Gloves for workers (hb) - current trends in production
Work gloves are currently the best-selling personal protective equipment. All work gloves are made from either natural or artificial materials.
Work gloves made of natural materials are made of cotton, in short - gloves hb (sewn from linen and knitted - seamless knitted), leather and split (split - split leather).
These hb gloves are characterized by high comfort of use and good indicators of mechanical protection. The range of their application is limited by mechanical protection, with the exception of welding gaiters, which additionally provide protection from elevated temperatures. Upon contact with water, oils and aggressive substances, gloves made from natural materials completely or partially lose their protective properties and may be destroyed.
The effectiveness of using gloves made from natural materials in the manufacture of mechanical protection for mechanical protection is always associated with the presence of additional risk factors.
To date, the most widely used gloves are workers with artificial, polymer coatings. The basis for them is a thin cotton glove (cotton is used to provide comfort when the glove comes in contact with the hand), and the protective layer of the glove is a polymer layer (nitrile, PVC, latex, mixtures). The base is dipped in a liquid polymer, which, solidifying, forms a protective layer. Gloves made using this technology are called doused, the composition, area, thickness and texture of the polymer coating can be different. Dip gloves have high mechanical protection and a number of additional protective properties - moisture resistance, limited to oil products, acids and alkalis, have good grip, including due to a given relief coating. It is believed that dousing gloves before gloves made of natural materials have a drawback - their less comfort (the hand does not “breathe”). This is the flip side of high protection performance and mainly applies to gloves with a full coating (the use of which is rarely justified) and “economical” gloves that use cheap polymers (gloves can have an unpleasant smell, high stiffness, etc.).
With the right choice of dousing gloves, the comfort of their use will not be lower, and the protection is higher than that of gloves made from natural materials. An additional advantage of dousing gloves is the versatility of use, the economic benefit of their acquisition and use. Recently, dousing gloves are becoming more widespread, which is associated with a shortage of raw materials for the production of leather gloves and the versatility of the use of dousing gloves.
Work gloves (gloves hb), their quality and cost of natural materials are directly related to the raw materials used. It is not difficult to achieve the absolute identity of knitted gloves made of cotton or mixed yarn, and the final cost of such gloves is mainly influenced by the weight of the gloves and the quality of the yarn. For the manufacture of leather and split gloves it is difficult to choose exactly the same raw materials (density, hairiness, skin thickness, the presence of punctures and cracks) and therefore, gloves of the same article can differ from each other. Many manufacturers divide each article into grades, the higher the quality (more uniform the raw materials and the less differences between gloves) the higher the grade. The cost of the same glove, depending on the variety, differs by 15-30%. In addition to the quality of leather raw materials, the cost of gloves is influenced by: used fabrics (both lining and fabric of combined gloves); cuff (glued or doubled with rubber cuffs); thickness and quality of threads; overall quality of tailoring.
Work gloves with dousing are at first glance easier to manufacture, but in reality this is not so. The technology provides for the manufacture of the base and its further coating with a polymer layer. The basis is a complete glove made of cotton fabric, which, theoretically, can be used independently. The composition, density and uniformity of the fabric, the quality of the seams, the density of the cuff - all this affects the final quality of the dousing glove. Leading manufacturers evaluate every little thing when creating gloves, so they make their own base for almost every article of a dousing glove. Of great importance is the composition and quality of the polymer, which is applied to the cotton base. The cost of raw materials for polymer coatings differs significantly and is directly related to quality. The quality of the polymer coating is not only the hygienic and comfortable performance of the gloves (no unpleasant odor, skin irritants, sufficient flexibility and softness of the glove, uniform surface coverage), but also the protective properties - mechanical, MBS, KShchS, etc. The use of high-quality raw materials and the use of special technologies allows the production of dousing gloves that provide universal protection and the level of comfort of gloves from natural materials.
The main production of work gloves is concentrated in the countries of the Asian region, which is due to the availability of raw materials and the necessary labor resources. There is still an opinion that gloves made in Asian countries are a cheap product of low quality, and only European or American manufacturers provide high quality gloves. This opinion is erroneous already because today almost all the world production of work and special gloves is concentrated in the Asian region and there is no point in comparing products at the place of production. All large glove companies with big names, both European and American, have long moved their production to Asia.
A very common question is “why not produce gloves in Ukraine, why develop foreign production”. It is generally accepted that the main reason for the developed glove production in Asia is cheap labor, but this is not entirely true (labor, compared to Europe, is certainly cheaper there). The production technology of gloves from natural materials and the basis for dousing gloves is an extremely laborious and monotonous process, where a worker is forced to repeat the same operation thousands of times per shift and for today there is no real possibility to automate these operations. European and American workers are not able to effectively participate in such production. An exception is the production of knitted circular knitted gloves, where most operations are automated (including in Ukraine there are many factories for the production of cotton gloves). In addition, the Asian region is provided with its own raw materials - cotton and leather (polymers are not deficits), and recently the states of the region have not shown interest in exporting these raw materials.
The manufacture of leather gloves and gloves with a polymer coating is a problem in terms of ecology and working conditions and this is an additional reason for the closure of production in Europe and America. Today, many leading European and American companies do not have their own enterprises for the production of gloves hb. They develop a product or place an order at selected factories in the region, control the process and production results. Products are branded and are considered to be their own. Our company works on the same principles. Our company cooperates with Asian factories, we place orders and receive products, a number of which are produced specifically for us, according to our requirements. Thanks to this, we can guarantee constantly high quality of our products at the level of world famous brands, prompt response to the needs of our customers and the offer of modern types of personal protective equipment for hands.