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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE

SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

MINE SAFETY APPLIANCES COMPANY

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: 412-967-3000

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:

Preferred Stock Purchase Rights

(Title of Class)

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.    Yes  x    No  ¨

Indicate by check mark if disclosure of delinquent filers pursuant to Item 405 of Regulation S-K is not contained herein, and will not be contained, to the best of registrant’s knowledge, in the definitive proxy statement incorporated by reference in Part III of this Form 10-K or any amendment to this Form 10-K.  ¨

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is an accelerated filer (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act).    Yes  x    No  ¨

As of February 18, 2005, there were outstanding 36,360,358 shares of common stock, no par value, not including 3,062,767 shares held by the Mine Safety Appliances Company Stock Compensation Trust. Total market value of outstanding shares as of February 18, 2005 was approximately $1,712 million. The aggregate market value of voting stock held by non-affiliates as of February 18, 2005 was approximately $1,486 million.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Portions of the Proxy Statement for the May 10, 2005 Annual Meeting of Shareholders are incorporated by reference into Part III.

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Forward-Looking Statements

This report contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These statements relate to future events or our future financial performance and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our or our industry’s actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. These risks and other factors include, among other things: the availability of government funding in the fire service, homeland security and military markets; our ability to compete successfully against current and future competitors; the timely and successful introduction of new products; risks inherent in litigation, including product liability claims; currency exchange rate fluctuations and various political and economic risks associated with international operations; fluctuations in the cost and availability of purchased materials and components; our ability to successfully identify and integrate future acquisitions; and the impact of unforeseen economic and political changes, including the threat of terrorism and its potential consequences. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by words such as “may,” “will,” “should,” “expects,” “intends,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “potential,” “continue” or the negative of these terms or other comparable words. These statements are only predictions and are not guarantees of future performance. Therefore, actual events or results may differ materially from those expressed or forecast in these forward-looking statements.

Although we believe that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, we cannot guarantee future results, levels of activity, performance or achievements. We are under no duty to update publicly any of the forward-looking statements after the date of this report whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

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PART I

Item 1. Business

Overview—Mine Safety Appliances Company was incorporated in Pennsylvania in 1914. We are a global leader in the development, manufacture and supply of sophisticated products that protect people’s health and safety. Sophisticated safety products typically integrate any combination of electronics, mechanical systems and advanced materials to protect users against hazardous or life threatening situations. Our comprehensive line of safety products is used by workers around the world in the fire service, homeland security, construction and other industries, as well as the military. This broad product offering includes self-contained breathing apparatus, or SCBAs, gas masks, gas detection instruments, head protection, respirators and thermal imaging devices. We also provide a broad offering of consumer and contractor safety products through retail channels. We believe we hold the number one global market position with respect to 2004 net sales of SCBAs, gas masks, gas detection instruments, hard hats and fire helmets.

We dedicate significant resources to research and development, which allows us to produce innovative, sophisticated safety products that are often first to market and exceed industry standards. Our global product development teams include cross-geographic and cross-functional members from various areas throughout the company, including research and development, marketing, sales, operations and quality management. Our engineers and technical associates work closely with the safety industry’s leading standards-setting groups and trade associations, such as the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, or NIOSH, and the National Fire Protection Association, or NFPA, to develop industry product requirements and standards and anticipate their impact on our product lines. Evidencing our commitment to innovation, in 2004, we generated approximately one-third of our net sales from new products introduced over the prior three years.

Segments—We tailor our product offerings and distribution strategy to satisfy distinct customer preferences that vary across geographic regions. We believe that we best serve these customer preferences by organizing our business into the following three geographic segments: North America, Europe, and International. Segment information is presented in the note entitled “Segment Information” in Item 8 – Financial Statements and Supplementary Data.

Because our financial statements are stated in U.S. dollars, currency fluctuations may affect our results of operations and financial position and may affect the comparability of our results between financial periods.

Principal Products—We manufacture and sell a comprehensive line of sophisticated safety products to protect workers around the world in the fire service, homeland security, construction and other industries, as well as the military. We also provide a broad offering of consumer and contractor safety products through retail channels. Our products protect people against a wide variety of hazardous or life-threatening situations. The following is a brief description of each of our principal product categories:

Respiratory protection. Respiratory protection products are used to protect against the harmful effects of contamination caused by dust, gases, fumes, volatile chemicals, sprays, micro-organisms, fibers and other contaminants. We offer a broad and comprehensive line of respiratory protection products, including:

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Hand-held and permanent instruments. Our hand-held and permanent instruments include gas detection instruments and thermal imaging cameras. Our gas detection instruments are used to detect the presence or absence of various gases in the air. These instruments can be either hand-held or permanently installed. Typical applications of these instruments include the detection of the lack of oxygen in confined spaces or the presence of combustible or toxic gases. Our hand-held thermal imaging cameras are used by firefighters to see downed victims through dense smoke, or to detect the source of the fire.

