Background Wearing anti-vibration gloves is a simple and effective way to prevent hand-arm vibration disease. The requirements for vibration damping gloves are varied by types of operations exposed to vibration.

Objective To study the vibration attenuation and dexterity of different types of protective gloves, and to provide reference for scientific wearing of vibration damping gloves for people working with vibration exposure.

Methods Nine kinds of common protective gloves (A and B were dipping gloves; C, D, and E were rubber gloves; F and G were textile and fabric gloves; H was cotton gloves; I was leather gloves) used by workers exposed to vibration in 28 factories in Guangdong Province were selected as research objects by typical case sampling method, and the basic parameters of included protective gloves were investigated and measured. According to ISO 10819:2013, a glove vibration transmissibility (GVT) test system was used to detect the vibration transmissibility values and analyze vibration attenuation characteristics of the subjects wearing different protective gloves. The dexterity was tested by Minnesota Manual Dexterity Test. Pearson test was used to analyze the correlations among glove thickness, vibration transmissibility, dexterity score, and grip strength score.

Results For rubber gloves (C, D, and E), the associated average adjusted vibration transmissibility at middle and low frequencies \overline T _\textM and average adjusted vibration transmissibility at high frequency \overline T _\textH were lower than those of other gloves (0.89-0.91 and 0.59-0.80 respectively), the vibration transmissibility values of 50-200 Hz frequency band was 0.81-0.97, and the vibration transmissibility values of 315-1250 Hz frequency band decreased with the increase of frequency (the minimum value was 0.13). For other types of gloves (A, B, F, G, H, and I), the \overline T _\textM and \overline T _\textH were 0.95-0.98 and 1.03-1.11 respectively, the vibration transmissibility values of 50-200 Hz frequency band was 0.96-1.02, and the vibration transmissibility values of 400-1250 Hz frequency band increased (the maximum value was 1.29). The \overline T _\textM , \overline T _\textH , and vibration transmissibility values of 40-1250 Hz frequency band of rubber gloves with double-layer protective materials (C, D, and E) were significantly lower than those of gloves with single-layer protective materials. But the \overline T _\textM and \overline T _\textH of gloves of other types with double-layer materials (F, H, and I) were still greater than 0.9 and 1.0 respectively. Compared with single-layer protective materials, the gloves of other types with double-layer materials showed no significant changes in the vibration transmissibility values of 25-200 frequency band (0.91-1.06), and an increase in the vibration transmissibility values of 250-630 Hz frequency band (the maximum value was 1.22). The dexterity scores and grip strength scores of dipping gloves (A and B) were the lowest. Rubber gloves C had the highest dexterity score and grip strength score. The thickness of protective gloves was negatively correlated with the vibration transmissibility values, and positively correlated with the dexterity score and the grip strength score (P < 0.05). The vibration transmissibility value was negatively correlated with the dexterity score and the grip strength score (P < 0.05).

Conclusion Among the 9 kinds of gloves, cotton gloves and leather gloves have no damping effect. Rubber gloves have certain vibration reduction effect, and the vibration reduction effect on high frequency band is better than that on low frequency band. The thicker the damping material is, the better the damping effect is, but the less the dexterity is. Appropriate damping gloves should be selected according to actual vibration operations.