Improvements To Gloves And A Method of Manufacture

Abstract

A glove of a type worn to provide masking effect between a wear's hand and another surface, such as surface of food stuff. The glove, or fragments thereof, is rendered detectable by X-ray and/or metal detection apparatus. Apparatus and/or indication means can be provided to allow a detected glove or glove portion to be allocated to a particular location and/or personnel to allow, if necessary, remedial action to be taken.

Claims

1. A glove, said glove formed so as to be located around a palm and back of a hand and fingers of the hand of a user, said glove formed of a continuous sheet material which is sufficiently pliable to allow manipulation of the user's hand without any substantial restriction and wherein the said glove includes therein one or more materials to render the glove, or a fragment thereof, to be detectable by at least X-ray detection apparatus or metal detectable apparatus.

2-4. (canceled)

5. The glove according to claim 1, wherein at least one of the one or more materials are provided in a powder form to be added to polymer material in a liquid form to form said sheet material.

6. (canceled)

7. The glove according to claim 5, wherein an average particle size is in the range of 50-200 microns.

8. (canceled)

9. The glove according claim 1, wherein one or both of the metal or X-ray detectable materials are formed and provided as a liquid which is added to the material from which the glove is formed when in a liquid condition.

10. The glove according to claim 1, wherein the glove sheet material is formed from a polymer material which is initially provided in a liquid uncured prepolymer condition and into which the one or more detectable materials are added.

11-16. (canceled)

17. A glove according to claim 1, wherein the metal detectable material is a bronze alloy of copper with aluminium, manganese, beryllium and/or coronium.

18. The glove according to claim 1, wherein the metal detectable material is an alloy of copper and tin.

19. The glove according to claim 1, wherein the X-ray detectable material is a common contrast agent.

20. The glove according to claim 19, wherein the common contrast agent is selected from the group consisting of: barium sulphate or iodine and a combination of barium sulphate and iodine.

21. The glove according to claim 1, wherein a portion or portions of the glove deemed to be more susceptible to be detached from a remainder of the glove during use of the same are determined and the metal and/or X-ray detectable material is provided with a greater density at said portions of the glove.

22. (canceled)

23. The glove according to claim 1, wherein the gloves includes an antimicrobial agent within a wall of the glove and/or at a surface thereof.

24-26. (canceled)

27. The glove according to claim 23, wherein the antimicrobial agent is or includes a photosensitiser so as to be activated by exposure of the glove to light and/or oxygen.

28. (canceled)

29. The glove according to claim 1, wherein the glove is provided with indication means which are linked to a key or table to allow a parameter relating to the said glove to be determined with reference to the key or table.

30. The glove according to claim 29, wherein the said indication means is a particular colour of the glove and/or pattern applied thereto.

31. The glove according to claim 29, wherein the said parameter is selected from the group consisting of: any or any combination of the source of the glove, time period of use of said glove, a particular identity of a person or group of persons wearing the glove, a location of use of the glove, a type of said glove and a particular status of personnel using the glove.

32. Apparatus including a glove, said glove rendered detectable by at least one of metal detection apparatus or X-ray detection apparatus; the apparatus comprising: a key or table including data relating to one or more parameters relating to the glove, and wherein an indication means of the glove are linked to the key or table to allow at least one parameter value of the said key or table to be determined and allocated to said glove.

33. The apparatus according to claim 32, wherein the said indication means is a provision selected from a consisting of: a particular colour of the entire glove or at least part thereof and a pattern applied thereto.

34. The apparatus according to claim 33, wherein a predetermined range of colours and/or patterns provided on said gloves are defined on the said key or table.

35. The apparatus according to claim 34, wherein the key or table matches the said range of colours and/or patterns to any selected from a group consisting of: or any combination of, parameters in the form of, a time of use of the glove, a particular identity of the person or group of persons wearing gloves of that colour or pattern, a location of use of the glove, a type of glove and a particular status of personnel using the glove.

36. The apparatus according to claim 35, wherein the key or table matches the type of glove to any of a glove which is detectable by metal detectable apparatus, a glove which is detectable by X-ray detection apparatus, a glove which is detectable by both metal and X-ray detection apparatus, a glove which has antimicrobial characteristics and/or a glove which is biodegradable.

37. The apparatus according to claim 32, wherein the indication means and key or table identify to personnel the specific format of glove which should be selected to be worn when using or working with a specific manufacturing process and/or apparatus.

38. A method of manufacturing a glove from a plastics and/or rubber material, said method including the steps of: preparing a reservoir of said material in a liquid form; using a quantity of said material to form a continuous wall of the glove on a former; and wherein there is added to the said material when in the liquid form, a substance or substances such that when formed, the glove or a fragment thereof is rendered detectable by at least X-ray or metal detection apparatus.

