How To Improve The Performance And Lifespan Of Latex Gloves

How to improve the performance and lifespan of latex gloves? There are many types of disposable gloves on the market, including gloves made of nitrile rubber, natural rubber, and polyvinyl chloride. Wax emulsions improve field handling and longevity of natural and synthetic rubber gloves. These advantages often play a vital role in product quality control, operator safety, on-site hygienic conditions, and chemical protection.

1. Natural rubber gloves-NR:
Most of the water-based ingredients are removed by beating the latex extracted from natural trees and concentrated by centrifugation.
2. Nitrile rubber gloves-NBR:
Nitrile is a soft, stretchable material that offers better puncture and abrasion resistance than latex or vinyl gloves. It is mainly made of acrylonitrile butadiene polymerization, which has relatively good barrier properties, durability and excellent strength.
3. Polyvinyl chloride gloves-PVC:
PVC is a relatively economical synthetic thermoplastic polymer that is very strong and durable. PVC gloves offer extremely high levels of protection, including some protection against chemical exposure as well as physical hazards.

Advantages of using wax emulsions in latex glove applications:
1. Chemical inertness: no reaction with latex.
2. Suitable for water-based systems.
3. Increase the release property (easy to peel off).
4. Reduce the coefficient of friction, improve wearability, and improve wear resistance in polymer coatings.
5. Reduce the total mobility by forming a barrier layer.
6. Ozone aging protection.
7. Provide anti-blocking properties for the gloves in the package.

At what stage of latex glove production is wax used?
In the latex glove production process, the wax emulsion mainly plays a key role in the latex mixing stage and the polymer impregnation stage (or post-processing stage). In the latex mixing stage, the wax emulsion is added to the latex formula as an additive, and the latex containing wax is dipped, vulcanized, dried and other processes to form gloves. Addition of stone wax or microcrystalline wax at this stage can improve release, block resistance, stick back resistance and reduce migration.

Also at the polymer impregnation stage, the wax emulsion also plays an important role. In this stage, a polymer coating containing wax is applied to the surface of the glove, and then the glove is vulcanized, dried and other processes to obtain the finished product. Polyethylene wax(PE Wax), carnauba wax and paraffin waxes provide smoothness, abrasion resistance and ease of donning to polymer coating formulations.