How Do Anti-Vibration Gloves Work?
There’s no mystery or magic behind anti-vibration gloves. They’re exactly what you’d expect them to be. These gloves are crafted similarly to regular work gloves but feature additional padding on the palms to help absorb and dissipate vibrations from tools. While the padding is only present on the palms, these gloves do little to prevent vibrations in your fingers.
The materials inside the padding vary depending on the glove. Some use gel, others foam, and some incorporate special air pockets. Despite the different materials, they all serve the same purpose: reducing the amount of vibrations transmitted to your hand, wrist, and arms.
If you’ve never tried anti-vibration gloves before, it’s important to manage your expectations. These gloves aren’t miracle workers. Their role is to dampen tool vibration, not eliminate it entirely. So, if you're looking for a way to completely remove yourself from vibration hazards, these gloves aren’t the solution. However, if you want to reduce your exposure to vibration and avoid long-term issues, anti-vibration gloves might help.
How Vibrating Equipment Impacts Workers
Why are people so concerned about vibrations in their hands, wrists, and arms? As we’ve mentioned earlier, prolonged exposure to vibrations can lead to serious long-term health problems.
One major concern is Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS). Extended exposure to vibrations can cause permanent damage to the blood vessels and nerves in your hands and arms. This irreversible damage can lead to numbness in your fingers, a weakened grip, and an inability to heal wounds on your hands and arms.
Raynaud’s disease, also known as white finger syndrome, poses a threat to workers exposed to vibrations. Typically, Raynaud’s occurs in people exposed to cold conditions. The extreme cold prevents proper hand circulation, causing parts of the finger skin to discolor. When exposed to vibration hazards, the damaged blood vessels caused by the vibrations prevent the necessary circulation and can result in Raynaud's even without exposure to extreme cold.
Vibrations can also lead to carpal tunnel syndrome. Usually, carpal tunnel is caused by repetitive motion damaging the nerves in your hand, leading to numbness and weakened muscles. You often hear about carpal tunnel being common for office workers due to repetitive typing motions causing that nerve damage. Carpal tunnel is also a risk for many construction and factory workers. However, the increased use of ergonomic tools is helping to reduce the number of cases. Yet, repetitive motion isn’t the only way to damage the nerves in your hand. Vibration exposure can cause the same nerve damage, which can also result in carpal tunnel.
Apart from all the serious issues, the daily discomforts of vibration exposure are enough to make you want to change your habits. After using a hand tool for too long, do you lose feeling in your hand, or does your entire arm get tingly? These are signs that you are damaging your body, and they are completely avoidable.
The real danger of vibration exposure isn't the vibrations themselves; it's how easily we all ignore the clear signs that we are damaging our bodies and causing permanent harm. Listen to your body, don’t try and tough it out, and make choices that give you a safe and healthy future.
Who Should Use Anti-Vibration Gloves?
Let’s face it. Anti-vibration gloves won’t save you from all the previously mentioned disorders, diseases, and syndromes. The best course of action to avoid HAVS is to try and reduce the time you’re exposed to vibrations or avoid them altogether. I know the abstinence method didn’t work when you were a teenager, and it won’t work now. In this case, it’s not an option for most workers. Instead, try using tools designed to reduce vibration transfer to the hand and take breaks. Giving your body time to recover is essential when exposed to any hazard.
Once you’ve done all that, if you want to take your safety a step further, that’s where anti-vibration gloves come in. If you’re putting in all that effort to avoid HAVS, why not go the extra mile and wear a pair of anti-vibration gloves for good measure?
Another crucial point to keep in mind regarding anti-vibration gloves is that they are really only effective at absorbing high-frequency vibrations. Smaller hand tools usually emit high-frequency vibrations. Therefore, tools like drills, saws, grinders, and sanders are ideal for pairing with a set of anti-vibration gloves.
Most construction workers, automotive workers, and landscapers could benefit from having a pair of anti-vibration gloves.
What is ANSI S2.73 / ISO 10819?
Some anti-vibration gloves are ANSI/ISO rated for vibration resistance. If you’re familiar with other ANSI glove standards, like cut resistance, you might expect to see a system of anti-vibration levels.
That's not how this one works. The ANSI/ISO anti-vibration is a pass/fail standard. Gloves either meet the standard or don't, and there aren't any levels. For this standard, gloves are required to meet certain physical specifications. They cannot be fingerless gloves. They need to have padding that covers the full palm without any gaps. The padding needs to be a maximum of 8mm thick.
With all those physical requirements met, the gloves also need to meet some performance metrics. Transmission of medium-rate frequencies needs to be reduced by 10%, compared to not wearing a glove at all. Transmission of high-rate frequencies needs to be reduced by 40%.
Any glove that says it meets the ANSI S2.73/ISO 10819 standard must meet all of the above criteria. A 40% reduction in high-frequency vibrations goes a long way if you want to reduce your vibration exposure.
Controversy Behind Anti-Vibration Gloves
If you’re researching anti-vibration gloves, you’re going to see a lot of controversy about whether these gloves actually work or if they’re just a gimmick. Most say it’s a gimmick. Some studies have shown that anti-vibration gloves can increase the amount of vibration transferred to your hands and wrists. Others point out that the lack of vibration resistance for the fingers renders these gloves useless.
These are both valid points. We mentioned earlier that these gloves are not effective at protecting you from low-frequency vibrations. Using anti-vibration gloves with low-vibration frequency tools like jackhammers or rammers could potentially do more harm than good. Also, some cheaply made gloves might claim to be vibration-resistant but just have some extra padding. These low-quality gloves may cause more harm at any vibration frequency. It’s important to buy gloves from a trusted brand from a reputable retailer. Beware of knockoffs and gimmicks.
The point about the lack of finger protection is valid as well. Even with the ANSI rating, there is no requirement to prevent vibrations from transferring to your fingers. This is odd because power tools famously require fingers to operate, and fingers are not immune to all of the disorders associated with vibration exposure. This might be the strongest argument against anti-vibration gloves.
If you remember from earlier, we mentioned that these gloves aren't the solution for vibration hazards. To protect your body from the permanent harm caused by vibration exposure, you need to follow a list of precautions that do not include anti-vibration gloves. Once you've started utilizing ergonomic tools, learned when to give your hands a break, and figured out how to reduce your overall exposure, then you can consider adding a pair of anti-vibration gloves for good measure.
Imagine you're getting into the passenger seat of a car, and you know the driver is not the best. You're going to sit straight in that seat, buckle up, and maybe lock up the seatbelt for good measure. Locking up the seatbelt is not necessary, but it’ll help in the event of a crash. That’s essentially what anti-vibration gloves are; they may not be necessary, but they will help when faced with a hazard.
Protect Workers With Anti-Vibration Gloves From PowerPak Civil & Safety
Hopefully, this article has shed some light on the topic of anti-vibration gloves. This is a confusing topic, and after researching and reading all of the controversy and opinions online, it’s easy to get confused or discouraged. When writing this article, and any article for that matter, we always aim to provide safe information. We don’t want to sell anything that will cause harm. Read about more types of construction gloves.
It is 100% your choice to add this extra measure of protection. If you decide to try anti-vibration gloves, contact us at PowerPak, and we'll get you started with a reputable pair today.
--- Stay safe and protect yourself from potential hazards!
--- Stay safe and protect yourself from potential hazards!
Ningbo Hengnuo Hydraulic Drive Co.,Ltd , https://www.hnhydraulic.com