| Latex |
|
Base material used for making latex
gloves. It is assumed to mean natural rubber latex derived
from the Hevea Brasiliensis trees found mainly in South
East Asia although they originated from Brazil.
The actual
latex used for glove manufacturing is centrifuged from
the raw latex tapped from the trees. It is preserved
in ammonia and stabilized with ammonium laurate soap. |
| Length |
|
The length of a glove is measured from the tip of the
middle finger to the outside edge of the cuff. The typical
length of an examination glove is between 230-250mm. |
| Maturation |
|
Compounded latex needs to stand for
24 or more hours to allow the chemicals to fuse into the
rubber particles. This is known as maturation time. |
| Nitrile |
|
A commonly used description for gloves
made from a synthetic latex of the acrylonitrile butadiene
copolymer type. Nitrile gloves are oil resistant, possess
nearly similar physical properties as latex but more expensive. |
| Non-medical |
|
This description is used for gloves
that do not carry the ‘examination’ or ‘medical’ tag.
It also imply a slightly lower quality but is not necessarily
so. Future trends may require non-medical quality gloves
to be as good as medical quality but that will depend on
regulatory developments. Sometimes the word ‘industrial’ is
used interchangeably with ‘non-medical’. It
must be remembered that as there are many different non-medical
applications, the actual specifications to fit these requirements
may means slightly different prices even among the non-medical
gloves. |
| Non-Sterile |
|
This means the product has not been subjected to heat
or chemical treatment or gamma irradiation to kill off
micro-organisms on them and the packaging materials. Examination
and non-medical gloves are normally non-sterile. Some customers
may request examination gloves to be packed in pairs and
sterilized. Surgeon’s gloves are typically sterilized
as they are invasive in nature. |
