Public Webinars

Restricted substances requirements for protective gloves

This webinar, presented by the Chemical Testing team at SATRA will examine key pieces of legislation relevant to the European and USA markets (including REACH and Californian Proposition 65), and discuss the obligations that companies supplying into these areas need to meet.

Gloves which are marketed as Personal Protective Equipment within the EU or UK will be certified in accordance with the PPE Regulation ((EU) 2016/425), and will undergo assessment by a Notified Body or an Approved Body to ensure that all legal requirements have been met. However, this assessment does not always include additional legal obligations that a manufacturer or importer must meet in order to place a product onto the market. It is essential that manufacturers and importers are aware of this, and take steps to ensure compliance.

Many producers of gloves operate on a global scale, so will need to consider the legal requirements of all countries that they supply into.

Arsutoria trend forecasting seminar SS/25

We continue our longstanding partnership with Milan-based footwear and leathergoods consultant Arsutoria to bring trend forecasting straight from the Italian 'fashion capital'. This event was kindly hosted by Wolverine Europe.

Orietta Pelizzari shares her insights into future trends and technical innovations in materials for the Spring/Summer 25 season.

Recycling technology for footwear

We are joined by speakers from ReNew Shoe Ltd and Fast Feet Grinded who will explain the process of separating shoes into their constituent parts for recycling or repurposing.

CE Certification process for PPE - Chinese language only. PPE产品的CE认证流程 - 中文

All personal protective equipment (PPE) products must be tested and certified before they can be put on the European market. This webinar reveals the procedure involved in achieving this product certification and explains how SATRA's laboratories and experts are available to conduct testing and to provide advice.

所有的个人防护装备(PPE)在投放欧洲市场之前必须经过测试和认证。本次网络研讨会将介绍实现产品认证的流程以及SATRA的实验室和专家如何进行测试并提供建议。

Solvent vapour monitoring

The use of solvent vapour badges helps control employees' exposure to potentially hazardous products in the workplace.

In the UK, the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health (COSHH) Regulations 2002 requires employers to adequately control exposure to materials in the workplace which cause ill health. Some products used during manufacturing such as adhesives, primers, cleaners and finishing agents may contain organic solvents that can cause serious short-term and long-term health effects.

In this webinar Lorna Harding (chemical technologist team leader) and Steven Greaves (health and safety advisor) will discuss solvent vapour monitoring and the health and safety concerns of solvent exposure.

What is Leather?

One of the most difficult things for anyone entering the leather product supply chain can be trying to understand the 'language' of leather. Like all industry sectors, leather manufacturers like to use terminology to describe processes and leather attributes that seem quite alien to the newcomer.

In this webinar SATRA's assistant director (and leather technologist) Christine Anscombe discusses the most important definition - what can be described as 'Leather' (and what can't).

Arsutoria trend forecasting AW/24/25

Continuing our longstanding partnership with Milan-based footwear and leathergoods consultant Arsutoria to bring trend forecasting straight from the Italian 'fashion capital'. Orietta Pelizzari shares her insights into future trends and technical innovations in materials for the Autumn/Winter/24/25 season.

PFAS legislation in the EU, UK and USA

Per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) have been used for many years in a wide range of industries, including protective clothing and footwear, domestic cookware, and firefighting foams. However, in recent times concerns have been raised regarding the use of these substances. Dubbed "forever chemicals" by the media due to their persistence in the environment, PFAS have become the subject of intense debate due to the long-term impacts their continued use may have.

Many nations have already imposed legislation to limit the release of PFAS chemicals into the environment, and there are proposals for more stringent regulations to be implemented.

In this webinar, Lucy Cove discusses the existing prohibitions on PFAS chemicals within the UK, the EU and the USA, and considers the impact that proposed future restrictions may have.

End-of-life options for footwear and other goods

Finding responsible and sustainable solutions to recycle or dispose of items at the end of their useful lives is a significant challenge being faced by many organisations across many sectors. In this webinar SATRA’s sustainability manager Nicola Pichel-Juan was joined by Karl Flowers, technical director from Authenticae to discuss the challenges of finding sustainable end-of-life solutions for different types of products and materials, what options are currently available, and what the considerations are for developing products with a particular end-of-life scenario in mind. The webinar also covers testing requirements to understand the compostability/biodegradability properties of a material.

PAHs: The importance of testing for restricted PAHs

PAHs (Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) are compounds that can be found in materials used in footwear, clothing, PPE and other consumer products, especially plastics and rubbers. These compounds are not intentionally added but can be present as impurities. Some PAHs have been restricted in both national and international legislation due to both the short-term and long-term health effects from being exposed to these PAHs.

In 2021 the ISO 16190 test method for detecting PAHs was revised; this method is written for footwear products and is also required for PPE gloves under EN ISO 21420. SATRA purchased a new instrument in 2022 to be able to provide more accurate testing to this method and this webinar presented by Callum Timms explains more about PAH analysis, what testing SATRA can provide and the importance of this testing.