ANSI stands for American National Standards Institute. The ANSI cut level standards are based on specific testing methodology for protective industrial products. These standards are defined in the ”American National Standard for Hand Protection Classification” that provide information on the test methods that are feasible to determine the cut resistance in the safety equipment. These standards help to identify what hand safety products actually may meet your specific protection needs such as cut resistance, puncture resistance, hypodermic needle puncture resistance and abrasion resistance. Knowing these standards would aid you in understanding different performance levels. There has been significant changes to the cut-resistance classification overtime to improve hand safety of industrial workers.
ANSI Cut Resistance Level Standard
The new ANSI standards define ANSI glove ratings from A1 to A9 (minimum to maximum cut resistance). Let’s dive into a little detail on each ANSI level as for what application and work environment or hazards are they are each suitable for.
ANSI Cut Level A1
The protective gloves with A1 cut level can withstand cutting load of 200 g to 499 g. A1 is characterised as level 1 in protection against low cut hazards. Gloves with ANSI A1 rating are widely used in material handling, car maintenance, assembly level tasks, packaging, warehouse, forestry, construction, and general purposes. These gloves offer protection against paper and light scratches. However, they aren’t suitable for protection from blades or sharp metal cuts.
ANSI Cut Level A2
Characterized as level 2 in cut protection, the ANSI cut level 2 gloves can resist cutting load of 500 g to 999 g while offering hand protection against low to medium cut hazards. These gloves are most suitable for material handling, automotive assembly, packaging jobs, general purpose, pulp and paper, and landscaping.
ANSI Cut Level A3
The ANSI Cut level A3 gloves provide protection against moderate cut hazards and are rated for 1000 g to 1499 g cut load. Therefore, the level 3 gloves are ideal for light glass handling, appliance manufacturing and metal stamping jobs.
ANSI Cut Level A4
The ANSI cut level 4 gloves can withstand a cut load of 1500 to 2199 grams for moderate cut hazards. Gloves with the cut protection classification of level 4 are suitable for applications such as appliance manufacturing, bottle and light glass handling, canning, paper production, metal stamping, and food processing.
ANSI Cut Level A5
In the cut level glove chart, it is represented that level 5 gloves have the tendency to withstand at least 2200 to 2299 grams of cut load for resistance against moderate to heavy cut hazards. The ANSI cut level 5 gloves are ideal to be used in a work environment where one needs to deal with sharp blades and objects. Automotive, construction, appliance manufacturing, glass handling, drywalling, electrical carpet installation, metal stamping, food processing, and aerospace industry.
ANSI Cut Level A6
The ANSI cut level A6 gloves can bear 3000 g to 3999 cut load. The gloves are widely used in metal stamping, metal recycling, HVAC, food and meat processing, metal fabrication, aerospace industry, and the automotive industry. These gloves rank in resistance against high cut hazards.
ANSI Cut Level A7
The level 7 gloves provide resistance against high cut hazards and are ideal for automotive assembly, sharp metal stamping, pulp and paper (changing slitter blades), aerospace industry, metal fabrication, glass manufacturing, window manufacturing and food preparation and processing.
ANSI Cut Level A8
Level 8 gloves provide cut protection against high cut hazards. They can withstand a cut load of 5000 to 5999 grams and are highly suitable for work environments such as metal stamping, metal fabrication, assembly or movement of large machinery or objects with sharp edges, glass and window manufacturing, food and meat processing, aerospace industry, HVAC and automotive assembly.
ANSI Cut Level A9
The protective gloves with cut resistance of level 9 can withstand 6000 g or more of cutting load for high cut hazards. The ANSI cut level A9 are ideal for tasks where there is a need of maximum cut protection such as automotive assembly, food and meat processing, HVAC, aerospace industry, metal stamping,
metal recycling, glass and window manufacturing, and metal fabrication.
To summarize here’s the chart displaying different ANSI Cut Levels
At Elite Leather, we offer leather cut resistant gloves of modern style that are designed to enhance abrasions, puncture and tear resistance fulfilling the ANSI cut level standards. Get in touch with us today and find out which glove type suits your employee needs best.
