An Overview of Protective Gloves with Regards to Hand Performance and the Evaluation Methods

Abstract

Many tasks are carried out with the use of hands in various environments and working conditions, so protective gloves are widely utilized by workers voluntarily or as needed. The present study aims to introduce the hand, its various parts, and the importance of protecting the hands, which are subjected to several mechanical and perceptive situations. Moreover, the literature introduces the types of protective gloves, their design and structure. The factors affecting the performance of protective gloves and their evaluation methods are also included. This paper contains two parts; the first part is allocated to overview the importance of protective gloves and the second part is assigned to the published researches in each field and their results are elaborated. By probing the results of the previously conducted researches on protective gloves, it was found that wearing protective gloves often reduced the strength capability of the hand, tactile sensitivity, manual dexterity and range of motion, while the discrepancy in the results of some functions, such as pinch or torque, was observable in the studied researches. Examination of hand performance measurement tasks also showed weaknesses and shortcomings in some methods, and this was one of the causes of contradictions in the results of studies.