How long can you wear these gloves?

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• The gloves are durable if worn less than 7 hours. After around 7 hours of use, the glove thickness begins to decrease.

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How elastic are they?

 

• The PVA gloves have a tensile strength of 4.38 MPa and an elongation of 185%.

• Tensile strength - measure of how much force is required to break the glove

• Elongation - percentage of original length that a material can stretch before breaking

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What different sizes do they come in?

 

• Hand molds are available in sizes extra-small, medium, large, and extra large and our system is adaptable to hand molds of all these sizes

• For the demonstration we will be using a size Large mold

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How thick are they?

 

• The glove must be at least 0.0953 mm thick in order to withstand the level 3 puncture test

• The current dipping method results in us creating gloves with a thickness of 0.115 +/- 0.004 mm such that it can withstand high humidities while maintaining its level 3 puncture status

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How do they compare to nitrile gloves?

 

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How many times can the glove go through the molding process while maintaining its structural properties?

 

• Each time a glove is recycled and put through the molding process, it loses an average of 6% elongation while gaining an average of 56 kPa in tensile strength. In a large scale manufacturing process, we would need to add a percentage of fresh, non-recycled PVA to the molding solution to account for the loss in elongation.

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How well can they grip?

 

• User testing showed no difference in grippability when comparing the PVA and nitrile gloves.

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Are they puncture resistant?

 

• Both Nitrile gloves and PVA gloves are classified as Level 3 puncture resistance and can be used for standard construction procedures

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Are they breathable?

 

• User testing showed no difference in breathability when comparing the PVA and nitrile gloves.

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What uses are they limited to due to their water soluble nature?

 

• These gloves will be specifically used by waste management employees, such as sorters, drivers, and mechanics that typically work with dry materials

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How does contamination affect the molding process?

 

• Large levels of contamination (greater than 40%) will decrease the integrity of the glove

• Contamination under 10% does not affect the glove’s thickness and therefore can still pass the level 3 puncture test

• The cleaning steps in our proposed system (the rinse step, filtering step, and sterilization step) is predicted to remove at least 95% of contaminants in the Waste Management setting, and therefore small amounts of contamination will not be a problem

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Where and how will the system be implemented in the future?

 

• Currently this system is made to create gloves for WM and its employees as there are less regulations and less interactions with chemicals/liquids

• However, we believe that this system can be advanced such that it can be used in hospitals in the future

  • Our system will increase hospital independence and limit glove shortages

  • We believe that hydropol PVA (chemically advanced polyvinyl alcohol) can be utilized to do so, since it is only soluble in hot water, and includes plasticizers allowing for additional elasticity