1. Project Sales Corp
From: "Project Sales Corp" <offshore@projectsalescorp.com>
Date: 30 October 2010 07:33
To: <sales@projectsalecorp.com>
Subject: KONG is king when it comes to hand safety
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Work Safely, or you could miss out on the beautiful things in life.....
Injuries Go Hand-in-Hand with Hardworking Oil and Gas Industry Workers
New Safety Improvements Help Reduce Hand Injuries, Enhance Performance
A job on an oil rig, a platform at sea, or at a refinery is tough work. Long hours, temperature extremes, and
sometimes dangerous working conditions combine for an environment that can produce injuries for the
workers. When you consider:
As the number of oil and gas industry workers has grown in recent years, injuries and fatalities are on the
rise, too.
With fatalities nearly eight times those of all U.S. workers and non-fatal injuries occurred at a rate of 2.0
per 100 full-time oil and gas extraction workers, 3.0 for workers in support activities for oil and gas
extraction, but 5.4 for drilling oil and gas wells, the need for safety equipment and safe work practices is
growing.
For the oil and gas industry, some 38 percent of insurance claims are for hand inquiries. This includes
finger pinching, severe cuts, and abrasions and crushing injuries.
For oil and gas companies, the impact of each hand injury is $4,000 in administrative costs alone.
A major safety issue in the oil and gas industry is hand injuries — especially hairline fractures, bruising
blows, and pinched fingers.
For the last six or seven years safety managers from ExxonMobil, Superior Energy, ConocoPhillips, and
Chevron have worked together as an informal steering committee to troubleshoot safety problems that
affect the industry – including the need to develop a new type of safety glove to protect the hands of oil
riggers and reduce lost-time injuries. In July 2007 the committee approached Orr Safety Corporation in
Louisville, Kentucky about designing a state-of-the-art protective glove.
"Hand injury problems have been a big problem in the industry for a long time," says Clark Orr, vice

2. president of strategic planning for Orr Safety Corporation. "Committee members were telling us that
because training and other attempts to change behavior have been largely ineffective, they wanted a
protective glove to be a last line of defense for their workers in the field. The committee member
companies are incredibly dedicated to the safety of their workforces and it had been a real honor to have
the opportunity to help them with one of their safety challenges."
Orr Safety Corporation partnered with Ironclad Performance Wear in El Segundo, California, to develop
the prototype, test it, make modifications, and take it to production. "They already manufacture a well-
respected line of industrial gloves so Ironclad was a good company to work with," says Orr.
Innovative design
Eric Jaeger, vice president of research and development for Ironclad Performance Wear, led the design
team. "The thing I found most impressive about the whole process was the direct input from the oil and
gas industry," says Jaeger. "We met with the safety committee and, with their collaboration, came up with
several design options, tested them with 200 drilling employees from various companies, and gathered
and analyzed very detailed performance data."
Field tests showed some improvements were needed in durability and grip. A Velcro wrist strap was also
considered to be a safety hazard. "We then modified the design and did more field testing," adds Orr.
Back-of-hand protection is provided by impact-absorbing, flexible, three-dimensional thermoplastic rubber
ribs that dissipate the energy from a blow along the ribs. The back of the glove provides complete
protection for all carpal and metacarpal bones and the joints in the hand. Knuckle protection is provided by
thick padding and an overlying band of thermoplastic rubber. The ribs are highly bendable, allowing the
glove to flex in a natural way. "All that protection does no good if the workers can't perform their jobs
because the gloves are too stiff or bulky," Jaeger indicates.
"The yellow ribs are an innovative design concept," states Orr. "They run all way to the fingertips and to
the end of the thumb. Because the material is soft, the ribs can absorb the energy from the blow and direct
it along the length of the glove, reducing the risk of serious injury."
The formulation for the impact protection material is designed to provide optimum balance between
flexibility and impact dispersion. "The fingertip protection (three dimensional protection of the entire nail
bed) is part of the patents pending on the glove," says Jaeger. "It should be noted these are utility patents,
as opposed to simply design patents."
A second layer of Teflon-coated synthetic leather material is double-stitched to the palm to increase its
durability. "The palm is designed for high durability and grip in oily environments, which is harder than it
sounds to accomplish both," says Jaeger. "For example, current industry 'grip' gloves have a lifespan of
only one-half to one day." Raised PVC dots on the surface (another proprietary formulation) provide
enhanced grip.
Feedback from field so far has been extremely positive. "Workers are telling us the gloves are providing
complete hand and finger impact protection, yet also providing greater dexterity than the typical leather or
cotton knit glove," says Jaeger. "They like how easy it is to work in the gloves and have complete
protection. Management is impressed by the reduction in injury rates and the increase in safety
awareness, which have health, safety, and environment directors (HSEs) extremely excited. If you're an
HSE and injuries drop dramatically, along with insurance premiums and injury costs, you've done your job
very well, which looks impressive in annual performance reviews."
"I think the glove is super and is credited by our shop personnel on three separate occasions for
preventing a hand injury when either a tool slipped or a finger was smashed," says Kim Redwing, safety
director for Gulfstream Services, an oilfield rental company in Houma, Louisiana.
"Market acceptance for the KONG glove has been beyond expectations," says Orr. "I believe this is mostly
because the glove is doing what we designed it to do-protect the back of the hand. We are starting to get
some excellent documented cases where KONG has either reduced or eliminated injuries." The glove is
also being cross-sold into other industries such as mining, refining, and construction, where hand injuries
are also a concern.
Using feedback from the field, Ironclad, Orr Safety Corporation, and the industry safety committee are
already in the process of designing improvements to the original KONG glove, as well as extensions to the
line including cold-weather/waterproof, cut-resistant, and possibly FR (flame-retardant) versions.
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3. Kong Original is available in India with Project Sales Corp, Visakhapatnam in L,XL, and XXL Size. Also
available in Kong Super Dexterity Single Layer Palm Gloves. The KONG SD combines the impact
protection features of the award-winning KONG Original with patented cross-over technologies from other
Ironclad glove models, such as the Box Handler ® and Gripworx ®gloves. The KONG SD features a
silicone-fused grip palm which greatly enhances dexterity and grip.
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