page_title: Hard hat
section_title: Design
hierarchical_section_title: Hard hat / Design
caption_attribution_description: U.S. Navy sailors assigned to Navy Cargo Handling Battalion (NCBH) 1 load a cargo container onto the Military Sealift Command container ship MV American Tern during Operation Deep Freeze, the annual operation to resupply the National Science Foundation's McMurdo Station on Ross Island, Antarctica, Feb. 8, 2007. NCBH 1 is the only active-duty component of the Naval Expeditionary Logistics Support Force, headquartered in Williamsburg, Va., and is a component of the U.S. Fleet Forces Command. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Jack Georges) Released But Not Accessioned (Cleaned and/or Corrected)
context_page_description: A hard hat is a type of helmet predominantly used in workplace environments such as industrial or construction sites to protect the head from injury due to falling objects, impact with other objects, debris, rain, and electric shock. Suspension bands inside the helmet spread the helmet's weight and the force of any impact over the top of the head. A suspension also provides space of approximately 30 mm between the helmet's shell and the wearer's head, so that if an object strikes the shell, the impact is less likely to be transmitted directly to the skull. Some helmet shells have a mid-line reinforcement ridge to improve impact resistance. The rock climbing helmet fulfills a very similar role in a different context and has a very similar design.
  A bump cap is a lightweight hard hat using a simplified suspension or padding and a chin strap. Bump caps are used where there is a possibility of scraping or bumping one's head on equipment or structure projections but are not sufficient to absorb large impacts, such as that from a tool dropped from several stories.
context_section_description: Because hard hats are intended to protect the wearer's head from impacts, hats are made from durable materials, originally from metal, then fiberglass, and most-commonly (from the 1950s onward) rigid plastic.
  Some contemporary cap-style hard hats feature a rolled edge that acts as a rain gutter to channel rainwater to the front, allowing water to drain off the bill, instead of running down the wearer's neck. A cowboy hard hat is a hard hat resembling a wide brimmed cowboy hat, although some organizations disallow their use.
  Organizations issuing hard hats often include their names and/or logos (or some other message) on the front of each hard hat.
caption: U.S. Navy sailors in February 2007 load cargo onto a container ship in Antarctica.
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