39. The method according to claim 38, wherein the same or a further substance is added to the material in a liquid form so as to render the glove or fragment thereof, when formed, detectable by X-ray and metal detection apparatus.

40. The method according to claim 38, wherein the same or a further substance is added to the material in a liquid form and/or when formed to provide the glove with an antimicrobial characteristic.

Description

[0044] Specific embodiments of the invention are now described with reference to the accompanying drawings; wherein

[0045] FIG. 1 illustrates a glove formed in accordance with the invention;

[0046] FIG. 2 illustrates a cross section through the wall of the glove along line A-A;

[0047] FIG. 3 illustrates the method steps for forming a glove in accordance with one embodiment of the invention;

[0048] FIG. 4 illustrates a further embodiment of the invention which provides identification means for the gloves linked to one or more parameters of the glove; and

[0049] FIG. 5 illustrates a second embodiment of a key or table with respect to which gloves and the identification means thereof can be used in accordance with the invention.

[0050] Electro-magnetic and/or X-ray interrogation of products leaving a production line is undertaken as a matter of course in many industries. As additives incorporated into the gloves are more dense than the testing foodstuff, they are better able to absorb X-ray radiation and are easily identified by the detection system.

[0051] Such inspections enable foreign bodies present in foodstuff to be detected. In this way, contaminated products can be selectively discarded. Gloves worn by workers to protect the product from contamination are generally produced form a polymeric substance (e.g. a plastisol or elastic) and their presence in a product would not at present be detected other than by visual inspection.

[0052] The present invention therefore provides a glove for use by operatives on, for example, manufacturing production lines and allows the glove, or a fragment thereof which may become detached from the remainder of the glove, to be detected electro-magnetically and via X-ray apparatus in the event that the glove or a fragment of the same becomes removed from the workers hand and falls into or onto the products during the manufacturing process.

[0053] Referring to FIG. 3 the glove is produced from a plastic material such as a plastisol such as a natural latex, acrylonitrile-butadiene (nitrile) or polyvinylchloride (PVC). The liquid may also include various additives such as plasticisers, stabilisers, accelerators and fillers. The plastic material is initially held in a liquid form (2) and into which electro-magnetic and x-ray absorbent particles are added 4 and X-ray detectable material is added 6. Typically these materials are added so as to be substantially uniformly dispersed in the plastics material and, if required mixing means can be provided to ensure that this occurs and is maintained whilst them material is waiting to be used to form the gloves. The electro-magnetically and/or X-ray detectable materials are preferably mixed with the liquid plastisol to produce a relatively homogeneous mix and the quantity of materials added preferably represents between 3% and 6% by weight (w/v %) of the mix for solid powdered additives. Typically, the quantity is of the order of 5% 10% by weight in total.

[0054] When the materials are added in a powder form, the particle size of the majority of the powder is preferably below 200 microns and would usually be above 1 micron. More preferably the particle size of the majority of the powder is in the range 50 to 200 microns and most preferably it is in the range 50 to 100 microns.

[0055] Typically, the gloves are produced by a process in which a glove-shaped former is immersed for a relatively short period of time in the liquid material and then allowed to cool and harden and removed from the former so as to form the wall of the glove at step 10. An example of which is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 with the glove having relatively thin wall 14 which defines the outer surface 16 and inner surface 18 of the glove and the cavities 20 into which the user's fingers are placed.

[0056] When the glove is worn it is found that the presence of the electro-magnetically and/or X-ray detectable materials 22 within the glove material is to a sufficient density so as to activate detection equipment on the production line of the products so that if a glove or even a relatively small portion of the glove is present in manufactured products leaving a production line then the same is detected by the detection apparatus, production can be paused and steps taken to destroy contaminated products and retrieve the glove or glove portion.

[0057] With respect to FIGS. 4 and 5, there are provided a plurality of pairs of gloves 32 which are required to be worn by personnel who are employed to manufacture foodstuffs in a food manufacturing process and using apparatus as part of the process. Typically, the food manufacturing process commences with raw ingredients being mixed together in accordance with a formulation and then passed downstream via a conveying system for subsequent processing, cooking, baking or the like and then packaged to form the foodstuff retail package.

[0058] Typically, in all parts of that process, personnel are required to wear gloves in order to meet hygiene requirements and, in accordance with the preferred option, the gloves are provided to be metal and/or X-ray detectable so that if a glove, or a fragment is separated from the remainder of the glove, and enters the food manufacturing process, the presence of the glove or the fragment can be determined and hence appropriate action taken to stop the manufacturing process, remove the glove or fragment and any potentially contaminated food products.