Eye, face, hearing and head protection. Eye, face, hearing and head protection is used in work environments where hazards present a danger to the eye, face, hearing and head, such as dust, flying particles, metal fragments, chemicals, extreme glare, optical radiation and items dropped from above. Our basic categories of these products are:

Body protection.

Customers—Our customers generally fall into three categories: industrial and military end-users, distributors and retail consumers. In North America, we make nearly all of our non-military sales through our distributors. In our Europe and International segments, we make our sales through both indirect and direct sales channels. Our U.S. military customers, which are comprised of multiple U.S. government entities, including the Department of Defense, represented the largest group of customers based on our 2004 net sales and accounted for approximately 16% of sales. The year-end backlog of orders under contracts with U.S. government agencies was $80.8 million in 2004, $83.7 million in 2003, and $38.7 million in 2002.

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Industrial and military end-users—Examples of the primary industrial and military end-users of our core products are listed below:

Sales and Distribution—Our sales and distribution team consists of distinct marketing, field sales and customer service organizations for our three geographic segments: North America, Europe, and International. We believe our sales and distribution team, totaling over 400 dedicated associates, is the largest in our industry. In most geographic areas, our field sales organizations work jointly with select distributors to call on end-users, educating them about hazards, exposure limits, safety requirements and product applications, as well as specific performance requirements of our products. In our International segment and Eastern Europe where distributors are not well established, our sales associates work with and sell directly to end-users. Our development of relationships with end-users is critical to increasing the overall demand for our products.

The in-depth customer training and education provided by our sales associates to our customers are critical to ensure proper use of many of our products, such as SCBAs and gas detection instruments. As a result of our sales associates working closely with end-users, they gain valuable insight into customers’ preferences and needs. To better serve our customers and to ensure that our sales associates are among the most knowledgeable and professional in the industry, we place significant emphasis on training our sales associates with respect to product application, industry standards and regulations, sales skills and sales force automation.

We believe our sales and distribution strategy allows us to deliver a customer value proposition that differentiates our products and services from those of our competitors, resulting in increased customer loyalty and demand.

In areas where we use indirect selling, we promote, distribute, and service our products to general industry through select authorized national, regional, and local distributors. Some of our key distributors include: Airgas; W.W. Grainger Inc.; Fisher Safety, a division of Fisher Scientific International Inc.; Orr Safety Inc.; and Hagemeyer. For example, in North America, we distribute fire service products primarily through specially trained local and regional distributors who provide advanced training and service capabilities to volunteer and paid municipal fire departments. In our Europe and International segments, we primarily sell to and service the fire service market directly. Because of our broad and diverse product line and our desire to reach as many markets and market segments as possible, we have over 4,000 authorized distributors worldwide.

We market consumer products under the MSA Safety Works brand through a dedicated sales and marketing force. We serve the retail consumer through various channels of distribution, including hardware and equipment rental outlets and The Home Depot and TrueValue retail chains.

Competition—We believe the worldwide personal protection equipment market, including the sophisticated safety products market in which we compete, generates annual sales in excess of $12 billion. The industry supplying this market is broad and highly fragmented with few participants able to offer a comprehensive line of safety products. Generally, global demand for safety products has been stable because purchases of these products are non-discretionary since they protect workers in hazardous and life-threatening work environments and because their use is often mandated by government and industry regulations. Moreover, the safety products industry generates stable revenues because of the need to consistently replace many safety products that have limited life spans due to normal course wear-and-tear or because they are one-time use products by design.

The safety products market is highly competitive, with participants ranging in size from small companies focusing on a single type of personal protection equipment to a few large multinational corporations which manufacture and supply many types of sophisticated safety products. Our main competitors vary by region and product. We believe that participants in this industry compete primarily on the basis of product characteristics (such as functional performance, agency approvals, design and style), price, brand name recognition and service.

We believe we compete favorably within each of our operating segments as a result of our high quality and cost-efficient product offering and strong brand trust and recognition.

Research and Development—To maintain our position at the forefront of protective equipment technology, we operate three sophisticated research and development facilities. We believe our dedication and commitment to innovation and research and development allow us to produce innovative sophisticated safety products that are often first to market and exceed industry standards. In 2004, 2003 and 2002, on a global basis, we spent approximately $22.6 million, $20.9 million and $19.5 million, respectively, on research and development. Our engineering groups operate primarily in the United States and Germany, and to

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a lesser extent in Australia, France, Brazil, China, Japan, Great Britain and Italy. Our global product development teams include cross-geographic and cross-functional members from various areas throughout the company, including research and development, marketing, sales, operations and quality management. These teams are responsible for setting product line strategy based on their understanding of the markets and the technologies, opportunities and challenges they foresee in each product area. These teams present their strategies, new product development portfolios and resource allocation recommendations to our global research and development alignment council, made up of senior executives from our global operations. The council refines the recommendations and presents them to our senior executive team, which consists of the chief executive officer, chief financial officer, and presidents of our North America, Europe and International segments. The senior executive team then establishes resource allocation, corporate alignment and strategic direction.

We believe our team-based, cross-geographic and cross-functional approach to new product development is unique in our industry and a source of our competitive advantage. Our approach to the new product development process allows us to tailor our product offerings and product line strategies to satisfy distinct customer preferences and industry regulations that vary across our three geographic regions.

We believe another important aspect of our approach to new product development is that our engineers and technical associates work closely with the safety industry’s leading standards-setting groups and trade associations, such as the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, or NIOSH, and the National Fire Protection Association, or NFPA, to develop industry product requirements and standards and anticipate their impact on our product lines. For example, nearly every consensus standard-setting body around the world that impacts our product lines has one of our key managers as a voting member. Key members of our management team understand the impact that these standard-setting organizations have on our new product development pipeline and devote time and attention to anticipating a new standard’s impact on our net sales and operating results. Because of our technological sophistication, commitment to and membership on global standard-setting bodies, resource dedication to research and development and unique approach to the new product development process, we believe we are well-positioned to anticipate and adapt to the needs of changing product standards and gain the approvals and certifications necessary to meet new government and multinational product regulations.

Patents and Intellectual Property— We own and have obtained licenses to significant intellectual property, including a number of domestic and foreign patents, patent applications and trademarks related to our products, processes and business. Although our intellectual property plays an important role in maintaining our competitive position in a number of markets that we serve, no single patent, or patent application, trademark or license is, in our opinion, of such value to us that our business would be materially affected by the expiration or termination thereof, other than the “MSA” trademark. Our patents expire at various times in the future not exceeding 20 years. Our general policy is to apply for patents on an ongoing basis in the United States and other countries, as appropriate, to perfect our patent development. In addition to our patents, we have also developed a substantial body of manufacturing know-how that we believe provides a significant competitive advantage over our competitors.

Raw Materials and Suppliers—Nearly all components of our products are formulated, machined, tooled, or molded in-house from raw materials. For example, we rely on integrated manufacturing capabilities for breathing apparatus, gas masks, ballistic helmets, hardhats and circuit boards. The primary raw materials that we source from third parties include rubber, chemical filter media, eye and face protective lenses, air cylinders, certain metals, electronic components and ballistic resistant and non-ballistic fabrics. We purchase these materials both domestically and internationally, and we believe our supply sources are both well established and reliable. We have close vendor relationship programs with the majority of our key raw material suppliers. Although we generally do not have long-term supply contracts, we have not experienced any significant problems in obtaining adequate raw materials.

Employees—As of December 31, 2004, we had approximately 4,600 employees, approximately 2,200 of whom were employed by our Europe and International segments. None of our U.S. employees are subject to the provisions of a collective bargaining agreement. Some of our employees outside the United States are members of unions. We have not experienced a work stoppage in over 10 years and believe our relations with our employees are good.

Available Information—We post the following filings on the Investor Relations page on our Web site as soon as reasonably practicable after they have been electronically filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission: our annual reports on Form 10-K, our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, our current reports on Form 8-K, and any amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. All such filings on our Investor Relations Web page are available to be viewed on this page free of charge. Information contained on our Web site is not part of this annual report on Form 10-K or our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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Item 2. Properties

Our principal executive offices are located at 121 Gamma Drive, RIDC Industrial Park, O’Hara Township, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15238 in a 93,014 square-foot building owned by us. We own or lease our primary facilities located in six states in the United States and in 16 countries. We believe that all of our facilities, including the manufacturing facilities, are in good repair and in suitable condition for the purposes for which they are used.

The following table sets forth a list of our primary facilities:

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Item 3. Legal Proceedings

We are subject to federal, state and local laws, regulations and ordinances relating to the protection of the environment, including those governing discharges to air and water, handling and disposal practices for solid and hazardous wastes, and the maintenance of a safe workplace. There are no current or expected legal proceedings or expenditures with respect to environmental matters that would materially affect our operations.

Various lawsuits and claims arising in the normal course of business are pending against us. These lawsuits are primarily product liability claims. We are presently named as a defendant in approximately 2,400 lawsuits primarily involving respiratory protection products allegedly manufactured and sold by us. Collectively, these lawsuits represent a total of approximately 32,000 plaintiffs. Approximately 90% of these lawsuits involve plaintiffs alleging they suffer from silicosis, with the remainder alleging they suffer from other or combined injuries, including asbestosis. These lawsuits typically allege that these conditions resulted in part from respirators that were negligently designed or manufactured by us. Consistent with the experience of other companies involved in silica and asbestos-related litigation, there has been an increase in the number of asserted claims that could potentially involve us. We cannot determine our potential liability, if any, for such claims, in part because the defendants in these lawsuits are often numerous, and the claims generally do not specify the amount of damages sought.

With some limited exceptions, we maintain insurance against product liability claims. We also maintain a reserve for uninsured product liability based on expected settlement charges for pending claims and an estimate of unreported claims derived from experience, sales volumes and other relevant information. We reevaluate our exposures on an ongoing basis and make adjustments to reserves as appropriate. Based on information currently available, we believe that the disposition of matters that are pending will not have a materially adverse effect on our financial condition.

In connection with our sale of the Callery Chemical facility in Evans City, Pennsylvania, we have retained responsibility for certain environmental costs at this site, where relatively low levels of contamination are known to exist. Under the terms of the asset purchase agreement with BASF, our maximum liability for these matters is capped at $50.0 million. Based on environmental studies performed prior to the sale of the division, we do not believe that our potential exposure under the terms of this agreement will materially affect our financial condition.

Item 4. Submission of Matters to a Vote of Security Holders

During the fourth quarter of 2004, there were no matters submitted to a vote of security holders through the solicitation of proxies or otherwise.

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Executive Officers of the Registrant

The following sets forth the names and ages of our executive officers indicating all positions held during the past five years:

John T. Ryan III has served as chairman and chief executive officer since October 1, 1991.

James H. Baillie has served as vice president and president of MSA Europe since March 10, 1999. Prior to that time, he was executive vice president of Sylvania Lighting International.

Joseph A. Bigler has served as vice president since January 9, 1998. He is primarily responsible for North American sales and distribution.

Kerry M. Bove has served as vice president since August 16, 2000. He is primarily responsible for research, product development, manufacturing and marketing of instrument products in North America. Beginning in November 1999, Mr. Bove served as general manager of the instrument division. From November 1998 until November 1999, he was our marketing director.

Rob Cañizares M. has served as vice president and president of MSA International since January 20, 2003. Prior to working with MSA, Mr. Cañizares served as senior vice president of global sales and service group of Trane Company, beginning on February 1, 1997.

Benedict V. DeMaria has served as vice president since January 9, 1998. He is primarily responsible for human resources and corporate communications.

Ronald N. Herring, Jr. has served as vice president since January 1, 2004. Mr. Herring is primarily responsible for research, product development, manufacturing and marketing of safety products in North America. Prior to that time, he served as the general manager of the safety products division, beginning on January 1, 2003, and as the director of marketing for the safety products division.

William M. Lambert has served as vice president since January 1, 1998 and was also appointed president of MSA North America on January 1, 2003. Prior to that time, he was general manager of the safety products division.

Douglas K. McClaine has served as secretary and general counsel since July 1, 2002. Prior to that, he served as associate general counsel, beginning on May 16, 1994.

Dennis L. Zeitler has served as chief financial officer and treasurer since November 1, 2000. Prior to that time, he served as vice president and treasurer, beginning on September 1, 1988.

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PART II

Item 5. Market for the Registrant’s Common Equity, Related Stockholder Matters and Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

Our common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “MSA.” Stock price ranges and

dividends declared and paid were as follows:

On February 18, 2005, there were 361 registered holders of our shares of common stock.

Share price and dividend information has been adjusted to reflect the three-for-one split of our common stock in January 2004.

The information appearing in Part III below regarding common stock issuable under our equity compensation plans is incorporated herein by reference.

Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

On December 19, 1996, we announced that our Board of Directors had authorized management to purchase up to 4,500,000 split-adjusted shares of common stock from time to time in private transactions and on the open market. The share purchase program has no expiration date.

On October 26, 2004, the Board of Directors authorized the purchase of up to 200,000 additional shares of common stock from time to time in private transactions and on the open market. The share purchase program has no expiration date.

We do not have any other share repurchase programs.

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Item 6. Selected Financial Data

The following selected financial data should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements, including the

respective notes thereto, as well as the section entitled “Management’s discussion and analysis of financial condition and results

of operations,” included elsewhere in this annual report on Form 10-K.