Proper Clothing for Arc Welding Safety

Video Transcript

" Hi! My name is Mac. On behalf of expertvillage.com, I am here to continue the series on arc welding safety. We had discussed previously the welding helmet and now we will talk about the clothing and gloves and things like that that we need to wear. You need to have a pair of good leather gauntlet style gloves to protect your hands from electric shock and the heat of the welding arc plus the spatter and slag and things like that. Also you need to cover any exposed skin from the light of the arc that can cause severe sunburn to your skin. Very serious exposure to this can probably lead to skin cancer for repeated exposures over a long period of time. Also clothing is very important. Long sleeved shirts, long pants, preferably that can be buttoned up at the neck and of non-combustible material like cotton, denim, leather, etc. Try to avoid rayon, polyester, nylon clothing. If they catch fire they can melt and fuse to your skin. Cotton tends rather to smolder than burn so it is very acceptable. Leather is of course the best of all. Your trouser should go down over the tops of your boots to protect your feet from sparks and slag going into your boots and it is certainly a good idea to wear a good solid work boots, steel toed, steel plate in the bottom of them to keep hot material off your feet and if you drop tools or steel you do not injure your feet. Proper safety equipment cannot be stressed enough, it is critical to protect you while you are doing welding."