What PPE a welder needs and which standards it must meet

Four hazards, and the equipment for each is defined by a standard. What follows is what those standards require and where welders most often cut the corner.

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PPE for welding: the full list

Eyes: safety glasses and arc eye

The helmet itself — shell, filter, shade number — has its own section further down. Here, the two things people get wrong.

First, safety glasses under the helmet are not optional — the helmet comes up for chipping and grinding, and that is when the slag flies. Second, arc eye does not require welding: standing near someone else's arc without eye protection for a few minutes is enough, and the pain arrives six to twelve hours later. Details in welding helmet.

Hands

Gloves to EN 12477, in two types: type A for stick and MIG, heavier and less dexterous, and type B for TIG, thinner so you can feel the rod. Leather, stitched with heat-resistant thread — synthetic stitching fails and the glove comes apart along a seam.

Gauntlets long enough to go under the sleeve, not over it: a cuff worn over the sleeve is a funnel for spatter.

Body

Clothing to EN ISO 11611, class 1 for light spatter and class 2 for heavy work and overhead welding. Leather apron and sleeves over the top when welding overhead, where everything that falls, falls on you.

Trousers outside the boots, never tucked in. Pockets closed or absent. No turn-ups — a turn-up catches a globule of molten metal and holds it against the ankle, which is one of the classic welding burns.

Feet

Boots to EN ISO 20345 with a toecap, and — the part that matters for welding specifically — closed at the ankle with no laces exposed. Metatarsal protection where heavy material is handled. Rubber soles for electrical insulation, which matters more than most welders think: see electrical safety.

Lungs

Extraction at the arc is the primary control and PPE is the backup, in that order — the reasoning is in welding fume and ventilation. Where a respirator is needed, FFP3 for particulates, or a powered air-purifying respirator built into the helmet for long sessions and confined spaces.

A dust mask from a builders' merchant is not respiratory protection against welding fume. Welding fume particles are in the sub-micron range, which is exactly what FFP3 is rated for and FFP1 is not.

Covered separately and in detail

Three subjects on this page have pages of their own, because the standards, classes and markings do not fit into an overview: gloves and clothing, respiratory protection and the welding helmet.

Hearing

Not for the arc — for the grinding, chipping and the air tools that surround it. Earplugs also stop spatter entering the ear canal when welding overhead, which sounds like a small thing until it happens.

The numbers behind “wear hearing protection”: Directive 2003/10/EC sets a lower action value of 80 dB(A), at which the employer must make hearing protection available, an upper action value of 85 dB(A), at which it must be worn, and an exposure limit of 87 dB(A) measured under the protector. Grinding, air-arc gouging, plasma cutting and chipping slag on a steel structure are what push a welding bay past those values. Earplugs and ear defenders are tested to EN 352.

Head and face: helmet, filter and shade number

A welding helmet is two things under two standards. The shell, to EN 175, stops spatter, radiant heat and impact to the face. The filter protects the eyes: a passive glass of fixed shade to EN 169, an auto-darkening filter to EN 379. An auto-darkening filter is marked with something like “4/9–13”: shade 4 in the light state, 9 to 13 in the dark state. After it comes the optical class in four digits: 1/2/1/2 is a decent filter, 1/1/1/1 the best — the digits rate optical distortion, light diffusion, uniformity of shade across the lens and how much the shade changes with viewing angle.

The shade number follows the process and the current, not personal taste. On the same EN 169 thresholds that drive the welding shade calculator: MMA at 60 A needs shade 10, at 120 A shade 11, at 200 A shade 12. MAG at 180 A needs 12, TIG at 100 A 10, plasma cutting at 40 A 9. Aluminium in MIG is brighter than steel at the same current: at 250 A it is already shade 12.

The field check is simple: after the arc goes out there should be no afterimage. If there is, the filter is too light — go one shade darker. If you cannot see the weld pool at all, check the cover lens and the lighting of the bay before going lighter. Replace a scratched outer cover lens straight away: it scatters light and makes you work with your face closer to the arc.

Welding PPE by process: MMA, MAG, TIG, cutting, overhead

The same welder needs a different kit for MMA with basic electrodes than for TIG on thin sheet. The table puts the differences side by side: the shade comes from the same data as the calculator, the clothing class from Annex A of EN ISO 11611 and the glove type from EN 12477.

MMA (stick)

Covered electrodes throw the most slag and spatter of all manual processes. Rutile electrodes fall in clothing class 1, basic and cellulosic ones in class 2 — that is how Annex A of the standard splits them. Type A gauntlets with a long cuff. The item most often forgotten: safety glasses under the helmet, because slag flies when the helmet is up for chipping.

MAG and flux-cored wire

MAG under CO₂ or mixed gas, and flux-cored wire even more so, means class 2 and type A gloves. Above about 200 A add leather sleeves or an apron: spatter hits the forearm faster than you can shake it off. Flux-cored wire also makes the most fume, so extraction at the arc is part of the kit, not an extra.

TIG

Almost no spatter, so class 1 and thin type B gloves in which you can feel the filler rod. The ultraviolet, on the other hand, is intense and clean, and the arc burns exposed skin within minutes: the neck, the wrist gap between glove and sleeve and the chest under an open collar are where TIG welders get their “tan”. On stainless there is chromium in the fume — what to breathe through is covered on welding respiratory protection.

