Medical glove materials

Medical gloves are of two quality grades: examination gloves and (higher grade) surgical gloves. Contemporary materials used for the manufacture of medical gloves include natural rubber latex, synthetic rubber, nitrile, neoprene, and vinyl Latex has excellent fit and feel, making it the preferred material for surgical gloves, and latex gloves comprise 40% of all global disposable glove sales (2012).
Latex can however lead to occupational allergy amongst healthcare workers,10 including contact dermatitis or (less often) respiratory tract symptoms such as wheezing. Consequently, there is a growing market for gloves less likely to induce allergy, including protein depleted and powder-free latex gloves, and gloves manufactured from latex-free petrochemical polymer materials. In particular, demand for nitrile gloves has grown, spurred by anti-latex policies in hospitals or other healthcare settings.

The most common raw material for gloves in latex, which is extracted from the rubber tree Hevea brasiliensis, a species that is native to South America but has been introduced into South and South-East Asia and tropical West Africa. Synthetic gloves are produced from
polymers of petrochemical origin.
Gloves are manufactured using machines that cycle molds or “formers” onto which chemical and raw materials are applied and processed (figure 1). The details of each stage of manufacture will vary depending upon the factory and the raw material, but generally for
latex gloves includes:12
1. Compounding. Latex material is mixed with other chemicals (e.g. accelerators to support the vulcanization and improve performance of the latex film).
2. Cleaning of residue from the former. This can be achieved using alkaline solutions, acidic solutions, oxidizing agents, surfactants, or a combination of these.
3. Coating of the former with coagulant (typically calcium nitrate) to control the amount of latex that will de deposited (and hence the thickness of the glove).
4. Immersion of the former in latex solution. The latex is generally mixed or compounded with curatives, antioxidants, and stabilizers.
5. Leaching with hot water to remove residual calcium nitrate and soluble protein.
6. Drying oven and vulcanization.
7. Post-vulcanisation leaching.
8. Surface treatment of the glove: gloves are powdered or (for powder free gloves) chlorinated or coated with a polymer for easier donning.
9. Stripping. Gloves are removed from the formers. This process can be fully automated (on most advanced lines) or semi-automatized (majority of the facilities), whereby the glove is reversed by the combined use of compressed air and mechanical grasp (allowing the worker to strip it by pulling the cuff). Older facilities may still require manual stripping of gloves.
Finished gloves will then be packed, and may also be sterilised. The process for the manufacture of non-latex gloves is similar. Testing of gloves for quality includes evaluation for permeability and for latex protein residues.

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      Lin Yang(Ms.)

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     ZHEJIANG RUICO ADVANCED MATERIALS CO., LTD.(STOCK NO.: 873233)

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