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Editorial
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Dear reader,
This Spring has, once again, seen the launch of a few brand-new industrial gloves. Visiting Préventica in Strasbourg, you might have already come across the new HyFlex® 11-624 and our new Vantage® models. We kindly invite you to discover these newcomers in this Ansell InTouch newsletter.
As is the case with all Ansell solutions, the new HyFlex and Vantage gloves are in keeping with our mission: to lead our markets, as the provider of superior quality and innovative solutions to better protect people and products.
Further proof of that mission statement are our technically innovative programs, like the
Ansell Cytostatics Permeation Program (ACPP). Originally devised to evaluate the dynamic permeation levels of our medical gloves, the ACPP is also used, these days, to analyze the performance of our industrial glove range in high-risk environments. With nothing but positive results.
Of course, there are more novelties in the pipeline for next autumn. While many of you were out
sunbathing on a some far-away beach, conquering a challenging mountain-top or expanding your
cultural horizons, we have been getting ready for the A+A trade fair in Dusseldorf, from the 18th - 21st September next, among many other things. We hope to see you there. For now, enjoy the reading.
Werner Heintz
Sr Vice President & Regional Director Europe, Ansell Healthcare
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Product launches: NEW Vantage® and HyFlex® 11-624
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Excellent cut resistance (EN 5!) without compromising flexibility, sensitivity or dexterity: these are the unique promises of the NEW Vantage® range, a series of six enhanced Vantage versions. In addition, this spring saw the launch of a new member to the popular HyFlex® family: the lightweight HyFlex® 11-624.
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What makes the NEW Vantage range so unique? Well, primarily the ingenious combination of its excellent tear and cut resistance with exceptional dexterity. The lightweight design provides greater comfort and a better fit for the wearer.
Investing in NEW Vantage is a smart decision. The flexibility, comfort and mechanical performance of the gloves ensure complete user acceptance while the operators are fully protected, at a reasonable Total Cost of Ownership. As the range includes six types of gloves, there’s sure to be a Vantage to match everyone’s protection profile.
Marriage of dexterity and comfort
In addition to the NEW Vantage, there's also a HyFlex newcomer: the HyFlex 11-624. Like its other family members, this lightweight model is a trendsetter in the areas of dexterity and flexibility. The glove fits perfectly and ensures secure grip on dry to slightly oily pieces. It smartly combines these comfort levels with optimal protection from cuts and abrasions.
The HyFlex 11-624 allows the safe handling and assembly of sharp pieces and is ideal when flexibility is a must.
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A+A 2007!
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From the 18th - 21st of September, we'll gladly welcome you at A+A 2007 in Düsseldorf, the industry highlight of the year for PPE
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Discover Ansell's new product, solutions and technologies at A+A in Hall 6, booth J31.
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Ansell Grip Technology™ and HyFlex® demonstrated to ArcelorMittal Italy
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“Safety is a way of thinking, which serves as a guide to everyone at all times.” That is how la Magona d’Italia, an Italian facility of ArcelorMittal, introduces its health and safety policy on its website. To underline the importance it attaches to these values, the company invited all its workers, peer businesses and supplier to its Safety and Environment Days, on 6 and 7 March last. Ansell was there.
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Since 2002, la Magona d’Italia in Piombino has been part of Arcelor – now ArcelorMittal -, the world’s number 1 in steel. In all 500 of its facilities, ArcelorMittal has instilled a strong safety culture. To demonstrate its firm commitment towards Health and Safety and raise awareness, the global group launched a new initiative in 2007: its first worldwide Health & Safety Day.
Spreading the word
In the Piombino branch of ArcelorMittal, the Safety Day was followed by the company’s fourth Environment Day. On the agenda were a series of inspiring activities and a visit to the temporary exhibition area, where ArcelorMittal and its industrial partners and contractors alike were presenting their safety solutions. Ansell distributor Bisicur had asked Ansell to attend the event.
“Ansell has the same dedication to safety as ArcelorMittal and workers at the Piombino plant wear Ansell gloves (Grab-it Safe® and Hyd-Tuf® models)”, said Ing. GianClaudio Melchiori, TSM & Local Trainer, who attended the event. “So we introduced the visitors, including many Safety Managers from other companies in the Piombino region, to Ansell Grip Technology™ and the highly cut-resistant HyFlex® gloves. In this way, we hope to have helped ArcelorMittal spread the word about the importance of safety.”
