Gloves: A Categorical Breakdown

Any garment which accurately covers the hand is termed as a glove. Derived from the old English world “glof”, gloves protect and comfort our hands against cold or heat, damage by friction, abrasion or chemicals, and disease; or in turn to provide a guard for what a bare hand should not touch.

Although, several types of gloves have been developed for protection against a variety of surfaces, a chief category of gloves can be generated on the glove’s ability to withstand flame or intense heat. Firefighting gloves, developed specifically for this purpose, offers protection against intense amount of heat. The main objective of such a glove is to ensure that a firefighter hands can survive the toughest of the heat. In order to attain this objective, Firefighting gloves are developed from quality flame resistant meta-aramid materials, providing flame resistant properties to the these gloves. Although, the primary material used in a firefighting glove is Dupont’s Nomex fibre, which incorporates flame retardant capabilities in them. The knit structure of these gloves are very tight, hence offering excellent protection from flame, snags, runs and cuts.

Another category of gloves which are generated uniquely on their property of resistance towards cutting, are called Cut resistant gloves. These can be divided into metal mesh gloves, cut and sewn and seamless knitted gloves. Metal mesh gloves are made of rings of stainless steel and are typically used in food applications. The cut and sewn gloves can be made by a cut resistance material or by conventional materials with full or palm lining of cut resistance materials. The materials are cut to pieces and sewn into a glove. Seamless knitted gloves are knitted in one piece by a flat knitting machine. The materials that provide the cut resistant gloves the said property comprise mostly of high performance Para aramid (Twaron, Kevlar), HPPE (High Performance Poly Ethylene), special PVA yarns (SupraBlock) or steelfibre yarns.

Another unique category of gloves comprise of gloves containing nomex fibre and polymers. These Nomex gloves and related aramid polymers gloves are related to nylon, but have aromatic backbones, and hence are more rigid and more durable, providing excellent thermal, chemical, and radiation resistance. Nomex is sold in both fiber and sheet forms and is used as a fabric wherever resistance from heat and flame is required. Hence, as stated before, the primary material in any firefighting glove is a Nomex fibre. Infact, Nomex is placed on the head on top of a firefighter's face mask. Even Military pilots and aircrew wear flight suits made of over 92 percent Nomex to protect them from the possibility of cockpit fires and other mishaps.

Hence, we can conclude that several types of gloves exist in the market for different kinds of surfaces, offering protection against different kinds of hazards. One can visit http://www.tsgloves.com/ for checking out these different kinds of high quality firefighting gloves and Cut Resistant gloves, all made from high grade materials such as NOMEX.