The answer is answered by various providers with a clear "yes". It is clear: the demand on the part of the users is there. For this reason, the question arises: what does such a glove look like, how is it constructed, what can the glove do and who offers such gloves?
Cut protection and chemical protection ?
The manufacturers have developed different concepts for their respective products and give different answers, depending on whether cut protection or chemical protection is in the foreground of interest or occupational safety. Chemical protection is a wide-ranging field. Of the more than 100 million chemicals known, perhaps 100,000 have industrial use. Even fewer have any significance from the point of view of occupational safety. The technical limits of the production of gloves from various materials should not be underestimated.
Challenge: Combining two different material properties ?
The requirement is divided into two parts. On the one hand, good, sometimes excellent cut protection is required, and on the other hand, the glove must be liquid-tight and resistant to various chemicals. Realizing these two material properties in one product at a high level is close to squaring a circle. For the manufacturer of the gloves, the challenge is rather to combine several materials in such a way that both desired product properties are also achieved, so that occupational safety is guaranteed. Below, the two components cut protection and chemical protection are considered separately to get a feel for the challenges faced by manufacturers.
Cut protection ?
First of all, the materials for cut protection gloves. These are classics such as glass fibre, steel, HPPE (High Performance Polyethylene), aramid and the like. As a rule, a liner is made from cut-resistant fibres, often with a small proportion of elastic material, e.g. elastane or spandex. In most cases (if this is technically possible), the liner is circular knitted with few seams to possibly facilitate a subsequent dive and to offer the user good wearing comfort. The cut protection is certified according to EN 388 (CE category 2) and the measured value can vary depending on the material used. Most of the time, the aim is to achieve a minimum of class C or D (Article 3416 of Showa even reaches class E).
The dilemma: The chemical resistance of the cut protection fibre ?
One dilemma is that the selected fibre material cannot be resistant to many chemicals, or can only be insufficiently resistant. This would mean that a chemically non-resistant fibrous material cannot be used externally at all. In principle, however, it would be ideal to use the cut protection layer on the outside of the glove. This would protect the chemical protective layer of the glove well from mechanical impact. Glass fibers are the preferred material here, as glass fibers are not attacked by many chemicals used. The aim is to improve the mechanical properties, especially the cut resistance. Steel fibres and HPPE (a polymeric polyethylene) cannot be used at all in direct contact with many chemicals. Steel is attacked by most acids and polyethylene by a lot of solvents. Glass fibers, on the other hand, have fracture ends and can pierce the mandatory liquid-tight chemical protective layer with these fine ends. As a result, chemical protection is no longer achieved during the possible penetration of chemicals. This dilemma places high demands on product development. A truly ideal solution is difficult to achieve.
Chemical protection ?
There are as many options here as there are materials for chemical protective gloves. Materials used in practice include nitrile rubber, PVC (vinyl), PU and neoprene (the classics). In this case, a chemical protective glove can only protect against hazards against which the material used is actually sufficiently resistant in accordance with the requirements. Of course, the requirements for combined cut protection/chemical protection gloves apply without any compromises as they do for classic chemical protection gloves. From a technical point of view, it would be ideal to develop the corresponding models with combined cut protection according to the respective chemical protection gloves that have already been on the market for many years. However, a manufacturer would only do this if there is a market, i.e. there is a quantifiable need in this area of occupational safety. Under certain circumstances, each hazard from chemicals and mixtures can be very specific and the requirements for chemical protection can therefore differ greatly. Other properties of great practical importance include properties such as oil grip, dexterity, wet and dry grip and, if necessary, abrasion resistance. According to customer statements, the dexterity of almost all gloves on the occupational safety market is very limited due to the multi-layer structure. As a result, most gloves are basically only suitable for rough work, but not for work that requires dexterity.
The protection professionals have tested combined chemical and cut protection gloves ?
Product innovations in the field of protective gloves continue to advance. The safety professionals have therefore taken a closer look at the protective gloves with a combination of chemical and cut protection that have been brought to the market for occupational safety. Various gloves were examined and tested for wearing comfort and product properties. The resulting product overview will be presented in a subsequent article. It must be clearly stated that there is still no optimal solution for work areas where a combination of chemical and cut protection glove is required. The perfect glove for this application does not yet exist, as a compromise must always be made, either in cut protection or chemical protection. For manufacturers, optimizing wearing comfort is another challenge. The protection professionals are convinced that there will be an interesting further development here in the coming years – combined chemical and cut protection is effective occupational safety. Of course, the protection professionals will keep an eye on everything and provide up-to-date information from time to time.