Get a grip

Cut resistance

Often the response to recurring
cut injuries is to introduce gloves
with higher levels of cut resistance. However, increasing the cut
resistance often treats the effect,
i.e. cuts, rather than the cause of
the issue, i.e. movement. After all,
it’s the movement of what the
hand is holding that frequently
cuts the glove. Simply put, if it
doesn’t slip then it cannot cut.
Used correctly, a glove with ANSI
cut level 2 / EN level 3 with the
right grip can be as effective if not more effective than a glove with
ANSI cut level 4 / EN level 5. Using
thinner gloves will also increase
worker acceptance through better
comfort.

Worker comfort

Worker comfort is always one of
the first things people consider
when selecting or trying on a
glove. Is it comfortable? Does it
offer the needed dexterity, flexibility and tactility? Gloves that offer
more cut resistance are frequently more bulky, working against the
other metrics. It’s a question of
protection versus comfort. It’s
fundamental to get this right,
since bulky gloves will be taken
off for precision-handling tasks
leaving bare hands exposed to the
risk of a cut. This is why many
case studies conclude that using
gloves with a higher cut resistance will not necessarily reduce
the injury frequency rate (IFR).

Hand fatigue

Have you ever clenched your fist
100 times? If you have, then you’ll
know that at the outset it’s easy
but towards the end it becomes
more difficult. This fatigue is similar to when your hand lifts and holds something over and over
again. Why? Because it has to apply force and force needs energy.
It’s no different for workers using
their hands professionally. With
glove grip enhanced by just 5%,
the dry lift increases from 24kg
(bare hand) to 25.26kg (gloved
hand). ATG likes to think of
it another way. Rather than being
able to lift an extra 1.26kg with an
optimised grip, it says that only
2.38kg of force is required to lift
1kg instead of 2.5kg, and these
small differences over a working
day, week, month and year(s) can
make a significant difference.

Time for change?

ATG believes so. It says that people
have been poorly served and
come to accept that coated cut-resistant gloves are PU. All solid film
PU gloves don’t breathe, don’t fit,
don’t last and often contain harmful chemicals. ATG was inspired to
develop something totally new
within the cut sector based on the
core values of MaxiFlex, creating
the world’s first biomimetic cut-resistant glove,
MaxiFlex Cut.