[0059] The detection apparatus may be provided at various locations along the fox processing system and/or at the end thereof and, in accordance with the invention, in addition to being able to determine the presence of the glove or fragment, then the provision of the gloves with indication means in accordance with the present invention allows further forensic investigative work to be performed.

[0060] In the first embodiment, the gloves 32 are provided in three different colours; blue (B), yellow (Y) and green (G) and are linked to the three shifts of personnel which operate a food processing system in a 24 hour period, such that the first shift which operates between the hours of 06:00 and 14:00 wears blue colour gloves 32B, the second shift which operates between the hours of 14:00 and 22:0) wears yellow colour gloves 32Y and the shift which operates between the hours of 22:00 and 06:00, wears green coloured gloves 32G. The particular gloves and colour of the same which are used, can be left to the particular shift foreman to allocate or, if further security is found to be required, then only the gloves of the particular colour which is appropriate for that shift are made available to the personnel at the start of the particular shift so as to ensure that the personnel of that shift will only wear the appropriate coloured gloves.

[0061] Thus, with the key table 34 indicating the shifts 36 and particular glove colours 38 then if a glove 32, or fragment of a glove, is found in the food process apparatus or in the foodstuff then, in addition to being able to remove the fragment or glove, an investigation can also be undertaken to identify the colour of the glove or fragment which has been found, and thereby, with reference to the key table 34, identify the particular shift which wore that colour of glove and hence identify the particular shift time period at which the glove or fragment would have most likely entered the food manufacturing process or foodstuff. This also reduces the number of personnel who are required to be checked to those personnel of the particular shift. This therefore allows, in the first instance, investigative work to be more focused on a particular time and number of personnel and, furthermore, simplifies the preventative measures which may be necessary to prevent the accidental placement of the glove or fragment into the foodstuff or, if the same is deliberate, to take action to prevent that happening again. This invention also offers customers the option to colour coordinate gloves to particular areas of the works to denote allergens i.e. meat, nuts and fish.

[0062] With regard to FIG. 5, there is illustrated a further potential use of the key table and colour coding, which may be used independently of, or in conjunction with, the embodiment shown in FIG. 4.

[0063] In this case, the key table 40 allocates particular colours 42, in this case red, turquoise, pink and grey, to operators employed at different stations 1-4 of the food manufacturing process and hence, the different coloured gloves which are required to be worn by personnel are allocated to different stations of the food manufacturing process and once again, if a fragment or glove. 42 is found in the process, the particular colour of the same is identified, and the station location in the food manufacturing process at which that glove of that colour was used. As a result, it is possible to identify where the glove entered the food manufacturing process and appropriate action can then be taken with regard to the apparatus at that location and/or personnel operating apparatus at that particular location.

[0064] Typically, the particular colour of the glove is determined at the time of manufacture of the same and most typically, the glove will be of the same uniform colour. The range of colours may be provided to match the required differentiations of personnel, times of use and/or locations of use as required.

[0065] With regard to the determination of what makes a glove detectable to a an acceptable level, then there are many factors that affect detectability: size, orientation, sensitivity, phase set up and type of test matter and whether tested in wet or dry conditions.

[0066] However as an example of a test process which can be used to determine an acceptable level of detectability, test pieces which depict a contaminating item of a known size are passed through the detection apparatus so as to be able to compare the detection apparatus detection readings of the test piece with the detection readings from for example a portion of a glove in accordance with the invention and thereby ensure that the glove is detectable to an acceptable level.

[0067] As an example, a minimum passable detectable value of a glove in accordance with the invention are now provided along with those of the test pieces using the same detection apparatus.

[0068] Using a GK Metal Detector with the orientation of the glove in accordance with the invention being with its length laid across the movement belt of the apparatus so that the length is perpendicular to the direction of movement of the belt through the apparatus.

[0069] In Dry Mode (140 Sensitivity/90 phase):

[0070] Minimum detection value which is acceptable—220-250 signal

[0071] Glove detection signal 270-510

Detection Signal Test Pieces Equivalence:

[0072] Test piece 1: 0.8 mm chrome item—561,

[0073] Test piece 2 0.8 mm brass item—650,

[0074] Test piece 3 1.2 mm Stainless steel item—505.

[0075] In Dry Mode (140 Sensitivity/0.00 phase)

[0076] Glove A detection signal 650

[0077] Glove B detection signal 1886

[0078] Thus it will be appreciated that the acceptable level of detectability of the glove with regard to the capability of the same to be detected by metal detection apparatus and/or X-ray detection apparatus can be conveniently checked by using the said detection apparatus and passing test piece items and the glove through the apparatus then comparing the level of detectability signals of the glove with the test piece items so as to ensure that the glove achieves includes sufficient detectable material to achieve the acceptable detection level for the purpose of use.