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Finger on the pulse of the Danish health and safety scene
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On the 24th and 25th April last, the Danish port town of Kolding was host to the Annual Meeting of SSID, the Danish Association of Safety Engineers. Besides attending a wide range of interesting seminars and workshops, the participants were given the opportunity to discover what’s new in the world of safety at the many exhibitor’s booths, including the Ansell stand.
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Through a series of exciting plenary sessions and a solid offering of workshops, the annual SSID meeting strives to keep its attendants abreast of what is going on in the "safe world". Topics on the 2007 agenda included the latest safety legislation, the assets of an attractive workplace and a view on ‘change as an business opportunity’. To zoom in on the topic of safety rules and regulations, the association had invited the Danish Minister for Employment. Heavily-attended seminars included the one on how to combine flexibility and workplace safety, and the view of Mærsk, the world’s biggest shipping business on ensuring workplace safety.
Inspiring user feedback
For Ansell, too, the event was an ideal opportunity to present its solutions package and keep the finger on the pulse of the needs and wants of the participants, i.e. the safety engineers. The user feedback at such events is one of the solid foundations on which to build new products or enhance existing ones.
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Ansell Nordic welcomes new Sales Consultant
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The Ansell Nordic team recently welcomed a new colleague: since the 2nd of May, Antti-Pekka Koukonen has been working as a Sales Consultant for Occupational Healthcare, based in Finland.
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Antti-Pekka is glad to put his 16 years’ Sales and Marketing expertise at the disposal of Ansell’s customers. “Industrial gloves are an entirely new product to me,” Antti-Pekka admitted, “but after a couple of months’ intensive training here at Ansell, I’ve got a good background already.” What are his first impressions? “Ansell is a very innovative and dynamic company! I hope to add value to the enthusiastic team and offer my customers the same level of service they’re used to. Or even more,” he laughed.
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European Glove Standards: Ansell has its say
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Years of experience in the protection market have made Ansell a true ‘barrier protection’ expert. And much of that expertise resides in our staff. Take Guido Van Duren, for example, our Technical Services director. Besides his day-to-day job, Guido is an active member of the Expert Work Group TC 162 / WG8 within CEN (Centre Européen De Normalisation) that develops and reviews European glove standards, including the EN388 group, which he chairs.
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A qualified chemical engineer with over 17 years’ experience at Ansell, Guido Van Duren knows the needs and developments in the hand protection market better than most. For quite some years now, he has been applying that experience and know-how as a member of the CEN Expert Work Groups that set the standards for hand protection (TC 162 – WG8). Until the 1st of January 2007, Guido chaired the EN374 working group, studying the standard determining the chemical protection criteria of gloves. He swapped that post to chair the group responsible for the EN 388 standard, which currently specifies four tests to assess the mechanical resistance of mechanical protective gloves.
Continuous improvement
“Every five years, all EN standards in theory need revision,” Guido explained. “So a group of people from notified bodies, glove manufacturers or regulators convene regularly to evaluate the existing standard and to report any problems or hurdles to overcome. Based on their experience, feedback from laboratories and clients and emergent market trends, they formulate recommendations to enhance the existing standard.”
Since the EN 388 standard, for example, aims for a revision by 2008, the work group convened in January (Paris) and April (Gent) to discuss how they could improve the existing tests to better assess abrasion, blade cut, tear and puncture resistance. The changes are not revolutionary but do further the quest that typifies Ansell: the quest for continuous improvement. To ensure better protection still of the people wearing our gloves.
8.5 or 9? Check out your optimal glove size!
Ansell has developed a handy glove-sizing chart for glove wearers who are in doubt about the size of gloves they need.The chart is a simple drawing of a hand, with lines indicating the glove sizes. Just place your right hand palm down on the figure, with your fingers together and read off your size! Want to try it? If so. Click here and you will find it on our website.
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Ansell: protection you can build on!
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The construction sector has the highest level of exposure to occupational risk factors. This is one of the striking conclusions of the 4th European Working Conditions Survey (2005). Good news from the survey is that personal protective equipment (PPE) is gaining in importance. Still, more than ‘simply’ protecting their workers, companies should invest in protection which is expressly tailored to specific tasks and risks. Which is where Ansell can help comes in.
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In construction, like in many other industries, the "upper extremities" are the parts of the body most injured. In other words, hand protection is a must. Too frequently, however, Ansell sees that the gloves provided to workers do not offer optimal protection against the risks they are exposed to. If you issue comfortable gloves with the correct grip and appropriate mechanical and chemical protection to your workers, you win twice: you improve worker safety while enhancing worker performance.
