No matter if you are planning to buy new pair of safety glasses or wearing specs many times. It could be challenging for you to view all options for your need. But you are fortunate to live in an age where you have many eyeglasses options. Fine, you have many options, but sometimes several options can prove overwhelming.
Indeed, it is good to have an uncountable choice, but more choices create confusion and stress in your mind when you want to buy them. But first of all, customers need to understand the chief difference between regular and safety glasses. So that you have a better understanding of the difference before buying them. If you are also confused about shopping for safety glasses, you must stick with this post for the best info.
Whether you have a dangerous profession and need to face harsh working settings or are a simple adventurer and like challenges, you would be wondering whether you should go with standard eyeglasses or safety specs. It is vital to know the difference before buying new pair of protective glasses. Ultimately, you will conclude to make the best option for you.
Studying the Difference between Regular and Safety Eyewear:
Before starting, one noticeable difference between standard eyewear and safety glasses is lenses. Whether you may require Prescription Plano lenses. Protective glasses are much stronger than regular glasses for the eyes. These safety lenses have a high standard of impact resistance than regular eyewear.
The protective lenses of safety eyewear are designed for specific materials, and the most used material is polycarbonate. They are manufactured with polycarbonate lenses. Thus polycarbonate lenses are lightweight and impact resistant. But they are soft and more vulnerable to scratching. Fortunately, polycarbonate lenses are equipped with anti-scratch coating. Glass lenses are no doubt, ideally fine for specific scenarios. But they are not ideal if you want to wear them in challenging conditions.
Most of the time, the safety standard on impact resistance lenses is pointed with the specific mark on safety glasses. For example, ANSI is a well-respected safety standard, and all lenses are tested under different series. All safety lenses are passed under these tests to ensure their shatter resistance. One test is a drop ball dropped from 50 inches in height. If lenses break, chip, or crack, the lenses should pass the test. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be ANSI certified. The series of tests ensure the durability of the lenses when put under the highest pressure.
A lens with ANSI certifications is approved for safety in challenging work settings. For example, if you are working in an environment under dirt, dust, and flying objects, ANSI-certified lenses are the best choice. They are excellent choices for sports and sharp particle settings. On the other hand, standard specs don’t satisfy protective standards. So, if any manufacturer ensures lenses can stand against impact situations. In fact, they don’t meet the protective criteria, and it can make you doubtful.
Another chief difference between regular eyewear and safety specs is impact frames. The protecting frames are also designed with various materials, and the most popular material is nylon. The nylon material is lightweight and flexible. Besides, some are made with durable plastic or other metals like titanium.
Likewise, the prescription safety glasses frames naturally are manufactured to stand against impact situations. The safety frames are also passed under a few tests to check durability. Therefore, the drop ball test is one of the tests to ensure the frame’s durability. After passing this test, the safety frame should protect lenses and don’t shatter under certain conditions. Thus safety frames are manufactured with impact material, and you can check its marking on the eyeglasses frame. These safety frames can find on the frame temple or sides of the frame.
On the other hand, regular eyewear doesn’t manufacture with impact material. It cannot withstand impact danger. For example, if standard eyewear accidentally falls in a challenging environment, there is more chance to frame break. Thus, it could be challenging to wear regular eyeglasses if working in a risky environment.
Check out Your Habits before Ordering Online Safety Glasses:
However, all the above are the primary difference, and comparatively, they are straightforward. But this is the best thing to make your decision before looking at your preferences and habits. For example, safety glasses are crucial for laborers, carpenters, plumbers, and machinists.
Indeed, safety managers should consider quality safety glasses so that their workers should remain safe in hazardous working conditions. Besides, if you are operating in home improvement tasks or yard work, you should consider safety specs. These projects have a lot of possibilities to lead to severe eye injuries. Thus, if you require additional safety while playing a sport, protective specs are essential requirements for your job.
But, if you observe that you don’t need safety glasses and regular eyewear can satisfy you, go ahead. These protective specs will undoubtedly provide you with clear vision. But they cannot deliver you additional safety from debris, and flying particles can hit your lenses. Regular eyewear is more stylish as compared to protective eyewear. So, don’t consider safety specs if an aesthetic factor is more considerable for you. Thus decide according to your preferences.
Is it Possible to Use Prescription Eyewear as Protective Glasses?
While taking the best care of eyesight, safety is crucial. For workers who need the best protection in their dangerous working environment, it could be risky for your eyes to provide ordinary protection. Prescription safety glasses are a crucial requirement for impact work settings.
Many people question why they use prescription safety glasses than regular eyeglasses. First of all, prescription safety glasses are designed equally. Besides, protective specs are created for optimal safety of eyes for dangerous working projects.
Protective glasses are designed with durable material, and they have different thicknesses of safety frames and lenses as per projects. The safety standards are structured through federal law. On the other hand, regular prescription eyewear uses ordinary materials that only provide correct vision. Thus they don’t provide ultimate safety from hazards things as flying particles and gases.
