Work Gloves Serve Many Purposes

By Elena McDowell


With professions becoming ever more safety conscious there will often come a time when you will be required to wear some form of hand protection. Yet with all of the different forms of work gloves that are available which ones will be the right ones for you, and will they be suitable for all circumstances. They are ultimately designed to protect the wearer from some outside influence.

A profession that everyone is familiar with involves medicine, and possibly most have seen a surgeon or a dentist wearing latex on their hands. The latex is there to help prevent the spread of contamination between doctor and patient, and illustrates a good example of protection being made use of in the working environment. Thanks to the thinness of the material protection is there but it causes no loss of the sense of touch.

At the other end of the scale are the old fashioned butchers. In their daily lives they are cutting up meat using a lot of very sharp knives. Some of you might have noticed them wearing what looks like an old fashioned chain mail gauntlet, this will protect their hands and fingers should a knife slip.

Another reason that a butcher will require hand coverings is getting carcases from the cold storage units. There are often hooks and similar devices in these facilities. So the butcher will need to be able to maintain a firm grip as they are lifting the sides of meat down, without losing the feeling in their fingertips.

Another useful example demonstrating different forms and styles of hand wear are the military. They perform a variety of tasks in a wide range of climatic conditions. Imagine someone working on an aircraft, on an exercise inside the Arctic Circle in midwinter. Every day will mean that a variety of challenges have to be faced, and overcome.

For those who have never faced it the weather can be extremely unforgiving. The cold air will soon find any exposed skin. The skin on modern aircraft is made from metal, and below a certain temperature skin has a tendency to stick to metal surfaces. Work has to continue on these exercises so it is essential that hand protection is worn, but it cannot be permitted to interfere with the required tasks.

There are different styles for different tasks. For ordinary everyday tasks there are versions which have small rubberised blisters over the palms and fingers. With these blisters an individual can use tools and work on the aircraft as normal. Tools will not slip, or fall, from an individual's grasp.

Even such routine operations involving oils and fuels can be problematic. Any fuel which splashes onto any skin is liable to cause a cold burn. The normal hand wear with the rubber blisters will not afford the required protection as the whole hand needs protecting. So a pair made from cotton and coated in a rubberized compound is used. Even when not involved in operations everyone needs to cover up.

So as you can imagine the roles which work gloves can play are many and varied. They have to suit the purpose for which they are intended, and this will include the material from which they're made. If they are too heavy and thick the wearer will have a limited sense of feel. Whereas if they're light and flimsy they will not offer much protection against possible punctures.




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