Fingers vibration transmission performance of vibration reducing gloves

Relevance to industry:Vibration is transmitted to the hand-arm system of operators using power tools and occupational exposure to hand transmitted vibration (HTV) arising from hand-held power tools has been related to an array of disorders. Vibration reducing (VR) gloves are viewed as one of the simple methods to protect workers from hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS). The international standard on the assessment of VR gloves addresses only the transmission of vibration to the palm, even though the vibration responses of fingers are substantially different. This study explored both the palm and fingers vibration transmissibility characteristics of VR gloves and proposed a method for assessing the vibration reduction performance of the glove under vibration spectra of different tools. The results of the study are thus considered to provide guidance towards enhanced screening criteria for AV gloves, and for selection of gloves for different tools.