SYMPOSIA PAPER Published: 01 October 2012
STP104094

A New Test Method to Characterize the Grip Adhesion of Protective Glove Materials

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Protective gloves can reduce the number and severity of hand injuries but may also impair manual performance such as grip strength. A worker wearing poorly adherent gloves must apply additional muscular effort to retain the handled parts, leading to discomfort, pain, and possibly musculo-skeletal disorders. Glove grip depends on the coefficient of friction (COF) between the glove and handled object surfaces. Knowledge of COF values can be helpful to workers for selecting suitable gloves. However, existing standard test methods for measuring COF are not applicable to gloves. In a previous study, a test method was proposed to evaluate COF of glove materials, using a modified version of the TDM-100 test apparatus initially designed to characterize the cut resistance of protective materials. The test method consists in sliding a flat metal probe on a flat material specimen at a constant speed while applying a load perpendicular to the contact surface. The friction force is measured with a load cell attached to the probe. The friction force versus displacement curve typically presents an initial peak representing the static COF, followed by a plateau representing the dynamic COF. In this study, the effect of the applied load and probe roughness on the COF was characterized with neoprene and nitrile rubber as well as with six different thermoplastic materials. The study demonstrates that both of them affect the measured static and dynamic COFs. A normal load of 10 N, and a probe surface roughness of 1.0 or 2.0 μm gave the most reproducible results and seemed to be the more appropriate to perform testing with different polymer materials. The coefficient of variation of both static and dynamic COFs values obtained was generally lower than 15 %. This test protocol demonstrates to be well adapted to characterize the grip adhesion of glove materials.

Author Information

Gauvin, Chantal
Institut de Recherche Robert-Sauvé en Santé et en Sécurité du Travail (IRSST), Montreal, Quebec, CA
Airoldi, Alexandre
Institut de Recherche Robert-Sauvé en Santé et en Sécurité du Travail (IRSST), Montreal, Quebec, CA
Proulx-Croteau, Simon
Institut de Recherche Robert-Sauvé en Santé et en Sécurité du Travail (IRSST), Montreal, Quebec, CA
Dolez, Patricia, I.
École de Technologie Supérieure, Montreal, Quebec, CA
Lara, Jaime
Institut de Recherche Robert-Sauvé en Santé et en Sécurité du Travail (IRSST), Montreal, Quebec, CA Institut de Recherche Robert-Sauvé en Santé et en Sécurité du Travail (IRSST), Montreal, Quebec, CA
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Developed by Committee: F23
Pages: 392–406
DOI: 10.1520/STP104094
ISBN-EB: 978-0-8031-7562-4
ISBN-13: 978-0-8031-7530-3