Targeted solutions
Ansell offers a wide range of gloves that have been designed for hand protection against occupational hazards specific to the building and construction sector. Gloves that protect against chemicals, for example, because the hands of bricklayers, roofers, plasterers or tile-layers, come into contact with alkaline concrete or solvent-based sprays. Or gloves that keep hands warm as they work outdoors in winter. Dexterity and adequate protection against cuts and abrasion are equally important, as are gloves that ensure good grip.
Ansell Grip Technology™
‘Gloves ensuring good grip’ are gaining in importance in many industries. Indeed, the most recent European Working Conditions Survey shows a significant rise in repetitive hand or arm movements, which may result in Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS). In cases where protective gloves succeed in reducing the need for exertion, they help reduce the onset of occupational injuries, such as CTS.
And that’s what Ansell’s gloves incorporating the Ansell Grip Technology™ do: they require 34-69% less grip force to lift an oily object. An impressive statistic, not in the least for building and construction workers.
Visit our web site for more information on our offering for the building and construction sector.
Come see us at Batimat!
Discover our targeted solutions for your industry at the 28th Batimat, the biggest and most international construction exhibition, at Paris Expo, from the 5th to the 10th of November (hall 5.2, stand A2).
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Product shortcut
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A new packaging, an added ‘‘colour’, different sizes and/or improved characteristics: from now on, you’ll read it all in our new ‘product shortcut’. Here are the most important product changes of the past few months:
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Safe-Knit® Guard slot width narrowed
Following some customer remarks, a new manufacturing specification has been introduced for the thumb slot Safe-Knit Guard sleeves 59-416 and 59-417. Since February, its width has been narrowed from 51 to 63 mm to 55 to 63 mm.
AccuTech® 91-210: changed polybag
The polybag and the label of the sterile Accutech Sterile Ultra-Clean 91-210 have been modified since April last to comply with CE Technology. The 10 pairs polybag label has been updated to include the barcode per size and the polybag itself has been given an extra heat seal and an easier tear: the tear notch is now positioned higher up on the polybag.
proFood® 34-425: available from September
As you may know, there was a temporary allocation plan for our single-use proFood 34-425 due to certain issues surrounding our new manufacturing site. These teething troubles are now solved and product orders have been replaced. The new shipment will arrive soon. For those who can't wait: as an alternative, we can propose the proFood 35-405, 69-440 or 69-455, which are now available at a temporary discount.
The performance and properties of the new proFood 34-425 will be identical to those of its predecessor, except for a slight difference in the finger length. The changed dimensional parameters will be outlined in the gloves’ outer case.
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Ansell Cytostatics Permeation Program:
the testing continues
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Remember the Ansell Cytostatics Permeation Program (ACPP) we introduced in last summer’s In Touch? Back then, we started an initial set of tests to assess the dynamic permeation levels of a couple of Ansell industrial gloves. In the meantime, three new gloves have been put under the microscope.
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Ansell is eager to protect the safety of everyone wearing its gloves. To find out to what extent these models protect against cytostatics, Ansell and the Université Catholique de Louvain developed the unique ACPP testing protocol, which assesses the dynamic permeation levels of gloves for the most widely used types of cytostatics.
True-to-life simulations
The core of the ACPP is its testing device with true-to-life simulations: the device tests the gloves under the design constraints and worst-case scenarios that gloves commonly endure, such as rubbing, tension or high levels of cytostatics. These realistic simulations make the ACPP really unique. Thanks to this novel approach, the Ansell protocol provides more accurate and safer guidelines to ensure the safety of workers who handle cytostatics in labs and in the pharmaceutical industry.
Passed with flying colours
Originally, the ACPP was introduced as a benchmark to test our range of medical gloves against but our industrial glove range soon followed. Ansell first used the proven protocol to test its powder-free polychloroprene DermaShield®, the powder-free Touch N Tuff® and the latex AccuTech® Sterile Coated gloves. Since then, the AccuTech® Sterile Ultra-Clean, the AccuTech® Gammex®, and the powder-free nitrile Nitrilite®, too, have been tested at temperatures of 25 and 37 degrees. The test results are favourable this time as well: the permeation level detected for all our gloves was between 1 000 and 100 000 times below the EN374-3 limit requirement for most of the cytostatics.
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We will regularly update the permeation tables to include the gloves that were last tested. For more details on the ACPP and a current overview of test results, check out our new version of the ACPP brochure.
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