New warning clothing standard:
progress, clutter or everything "half as bad"?
EN ISO 20471 is the first
international standard for high visibility clothing. It
replaces the European standard EN 471.
But what changes? And what does the
new standard mean for manufacturers and distributors as well as for
consumers/buyers of the clothing previously manufactured according to EN 471?
This brings with it the new warning
clothing standard EN ISO 20471.
With the new EN ISO20471 requirements
for warning clothing for use are set for the first time risk-related, in 3
classes especially for the protection against "high risk". The
previous interpretation "for professional or professional use" of the
EN 471 is thus a thing of the past.
Class 3 is still the highest and Class
1 is the lowest level of protection, depending on the quantities of warning
material (background material) and reflex (retro-reflective material).
IMPORTANT: For the use of the lowest
class 1 warning clothing, it is advisable to combine it with clothing of the
higher classes to increase the visibility.
According to EN ISO 20471, the amount
of warning background material is now determined "net". That is,
without logos or other (also provided) imprints.
The warning reflective
fabric must definitely
also enclose the torso for high-risk clothing (class 2 + 3) for better
visibility from all sides. High Class 3 must always wear clothes with sleeves.
Another new feature is that only the
higher quality level 2 is allowed for reflective strips. The mention of the
previous number in the new pictogram is therefore omitted.
The properties of the classes must now
be retained even after at least 5 washes.
The biggest change in EN ISO 20471 is
that warning clothing is considered and assessed in terms of "risk".
This particularly helps the consumer in assessing which warning clothing is
suitable for the particular application. The extensive range of warning
clothing from KIND easily meets all requirements.
