By Clare GoldsBerry, associate editor

The personal and protective gear that welders use on the job has changed to keep up with the changes in welding technology.

Personal gear makers are designing and developing clothing, gloves, boots and helmets that offer comfort and ease of movement so that welders will be more able and likely to wear their protective gear throughout their workdays, and for the many tasks they often perform beyond welding such as cutting, grinding and material handling.

Personal gear is important to welders for many reasons, and the first is safety. Beyond that, personal gear can be much more. It can be an expression of the welder, his or her hobbies, favorite colors, or even politics.

Tom Sommers, product manager for Miller Electric Manufacturing Co. (www.millerwelds.com) said his company was the first in the industry to offer graphics on helmets.

"Before that it was like Henry Ford's saying, ‘You can have any color as long as it's black.' We started six years ago with basically one helmet design. Today, we offer 17 different graphic designs and they're spread over three different model series," Sommers said.

Helmet graphics gave welders the opportunity to express their individuality. Sommers said that the use of individualized graphics coincided with the development of auto-darkening lenses.

"It was amazing how quickly personalized helmet graphics brought the auto-darkening technology to the forefront," he said. Auto-darkening technology allowed a number of features to be developed for helmets because the technology is relatively light in weight and versatile. With its introduction, the weight of helmets could be cut, and they could be molded from high-temperature thermoplastics that have good heat resistance and are durable.

So, they didn't just look good, they had better performance characteristics.

"What welders noticed immediately, is that they no longer had to lift the hood up and down between welds, and the reduced weight allowed welders to flip the face shield up and down without inducing neck injuries," Sommers said.

Manufacturers also became aware that using autodarkening lenses increased production, depending on the type of work, by as much as 30 percent when welders moved from one weld to the next. Also, the quality of the welds improved because the welder can see more clearly where he sets the electrode or torch. Conventional helmets with passive glass lenses were dark all the time, so there were a few seconds when the face shield was put down, that the welder had that moment of total darkness, when the welder might not be in exactly the right place, Sommers said.

Other personal gear made by Miller Electric Manufacturing includes gloves that use as many as 20 leather components to provide a fit that conforms much better to the hand than gloves made with fewer components.

The gloves are stitched with DuPont's Kevlar to provide better heat resistance and longer life. In addition to the multiple components, the gloves are ergonomically designed so they feel like they're already broken-in from the first wear, said Sommers said. The company also offers lightweight MIG gloves, and a TIG glove made from goat skin that is soft and ductile for greater dexterity.

People who don't weld all day tend not to wear their equipment all day, so personal protective gear is getting lighter and easier to put on, and more versatile. Because many welders multi-task during the work day, sometimes doing different welding processes and jobs such as cutting or grinding, John Tillman Co. (www.jtillman.com) offers its TrueFit Performance glove line, a hybrid between different types of gloves for multiple tasks.

"These have gotten more people to wear gloves. In addition to a top grain leather double palm and thumb, they have a spandex back for better fit and breathability. Demand has exploded for these," said Mark Williams, vice president of marketing. "This glove is a good multi-purpose glove for tasks other than welding that welders typically do such as grinding, cutting, and material handling, so when they have to go to other areas in the shop they might wear this glove as opposed to a big bulky welding glove. Rather than having a couple of different types of gloves for various tasks, this is a good multi-purpose glove." A spandex back on the TrueFit fit better, and are more flexible for performaing various tasks.

Many welding gloves -- those specifically for welding – are designed for the type of welding performed. Williams said that the majority of the welding machines sold are MIG welding machines that have a gun with a trigger.

"The traditional heavy-duty stick welding glove isn't as easy to use in this application because of the lack of dexterity, which is why we created MIG-specific gloves that are half-way between a MIG and TIG glove. You have dexterity, but also better heat protection than is typically required for TIG," he added.

The MIG-specific glove is made of slightly thicker leather and incorporates some insulation on the back of the hand for better heat protection while providing good dexterity, and Tillman has expanded its MIG products.. "That's been the fastest growing area for us in terms of welding-specific gloves.

Revco Industries' Black Stallion (www.blackstallion) brand of gloves recently introduced a new generation of its AlphaTIG premium kidskin glove. The TIGster premium flame resistant cotton welding glove is made of snug-fit kidskin and features the seamless index finger for extra dexterity like the Alpha TIG, as well as Black Stallion's "Drag Patch" feature to extend the life of the glove.

Jimmy Wu, national marketing manager for the company, said that many people liked the Tool Hand series of ergonomic gloves the company produces, but the product itself is not designed for welding.

"We then decided to capture the sung-fitting erogonomic glove for the welding market. While it has taken us longer than we anticipated to do the redesign for the welding market, we feel the TIGster is the best possible glove for TIG welding.

While the company's Alpha TIG has more traditional styling and has been on the market for four years, a short cuff version was just released a month ago. Black Stallion gloves come in sizes small to 2XL. "Sizing is always a specific challenge as everyone's hands are different, so we have to try to accommodate these variations," Wu said.

Timberland PRO (www.timberland.com) introduced a new work boot – the Thermal Force – with what the company calls "an innovative heat retention system" designed specifically for those who work in cold environments.

Bob McCarthy, senior product manager for Timberland PRO, said that many of the innovation in design that takes place in Timberland PRO's products is in part driven by the consumers. The company prides itself on listening to customers. "When it comes time to sit down and develop new products, we make contact with industry around the country, talk to safety managers and observe workers in their environments. We do our due diligence," said McCarthy.

The company's design philosophy is then developed from that research. "First, in order to win in retail we need to deliver designs that are aesthetically different or unique. Secondly, we want to make sure first and foremost that our products perform well and look good. If we're approaching a winter work boot, we want to make sure we're looking through the lens of the end-user."

The Thermal Force work book has an Aerogel insulated toe cap coated with a ceramic-based material to add a primary layer of insulation to prevent the steel toe from getting cold and transfering that to the toes. The new product also features a 3M Thinsulate Zone insulation, and Timberland PRO's "Cold Fomula" Ice Trax rubber outsole. More holistically, said McCarthy, we concerned with how the shoe flexes, which is one reason many people don't like steel toes. "Also, they don't believe in having to wear protective boots unless mandated by the employer. People find them uncomfortable and inflexible, so they go up a half size to make it fit better and sacrifice some protection," McCarthy said.

Most personal gear makers agree that the most important consideration when designing new protective products is making clothing, gloves, helmets and boots that users will actually wear on the job. No one wants to see a welder compromise safety for comfort.

Bill Gardner, product manager for Miller Electric, concurs. "From a protection standpoint, often welders will wear their equipment during the welding process, but then take it off for performing other tasks because the protective gear isn't comfortable for long-term wear. We're trying to develop multi-task products, because if it's comfortable they will always wear the product, which means fewer injuries and less time lost on the job," he said, referring to a study that shows too employees not compliant with regard to their protective gear due to poor fit or discomfort of the product. "If it inhibits their ability to perform tasks, people compensate for that and not wear the gear. We want to solve that problem."

Pack it up to go John Tillman Co. has several products to help welders tote their personal gear and tools, including Tool & Gear storage bags and a Bucket tool carrier. The company also offers a heavy-duty rod bag that holds up to 10 lbs. of rod, and has a divider to allow two types of rod to be carried in the same bag. The company also has a Helmet and Gear bag made of tough 600 denier coated polyethyene with a large capacity main compartment with drawstring and hook/loop closures, front pocket, and a padded adjustable strap. A handy cell phone holster is another product Tillman offers, to keep the cell phone on your belt and out of the way of the welders work.