Analysis of anti-vibration gloves mechanism and evaluation methods

Abstract

The primary objectives of the current study are to enhance the understanding of the mechanisms of the anti-vibration gloves and to evaluate the methods for assessing their vibration isolation effectiveness through developing a mechanical-equivalent model of the glove-hand–arm system. The model is developed based on the measured driving-point mechanical impedances distributed at the fingers and the palm of the hand with and without a glove. Six subjects participated in the experiments with two types of anti-vibration gloves (air-bladder glove and gel-filled glove) for measuring the required impedance data. The proposed model is applied to predict the effectiveness of the glove in terms of vibration transmitted to the fingers-glove and palm-glove interfaces, the finger bones, and the wrist. The results show that the gloves could provide some attenuation of the palm-transmitted vibration at frequencies above the fundamental resonant frequency of the gloved hand–arm system, but only little reduction in the finger vibration below the dominant finger resonant frequency. The present standardized methodology based upon the transmissibility measurement at the palm alone would thus be inappropriate for characterizing the overall reduction of the vibration exposure by a glove. Moreover, the palm adapter could introduce some measurement errors because of its mass and misalignment effects and its interference with the glove-palm coupling relationship. Therefore, the standardized method may only be used for general screening tests. On the basis of the model results, several potential improvements in the current standardized methodologies for evaluations of gloves and glove material are proposed and discussed. The proposed model may also serve as a useful tool for further developments of anti-vibration gloves and other anti-vibration devices.