Where has the hard hat evolved to? —The Smart Technology of hard hats

Two days ago, the national standard for intelligent hard hats in China (draft for comments) was released. In this issue of news, we will look at the hard hats in China, and see what intelligent functions they have under the standard conditions?

The draft of the national standard for intelligent hard hats was released, and the industry has welcomed a unified compliance benchmark.

 In recent years, intelligent hard hats have been widely popularized in high-risk industries such as construction, mining, power, and chemical industries. However, there has been a lack of a unified national standard for a long time, and the market products have diverse functions, uneven protective performance, and no unified basis for monitoring accuracy, resulting in significant safety management hazards. Recently, the "National Standard for Intelligent Personal Protective Equipment - Head Protection - Intelligent Hard hats" (draft for comments), proposed by the Ministry of Emergency Management and under its jurisdiction, was officially announced. It fills the gap in domestic standards for intelligent head protection equipment and sets strict regulations from all dimensions, including basic protection, electronic safety, intelligent functions, and detection methods, promoting the shift of construction site safety management from "passive protection" to "active warning".

I. Standard Scope and Core Definitions, Clarifying Product Boundaries

      1.Applicable Objects

The standard covers intelligent hard hats that have physical protection for the head + environmental / personnel status perception and feedback; it does not include data storage, transmission supporting back-end systems by external devices, only constraining the hardware and intelligent functions of the hard hats itself.

2. Unified Key Terms

The document standardizes industry vague concepts and clearly defines the determination criteria for core terms:

        2.1 Intelligent hard hats:

Wearable protective equipment that combines traditional head protection and can feedback risks of personnel and the working environment;

        2.2 Off-Helmet State: The distance between the cap band and the head exceeds 20cm, and the head is completely exposed;

        2.3 Static State: The angle of the hard hats changes < 30° and lasts for more than 15 minutes;

        2.4 Hazardous Area: Areas prone to causing casualties and property damage in high-risk operations.

        2.5 Four Major Hard Technical Requirements, Guarding the Product Safety Bottom Line.

II. Four major mandatory technical requirements, ensuring the safety bottom line of the product

General Basic Safety Requirements: Appearance, materials, batteries, electromagnetic comprehensive control

1. Material Specifications

The shell is prohibited from using toxic and allergenic raw materials, and the force-bearing parts such as the cap shell and cap band must not use recycled and regenerated materials; electronic components must comply with safety standards.

2. Battery Mandatory Safety Clauses

Lithium batteries must obtain the CCC certification of GB 31241;

The isolation shell of the battery and the head can withstand a 440N impact force, and it does not crack after high and low temperature pre-treatment impact;

Overcharging, temperature ≥ 60℃, automatically cuts off power;

Full charge duration ≥ 10 hours, 300 charge-discharge cycles capacity retention ≥ 80%, standard low battery alarm.

3. Radio and Electromagnetic Safety

4G/5G modules need SRRC certification, the radio absorption value ≤ 2.0W/kg, the stray radiation and electromagnetic radiation strictly comply with national standards, and electromagnetic harm is eliminated.

4. Whole Machine Weight Constraint

The total mass of all intelligent modules including all is ≤ 600g, the actual weight and the marking error do not exceed 5%, taking into account both protection and wearing comfort.

Basic Head Protection Performance: Continue to use GB 2811, after adding intelligent modules, all traditional hard hats protection indicators must not be reduced, the core hard indicators are:

1. Impact Test: After high and low temperature, ultraviolet pre-treatment, the force on the head model ≤ 4900N, no fragments fall off;
2. Abrasion Resistance: The steel cone must not touch the head model;
3. Dimension Specifications: Wearing height > 80mm, vertical spacing < 50mm, total area of ventilation holes ≤ 450mm²;
4. Chin Strap Destruction Force 150N~250N, no detachment during wearing vibration and impact tests;
5. Environmental Tolerance: Can withstand 50℃ high temperature, -10℃ low temperature, alternating wet heat, 10~150Hz sinusoidal vibration, the whole machine is not loose and functions are normal.
6. Special Protection Performance: According to the needs of different high-risk scenarios in the industry, additional optional protection indicators are added for different operation scenarios, and manufacturers must meet the corresponding functions as stated in the declaration:
7. Flame retardancy: Recombination time ≤ 5 seconds, no burn-through of the casing;
8. Super low-temperature resistance (mining / northern outdoor): After -30℃ pre-treatment, the impact and puncture performance is qualified, electronic components support working temperature range of -40℃ to +85℃;
9. Extreme high-temperature resistance (metallurgy): After 1-hour 150℃ baking, still meets the requirements of impact and puncture;
10. Insulation / anti-static / resistance to molten metal splashing: Specifically adapted for power, chemical, and welding operations, clearly defining leakage current, surface resistance, and standards for preventing slag damage.

Intelligent core functions: Five essential functions, with precise and quantified standards for accuracy and latency. Four types of mandatory standard intelligent functions are clearly defined, including environmental monitoring, intercom communication as optional functions. All provide hard indicators for accuracy and response delay:

1. Wearing status monitoring (mandatory)

Identify normal wearing / hat removal, recognition accuracy ≥ 90%, hat removal alarm response ≤ 5 minutes.

2. Worker status monitoring (mandatory)

Distinguish movement / long-term rest, recognition accuracy ≥ 90%, supports risk warnings for personnel leaving work, lying down and remaining still.

3. Personnel positioning (mandatory)

Outdoor positioning error ≤ 20m; indoor and underground scene error conforms to the equipment nominal value, covering construction sites, tunnels, and underground environments.

4. Multi-level alarm (mandatory)

Cover static leave work, low battery, intrusion into dangerous area, emergency call for personnel, high fall and fall injury alarms; autonomous alarm delay ≤ 1 minute, manual call delay ≤ 5 minutes, dual sound and light prompts.

5. Environmental temperature monitoring (standard and optional expansion)

Temperature measurement error within ±2℃, expandable for harmful gas and electric field monitoring;

6. Communication and network disconnection cache

Intercom call delay ≤ 10s; after network disconnection, local storage of no less than 5 hours of work data, automatic upload upon network recovery.