Getting The Right Color For Disposable Gloves
Disposable gloves are used in healthcare, food and cleanroom industry for protection and prevention. Generally made from nitrile, vinyl or natural rubber. Traditionally, color of disposable glove are only available in white or blue. Today, with the growing importance of color coding in personal protective equipment, disposable gloves are available in many colors. And getting the right color for disposable gloves makes sense.
Color of gloves is important as it provides visual cues, in food industry, color coded gloves are used to prevent cross-contamination of raw and cooked foods during food handling. In healthcare, color coded gloves are often preferred as they help differentiate between nitrile and latex gloves.
Quality is often associated with consistency and implementing color quality control in gloves manufacturing process helps achieve the right color consistently. Evaluating glove color visually can be challenging as the human eyes see and describe color differently. And lighting conditions, surrounding color and sample size affect our perception of color.
In color measurement, the commonly used color space is the CIE L*a*b*. This color space system uses color instruments to express color numerically and is used by manufacturers to control color. With the help of color measuring instruments, accurate and consistent color assessment is possible. Most disposable gloves are not fully opaque due to its materials or thickness. To measure accurately, fold the gloves or stack a few gloves to ensure opacity before measuring.
Download a copy of the white paper and understand how to get the right color for disposable gloves.