By the above argument, prescription eyewear cannot use in the place of safety glasses. Due to specific design, ordinary prescription eyewear cannot use as Rx safety glasses. Safety glasses are designed for different purposes and functions. Thus safety glasses are manufactured to meet high safety ANSI standards. Therefore, prescription safety glasses follow the same safety principle.
Another most important question is about wearing prescription eyewear under safety glasses. Absolutely yes! because most safety glasses are designed to wear over prescription eyewear. They are known as safety goggles due to their large size and easily adjust over standard specs. Such safety specs are made for construction sites and labs because they have additional space to fit standard eyewear. Thus, if you don’t have prescription safety specs, you should consider a protective goggle with a specific ANSI safety standard.
Safety Frames are Excellent Protection:
There are several factors to consider while buying protective eyewear. Appropriate eye safety is essential for the protection and health of workers. The OSHA calculated that several people get eye injuries eyewear year. Efficient protection for the eyes is key to reducing health costs for employers. According to some statistics, many people miss their working days due to eye injuries. Besides, these eye injury expenses of workers have accessed approximately $300 million per annum.
Some others report maximum work-related eye injuries are preventable with appropriate protective eyewear. Safety eyewear is the ideal solution, and there is no other comparison. Every human being is physically different, and thus everyone has specific vision requirements. Therefore, never rely on one size fit all and choose safety glasses as per needs, work environment, and tasks. Every worker should consider their own requirement as per work settings.
Safety Glasses Should be OSHA and ANSI Safety Standards:
Protective eyewear is only considered authentic if safety frames and lenses meet specific safety requirements defined by OSHA and ANSI. OSHA establishes safety standards, and ANSI sets protective standards for different eyewear products and safety frames. These standards ensure that required safety eyewear is safety approved.
Therefore, ANSI Z87.1 safety standards should mark on the temple or sides of the eyeglasses frames. Besides, the marking is visible on the safety frames. Because it is the identification of the safety glasses. Let’s check out different safety ranks used in safety glasses for specific tasks.
- Z87 for basics and Z87+ for impact
- R for infrared rays
- U for ultraviolet rays
- W for welding projects
- V for photochromic lenses
- S for special lens designing
Other Factors to Consider for Safety Glasses:
It is essential to consider the perfect fit for protective eyewear frames or safety goggles while picking the exact prescription safety glasses. If you don’t have the right prescription glasses or a comfy fit are useless. Because the improper fit of safety glasses cannot deliver appropriate protection, workers don’t like to wear them. There are several factors to consider to ensure protective frames and safety goggles. In order to provide perfect eye protection to workers, employees should follow these factors.
- Identify potential dangers for the specific projects
- Frame fit is essential, and choose safety frames according to face size and shape.
- Choose carefully safety glasses, particularly prescription lenses
Always buy safety glasses from reliable sources. Therefore, purchase quality safety glasses with a warranty. So that you can return or exchange safety glasses in case of defective ones.
Therefore, it is essential to identify potential dangers because every hazard has a specific safety standard. These safety standards are made to meet different projects. Therefore, safety managers should assess potential threats if there are present. The hazard assessment will determine the perfect safety eyewear for the workers. The common threats are as follows.
- Impact
- Intense radiation
- Different particles like flying and airborne particles
- Chemicals droplets and splashes
Frame kit for Safety Glasses:
Wearing protective eyewear is essential to keep workers secure in hazardous workplaces. Therefore, employees should provide safety glasses to the comfortable for workers and a perfect fit for them. Appropriate fitting is crucial for personal safety gears. Every person has a different bone structure, age, weight, and gender.
Thus workers need individual safety glasses. Facial structure and head shape is different, and don’t compromise on one size fits all. Safety frames should have proper fitting as per facial bones because workers want to wear comfortable eyewear.
There are several options regarding safety glasses online, and it can make it hard to choose the best piece for your eyes. Besides, online shopping can be overwhelming for comfortable fit and comfort. It is also suggestible to get the best recommendation from professional opticians for perfect fitting. The expert eye care providers can ensure you appropriate fit for a dangerous working environment.
Besides, an expert optician can suggest accurate Rx lenses for vision correction. Identify your face shape because it is the best thing to get the exact size of the safety frame while buying prescription safety glasses. Face shapes influence frame size and are a comfy fit for safety glasses. Human beings have five face shapes: oval, round, pear, square, and heart. Most protective frames come with Rx lenses. But if you have any refractive issue, you must approach a professional eye care provider for the correct prescription.
Thus your eyes require quality protection against impact danger.
As mentioned earlier, protective eyewear is entirely different from standard specs. Thus, you cannot use regular eyewear replacement for safety eyewear. Protective specs are created with the material of a jet windshield. Having been tested under specific test series against impact particles, they cannot shatter easily. Standard eyeglasses are created with regular plastic and are unfit to stand against impact hazards. Besides, they are too risky for the eyes because of easier shattering. Safety glasses deliver you 360 coverage that is not possible with regular eyewear.
Summary:
While playing or working in an impact condition that is a chief threat to your eyes, safety glasses are the only solution. Safety glasses are manufactured to conform impact standards. Most protective eyewear is created with a polycarbonate that is lightweight but impacts.