The New EN 388 Glove Standard

EN 388 is the European standard used to evaluate mechanical risks for hand protection, but more than that, to be legally sold in Europe, a glove has to be EN 388 certified. Gloves with an EN 388 rating must be third-party tested and can be rated for abrasion, cut, tear and puncture resistance.

EN 388 is the European standard used to evaluate mechanical risks for hand protection, but more than that, to be legally sold in Europe, a glove has to be EN 388 certified. Gloves with an EN 388 rating must be third-party tested and can be rated for abrasion, cut, tear and puncture resistance.
-Cut resistance is rated 1-5
-The other factors are rated from 1-4
Up until now, cut resistance was measured using the “Coup Test,” which uses a rotating blade
under a fixed load. The blade moves back and forth across the surface of the test glove. The 2016 update to the EN 388 standard will now use the Coup Test and the ISO 13997 standard which uses a TDM-100 machine for a more accurate measure of cut resistance.

CUT TEST UPDATES
A common complaint about the Coup Test was that the blade would dull during the test, especially over highly-engineered yarns that feature steel or glass strands. The Coup Test has been revised to limit the number of passes the blade can make over the test fabric to 60. Whether cut through has occurred or not. The rest of test will remain the same. If the Coup Test blade makes 60 passes over the fabric, it is then mandatory to test the glove under the ISO 13997 cut resistance method to assess the glove’s performance.

To find out more download our comprehensive, step by step guide