Medical, surgical and other gloves, made of a rubber latex, are typically manufactured so that these rubber articles tightly conform to the human hand. Because of this tight fit, such gloves are typically lubricated on the skin-contacting inner surface in order to facilitate donning of the articles. The standard lubricant utilized for this purpose is dusting powder, e.g., cross-linked corn starch. However, it is also desirable to have a glove that does not rely on an internal surface lubricant for donnability. Therefore, attempts have been made to eliminate the internal surface lubricants while at the same time providing an inner glove surface that will aid in the donning of the glove.
Various methods have been proposed to provide slip finishes on rubber articles of this type. For example, the surface of a rubber glove can be halogenated with bromine or chlorine to make it slippery. This treatment, however, has certain disadvantages well-known in the art and typically does not produce a glove that is easier to don that a glove internally coated with dusting powder. One prior art glove provides a slip finish comprising a rubber latex blended with a resin latex. This approach, while lowering the coefficient of friction of the rubber glove, does not significantly improve donnability. Yet another prior art glove is made with granular material deposited on the inner, skin-contacting surface of a single-layer vinyl or silicone glove in order to reduce the frictional contact between the glove layer and the skin of the wearer and, thus, to aid in the donning of the glove. Use of this glove, however, results in the granular material being abraded from the inner glove surface thus generating loose particulate matter. It is therefore desirable to have a glove with improved donnability that does not generate loose particulate matter. It is further desirable to have damp-hand donnable glove having domain formations on the glove surface that are produced during the manufacturing process.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds