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Assets Held for Sale and Discontinued Operations - Additional Information (Detail) (USD $) In Thousands, unless otherwise specified | 12 Months Ended
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Dec. 31, 2014 | Dec. 31, 2013 | Dec. 31, 2012
Long Lived Assets Held-for-sale [Line Items] |  |  |
Gain (Loss) on disposition of assets | $ 2,094 us-gaap_GainLossOnDispositionOfAssets1 | $ 436 us-gaap_GainLossOnDispositionOfAssets1 | $ 8,396 us-gaap_GainLossOnDispositionOfAssets1
Detector Tube Assets |  |  |
Long Lived Assets Held-for-sale [Line Items] |  |  |
Gain (Loss) on disposition of assets | $ 2,200 us-gaap_GainLossOnDispositionOfAssets1 / us-gaap_IncomeStatementBalanceSheetAndAdditionalDisclosuresByDisposalGroupsIncludingDiscontinuedOperationsAxis = msa_DetectorTubeAssetsMember |  |

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- Definition Amount of gain (loss) on sale or disposal of assets, including but not limited to property plant and equipment, intangible assets and equity in securities of subsidiaries or equity method investee. + References Reference 1: http://www.xbrl.org/2003/role/presentationRef -Publisher FASB -Name Accounting Standards Codification -Topic 360 -SubTopic 10 -Section 45 -Paragraph 5 -URI http://asc.fasb.org/extlink&oid=8077374&loc=d3e2443-110228 + Details
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Balance Type: | credit
Period Type: | duration

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- Details
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Namespace Prefix: | us-gaap_
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Balance Type: | na
Period Type: | duration

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- Details
Name: | us-gaap_IncomeStatementBalanceSheetAndAdditionalDisclosuresByDisposalGroupsIncludingDiscontinuedOperationsAxis=msa_DetectorTubeAssetsMember
Namespace Prefix: |
Data Type: | na
Balance Type: |
Period Type: |