LABORATORY TESTS

The following equipment is used to access the properties of gloves specified by the EN388 standard (IDENTICAL TO AS/NZS 2161.3:2005).

A Martindale wear and abrasion tester is used to measure the abrasion resistance. The test involves rubbing samples cut from the palms of gloves, against a standard glass paper until a hole is worn through one of the samples. The number of abrasion cycles is used to assess the performance.

A Sodemat cut tester is used to measure the resistance to cutting. Samples are cut from gloves and placed in a frame which enables a circular, counter-rotating blade to slice through the glove material. The number of cycles required by the blade are recorded. These are converted into a cutting index by comparison with the number of cycles required to cut through a standard reference material. Performance levels are established according to cutting index.

Performance Level	1	2	3	4	5
Abrasion Cycles	100	500	2000	8000	n/a
Cuting Index	1.2	2.5	5	10	20
Tear Force [N]	10	25	50	75	n/a
Puncture Force [N]	20	60	100	150	n/a

Puncture and tear resistance are measured with a tensometer.

• Puncture resistance is measured as the force required to break through samples from gloves with a standard puncture needle. (It should be noted that the design of this needle is comparable to that of a large nail, and the puncture strength from this test cannot be used to assess resistance to puncture by hypodermic needles.

• Tear resistance is measured as the force required to tear apart samples from the glove which are in the form of a pair of trousers (This test is also known as a trouser tear test). The legs of the trouser samples are pulled apart and the maximum force is used to assess the tearing resistance of the material.