Abstract - Fatigue Resistance of Medical Gloves


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	Publications of MRB Latest Publications MRB Digest Journal of Rubber Research 3^rd Qtr 2008 Vol 11(3) 2^nd Qtr 2008 Vol 11(2) 1^st Qtr 2008 Vol 11(1) 4^th Qtr 2007 Vol 10(4) 3^rd Qtr 2007 Vol 10(3) 2^nd Qtr 2007 Vol 10(2) 1^st Qtr 2007 Vol 10(1) 1^st Qtr 2006 Vol 9(1) 2^nd Qtr 2006 Vol 9(2) 3^rd Qtr 2006 Vol 9(3) 4^th Qtr 2006 Vol 9(4) Submit paper/article Order Form	Abstract Fatigue Resistance of Medical Gloves Test equipment and a method for studying the fatigue resistance of medical gloves were developed. The method involves a continuous inflation and deflation of glove under a set of controlled conditions until the glove loses its integrity by the formation of a hole or a tear. Under the controlled conditions the deformation characteristic at certain critical parts of the glove during use was simulated. It was observed that the loss of glove integrity during the fatigue test occurred mostly at areas near the base and crotches of fingers. The type of fatigue failure displayed by natural rubber (NR) gloves, are holes and tears. The fatigue , failure of nitrile and vinyl gloves was mainly by formation of tear. Fatigue lives of NR examination and surgical gloves at 50% strain measured at the base of the second finger, at an inflation-deflation frequency of 0.5 cycle per second were found to exceed 1000 cycles. Under similar conditions, the fatigue lives of nitrile and vinyl examination gloves were found to be less than 400 cycles. There was generally no clear relationship between the physical properties and the fatigue resistance of NR and nitrile gloves. For vinyl gloves, the fatigue resistance increased with decreasing stiffness of the glove. Depending upon the type of glove, the fatigue life of glove might increase or decrease after ageing. Rather unexpectedly, at a low strain of 50%, aged vinyl glove showed a significantly high fatigue life. This unexpected result was due to the relatively high permanent set that the aged vinyl glove experienced during the test. In general, aged natural rubber gloves regardless of the nature of their finish showed much superior fatigue life values when compared to unaged nitrite or vinyl gloves.
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