran

 

 

:) - Topic title edited to more accurately reflect topic contents.

[Andrew C]

Colour coding is normally reserved for major building sites, with 1st aiders/safety in green, manglement in white, navys in yellow etc. I've not come across any FORMAL arrangement outside the construction industry.

[Nat_Keiller]

Any hard hats used for Work at Height (including rigging at height) need to be secured so that they themselves can not fall and cause an injury - (think about the irony of it...)

 

Petzl, amongst others, do a series of helmets, with an adjustable chin strap, that are suitable for work at height, the most popular being the yellow version.http://en.petzl.com/petzl/ProProduits?Produit=514.

 

I imagine this is where this statement comes from:

 

all WAH hard hats for rigging have to be yellow in colour.

 

This is the sort of helmet you should wear for work at height, and not the usual 'builders' hat.

 

Hope this helps

[bruce]

Round here, the colour usually reflects what football team you support :o

 

I was recently on a construction site where they had a batch of "visitors" hard hats in the site office. All were bright orange, partly to let staff know that there was an "outsider" in the area, and partly to stop them getting nicked.

[trussmonkey]

in our industry there are no specific regs that say what colour a hard hat must be (although red has been known to be used for rescue trained persons). the colours refer to the building and rope access industries. where these colours represent levels of experience or special skills (I.e green for newbies on site, red for rescue etc.

 

Petzl now do the Vertx helmet ( it superceeds the Ecrin). it comes in white but has coloured covers depending on the level etc of the wearer. these helemets also have add on attachments such as ear defenders and visors.

 

try asking Lyon equipment for more advise

 

trussmonkey

[Seano]

in our industry there are no specific regs that say what colour a hard hat must be

I'm not aware of any such regs in any industry, do you know different?

 

Petzl now do the Vertx helmet ( it superceeds the Ecrin). it comes in white but has coloured covers depending on the level etc of the wearer. these helemets also have add on attachments such as ear defenders and visors.

There are a range of Vertex helmets, its the Best that supercedes the Ecrin Best, and its commonly available in Yellow.

Its the ST and the Vent that usually come in White (or Red).

 

From an industrial point of view, the Vertex Vent has superceded the Ecrin Roc on the grounds that the Roc was never rated for industrial use (excellent helmet though it is). The Roc won't be going out of production any time soon though, as its still a very popular mountaineering helmet.

 

They're not easy to find, but Vertex helmets are also available in black. They're mainly sold to the military, but have obvious attractions for our industry too.

 

Cloth helmet covers are very easy to make, and for that 'GI Joe' look - army surplus shops often have camo helmet covers for not much dosh. Tres chic.

(If you really want to stand out from the crowd, check this out! Pom poms optional.)

 

Sean

x

[GUSTie]

around me we tend to colour code hard hats but it is just what we have decideed to use rather than working to a standerd. red for everyone except, FA is green, SM is white, and blacks are show helmets, yellow is reserved for the visiters and people who are not CREW or regular.

 

is intirley our own system though there are not any statutary regs that I am aware of, but yellow does have the advantage of being HI-VIZ. it is down to whoever is SM.

 

we also have numberd hard hats for camera ops and stuff, they are red with white text.

 

hope that helps

 

matt

[Pete]

They're not easy to find, but Vertex helmets are also available in black. They're mainly sold to the military, but have obvious attractions for our industry too.

chic.

 

I own one and can confirm its about as sexy as a lids ever going to get!

[WiLL]

I thought it was Red for management and command, yellow for engineering and security, and blue for medical and science, but I might be getting mixed up with star trek :o

[Steve_Hole]

Hi...

 

As I work in the construction industry, I can say that most site do not have a colour code. It's only the really large projects like Heathrow T5 that dictate the hard hat colours... Most building companies try to get the colour closest to there corporate colours (SEEBOARD used to have bright orange hats)...

 

Mostly the identification of people like first aiders is indicated with stickers...

 

Steve

[Pete McCrea]

I'd go with the above- Jarvis rail used to have the 'orrible knob Orange hats. They did match the rest of the Orange PPE though...... And at no point through my site visits to various places during my Civil Engineering degree was anything mentioned about colour coding the hats.

 

I do like the thought of some well built time served rigger wearing a nice pink silk cover with pom poms.....

[Nick S]

I've seen for sale (though oddly never worn) what one might call "patriotic" hard hats (complying with the ANSI specs) with the stars and stripes screen printed on them. I also have an odd feeling it was called the "Freedom Hat", although don't quote me on that one.

[Seano]

I've seen for sale (though oddly never worn) what one might call "patriotic" hard hats (complying with the ANSI specs)

 

"Freedom Hat" wouldn't surprise me a bit, but jingoistic ######### aside, there seem to be lots of groovy hard hats available in the US. You can get NFL team colours for example, but these have to be my favourite:

http://us.st11.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.com/I/yhst-38637167768280_1900_7491324.gif

 

Sean

x

 

ps: surely the censorship is a bit over the top, isn't it? I thought that particular word, though slang for "testicles", was also an entirely legitimate old english term for 'nonsense' - as proved in court by John Mortimer QC on behalf of John Lydon in 1977

[flypig]

Got one of the cowboy hats. Still trying to ascertain if we can use them legally in Oz.

 

Incidentally, down here climbing helmets are legal and specified for working at height, providing they are not the type that have holes in them.

 

Common sense really. Falling piece of metal or object enters hole in helmet at speed......no point wearing helmet!

 

H

[Pete]

My Lid has vents,only fails an EN requirement because of "molten metal"-Not too worries about that me thinks....