About The Construction Hat

The construction industry can be an extremely dangerous place to work, and there are many regulations and safety procedures that are put in place to make sure that these workers are kept safe while they do their jobs. Every industry has different regulations, and a lot of thought and effort have gone into defining what is a safe environment for each. I'm sure that the people in charge are concerned about their employees safety, but I'm equally sure that they are covering their own butts so that in the event of an accident, the safety regulations they have in place will cover them. Regardless of which building industry you look at, there a few pieces of safety equipment that are used across the board. One of these items is the construction hat.

These hats are nothing new, in fact they have been around for over 100 years. They are not, however, given a lot of thought by the general community, and this is a shame because they are an important aspect of safety and have saved countless lives throughout the years. Wearing a hard hat on a building site can prevent you from permanent injuries resulting from a fall, or from falling objects such as tools or bits of wood on a construction site. Everybody makes mistakes, and in such an unstable condition, objects are dropped or pushed off the edge of scaffolding's all the time. This is why it is not only important, but the law, that you wear a construction helmet at all times.

During their long career in the safety industry, these hats have gone through some changes and developments. As with anything, new technologies bring new improvements, and this is certainly true for the evolution of the construction hat. They were invented in the early 1900's, and at that time were made out of aluminium, as this was considered to be the toughest material available at the time. The downfall of aluminium construction hats is that aluminium is a great conductor of electricity, and back then people were getting fatal electrical shocks all the time. Because of that, the material was changed to fibreglass, and there it stayed for a long long time. It wasn't until the 1970's that plastics became all the rage, and designers realised that polyethylene plastic was not only harder and safer than fibreglass, but it was also a lot lighter as well, giving some much needed relief to construction worker heads around the world. Plastic construction hats are now the industry standard in most parts of the world.

Construction Hat Colours

You wouldn't normally equate construction hats with fashion. It's not very often that you see Paris Hilton with a helmet on her head going to the Oscars. However, there are many different designs, accessories and colours that can be chosen from in these hats. When they were initially created, they were black. It wasn't long, however, before people started realising that there was a benefit to having brighter colour helmets. Of course, the best areas to have a bright coloured helmet is that the wearer becomes more visible, and visibility in the workplace is very important for safety. Now, I'm not saying that all you big builder types should be going out and buying a pink construction hat, but definitely yellows and light blues, or even whites will help you to be seen by your workmates. Some industries have colour codes for their hats. For example. a white hat for supervisors, a red one for safety inspectors, a blue for technical staff and a yellow construction hat for the workmen. This makes it easy to see, at a glance, who is where, and makes it a lot easier to find a supervisor in the case of an emergency.

There are many different accessories that you can get for construction hats these days. You can get visors (either clip on or built in), that will protect your from the sun, mirrors for those times when you need eyes in the back of your head and clip on lights for dark places, like mine, or for night work. Most construction hats will come with some form of lining to make them a little more comfortable, and a chin strap to keep it secure on your head. For Winter, and construction work in cold places, you can get extra lining that will keep your head nice and warm. This is great for workers on high rise construction jobs. It can get awfully cold and windy all the way up there. If you look carefully, you'll probably notice that your construction hard hat has a place for ear muffs and goggles as well, which are a necessity for some industries.

If you are looking at purchasing a construction worker hat, there are a couple of things you need to keep in mind. For starters, whichever industry you work in should have safety procedures and regulations that specify exactly what sort of hat is needed in that job. If your hat doesn't meet these requirements then you may be refused entry to the construction site, and potentially lose a days work. I would recommend that you buy new. You have no idea what a second hand construction hat has been through, and it may pass a visual inspection, but could still be damaged internally, making it as unsafe as if you were wearing a toy construction hat. Whatever your industry, be it mining, building, high rise construction, or even rock climbing, there is a specific hard hat designed to suit your needs. Stay safe and keep your head in one piece.