Can I wear a bump cap instead of an industrial hard hat and safety helmet?

Hard Hats and Safety helmets are a mandatory requirement for many construction sites in the USA. We are sometimes asked if a bump cap can be used instead and the answer is always no, a bump cap should not be worn where an industrial hard hat and safety helmet is required.

Bump caps and industrial hard hats and safety helmets are made to different standards and serve different purposes. Bump caps do not have ANSI approval.

Bump caps are meant to provide protection to the wearer from the effects of striking their head against stationary objects, but do not offer protection against falling masses in which case industrial hard hats and safety helmets should be used.

Bump caps can be suitable for use in situations where stationary structures pose a risk to the head, such as working around low ceilings, pipework, or on an automated production line. This can tend to happen by baggage handlers, warehouse workers, going into crawl spaces or any other tight spaces.

They are intended to protect against bumps and scrapes from static objects, bump caps are tested with an impact energy of 12J. These close fitted baseball cap style products do offer head protection benefits to several applications and industries where bumping your head could be an issue.  

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us

View our range of Bump caps here