Fabrication of natural fibre based industrial safety helmet

Abstract

In all industries, the safety helmet is considered as one of the most significant parts of personal protection equipment worn by workers to protect against head injuries caused due to falling items. The majority of head injuries caused by falling objects are serious, and they can even be deadly. Thermal discomfort, heavyweight, and plastic material are among the issues that workers face when wearing industrial safety helmets. Many researchers are striving to enhance the quality of the material used in safety helmets by using advanced materials like polymers, natural fibres, and composites in order to improve the shock absorption characteristics. The aim of this research is to improve the strength of the helmet by combining different materials such as glass fibre, jute fibre, and banana fibre (mat/chopped) with epoxy resin to form a composite helmet. Three-layer and five-layer composite helmets of different stacking sequences are fabricated by hand layup technique and tested for shock absorption resistance, penetration resistance, flammability resistance, electrical resistance, and water absorption conforming to the Indian standard specification for industrial safety helmets (IS 2925). The results revealed that both the fabricated composite helmets satisfy the requirements of IS 2925, which are lighter and more eco-friendly, and are suitable for replacing conventional industrial safety helmets.