Knee Pads

The American journal of Epidemiology suggests that wearing knee pads can decrease the risk of injury by more than 50%, just one of the reasons why manufacturers such as Toughbuilt devote an enormous amount of research into the development of knee pads and associated accessories. In fact, Toughbuilt believe that knee pads should be considered another form of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) such as eyewear, hearing protection and safety helmets.

EN14044:2004+A1:2010 is a certification standard appertaiing to industrial knee pads. Key test criteria includes:

* Peak force testing in order to simulate kneeling in quick succession.

• Ergonomic testing – assesses the comfort and fit retention of the pad. The wearer walks around for approximately fifteen minutes kneeling 10 times. One of the ten manoeuvres includes a 10 metre shuffle on the knees and another requires the tester to remain kneeling for a period of 5 minutes.
• Penetration resistance – used to assess how effective the knee pad is at protecting against sharp objects. Level 0 indicates no penetration resistance and therefore only allows the pad to be worn on flat surfaces, Level 1 indicates a resistance of 100N equating to 10.2kg of force and level 2 indicates a resistance of 250N equating to 25.5kg.
• Force distribution – requires a force of less than 30N to be spread across the knee pad, thus eliminating peak loads on one part of the knee.

Protrade actively encourages workers in the construction industry to invest in a quality pair of knee pads bearing the CE or latest UKCA markings. Stocking high quality knee pads from selected brands such as Toughbuilt and Milwaukee, Protrade are set on helping you to work safely, thus avoiding costly and potentially debilitating injuries.