Plasma cutting, oxy-fuel cutting and gouging

Annex A puts manual plasma cutting, oxy-fuel cutting and gouging in class 2. The stream of molten metal goes down and forward, onto legs and boots, and air-arc gouging is loud and smoky on top: ear defenders, a leather apron and respiratory protection are part of the basic kit. For oxy-fuel cutting the shade is chosen by oxygen flow rate, not current, which is why it is not in the table above.

Overhead welding

Everything that falls lands on the welder. Annex A names overhead work explicitly as a class 2 situation whatever the process. Add a leather cape or jacket, a welding cap or hood under the helmet (spatter in the hair and down the collar), gauntlets with the cuff under the sleeve, and earplugs — a globule in the ear canal is an injury that happens precisely when welding overhead. Technique is on overhead welding.

Worked example: choosing the kit step by step

Job 1. MAG fillet welds on 8 mm plate in a workshop, 180 A, part of it overhead.

1. Filter: MAG at 180 A → shade 12. An auto-darkening filter with a 9–13 range covers it with room to spare.
2. Clothing: MAG plus overhead work — class 2, with a leather cape for the overhead runs.
3. Gloves: type A, cuff under the jacket sleeve.
4. Boots: S3 with an HRO sole, laces covered, trousers outside.
5. Ears and eyes: earplugs against overhead spatter, safety glasses under the helmet for cleaning the weld.
6. Breathing: extraction at the arc; for a full shift, a powered helmet — details in welding fume and ventilation.

Job 2. TIG on 2 mm stainless tube, 70 A, at the bench. Filter: shade 10. Clothing class 1, but buttoned to the neck and closed at the wrists — the UV will burn skin before any spatter does. Type B gloves. Breathing: extraction plus at least FFP3, because stainless fume carries hexavalent chromium. Same boots as above: even in TIG the hot end of the filler rod ends up on a foot.

Welding boots: EN ISO 20345 and EN ISO 20349-2

The baseline is safety footwear to EN ISO 20345 — in practice S3 (toecap, penetration-resistant sole, water-resistant upper) with an HRO sole that tolerates hot surfaces. Welding also has a standard of its own: EN ISO 20349-2, footwear protecting against risks in welding and allied processes (as described by ISO and by the boot maker Elten). Boots tested for resistance to molten metal splash carry the marking WG. Whatever the marking, choose a boot with covered laces or a flap and quick release — a globule that gets inside has to come out within seconds.

Common PPE mistakes welders make

• Synthetics under the jacket. A polyester T-shirt or fleece under a good class 2 jacket: spatter burns through the jacket at one point, and molten synthetic spreads the burn over a palm's width. Cotton or wool underneath, socks included.
• Sleeves rolled up in the heat. The forearm takes UV and spatter, and the roll is a pocket for globules.
• Open pockets and trouser turn-ups. Any opening that faces up catches spatter and holds it against the body.
• A lighter in the pocket. A butane lighter under spatter is a small charge. It does not belong on a welder at all.
• Oily clothing. Oil and grease burn even when the fabric itself is flame-retardant.
• A polyester hi-vis vest on top. An ordinary vest melts; on site you need hi-vis that also meets EN ISO 11611.
• Grinding with the helmet up and no glasses. That is when things most often end up in an eye.
• Wet gloves. They stop insulating, and in the damp that is a route to electric shock — see electrical safety.

What PPE to wear in winter and outdoors

Warmth comes from layers of cotton and wool under the welding clothing, or from a winter jacket that itself carries EN ISO 11611 on the label. Synthetic thermal base layers and fleece are out for the same reason as the polyester T-shirt. Auto-darkening filters have an operating temperature: a decent one works from −5 °C, a good one from −10 °C (compared in welding helmet); below that it reacts more slowly, so keep the helmet under your jacket between welds. Change into dry gloves more often than in summer — snow and frost on leather are moisture.

What the employer has to provide

Across the EU the rule comes from Directive 89/656/EEC: personal protective equipment is provided by the employer free of charge, and the choice follows a risk assessment of the job. In the UK the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992 say the same, and the employer may not charge for it. The kit for welding follows from that assessment: helmet and filter, safety glasses, EN 12477 gloves, EN ISO 11611 clothing, safety boots, hearing protection, and respiratory protection wherever extraction is not enough. In Poland the same duty is article 237⁶ § 1 of the Labour Code, which also requires the employer to launder and repair it (article 237⁹ § 2).

Pre-shift check and when to replace

• Helmet: cover lens free of scratches and spatter, auto-darkening filter tested (test button, or a lighter flicked in front of the sensors away from the bay), battery, clean sensors.
• Gloves: no burn-through, seams intact, leather not hardened. Leather that has shrunk and stiffened from heat cracks and stops protecting.
• Clothing: no holes or thin patches, fastenings working, no oil stains. Washing and retirement criteria are on welding gloves and clothing.
• Boots: sole not melted, toecap not exposed, flap over the laces in place.

This page is for information: the specific PPE for a job and the requirements it must meet are set by the employer on the basis of the risk assessment for that workplace.

Author: Dmitry Frolov, welder and metal fabricator Updated: 28 September 2026