Case Study: Fit Evaluation of Protective Gloves Made of Elastic and Non-Elastic Textile Materials

Abstract

The main objective of the study was to evaluate two fit testing methods for protective gloves using anthropometric measurements. The gloves differed in terms of textile materials (woven fabric without elastomeric fibres and knitted fabric with elastomeric fibres), with and without size allowances, respectively. The evaluation method proposed may supplement the standard glove fitting procedure given in Standard EN 420:2003+A1:2009. The standard specifies only a method for measuring hand circumference and length, while the Authors used an original approach to measure the length and width for the purposes of glove fitting. The objective of the case study was to determine the optimum size difference between the protective glove and the user’s hand. The methodology developed shows how to evaluate gloves made of woven or knitted fabrics with or without elastomeric fibres in the context of glove fitting, which has direct implications for user comfort and the safety of manual work.