The EN 388 standard outlines the requirements for gloves intended to provide protection from mechanical risks, including test methods for cut resistance. There are two cut resistance test methods referenced in EN 388 – the first is the Coup cut test, which uses a circular counter-rotating blade to compare the cut resistance of a glove specimen to that of a canvas control material. The same blade is used throughout the test, so highly cut-resistant materials may blunt the blade and invalidate the test. In this case, the ISO 13997 test method is used, which involves a TDM-100 test machine fitted with a straight blade. The blade is replaced after every cut to avoid issues with blunting. The blade is drawn across the glove specimen and the distance to cut-through is recorded with various different weights applied to the blade. From this data, the required cutting load to produce a reference cut distance of 20 mm is calculated.
Cut resistance performance levels are assigned based on results achieved during the testing outlined above (higher is better) – a level of 1 to 5 is assigned for gloves tested under the Coup cut test method, or a level of A to F is assigned for gloves tested under the ISO 13997 test method.
There is often a trade-off between cut resistance and dexterity, so it is important to use a glove with an appropriate level of protection for the required application. For example, a performance level F glove is unlikely to be the most appropriate solution for tasks requiring high manual dexterity with only a low risk of minor injury.
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