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Answers to common questions on choosing, sizing and looking after general handling and cutting gloves, and where they stop being suitable.
Not unless the glove is also marked and sold as a welding glove. Ordinary handling, driver and coated gloves are tested for mechanical risks and, at most, general heat. Welding gloves are covered by their own standard, which is a combination of mechanical and heat testing, and each glove must be marked as type A or type B depending on whether it favours heat protection or mobility.Sparks, spatter and radiant heat can melt or burn coated and fabric gloves, and the coating can stick to skin. Use a proper welding glove for the process you are doing, and keep handling gloves for jobs such as moving and sorting parts.
Generally not. Gloves can be caught by rotating parts and drag the hand in. The Health and Safety Executive for Northern Ireland has stated that wearing gloves near the rotating parts of machinery, such as manual metalworking lathes, is never acceptable because it increases the risk of entanglement. It has investigated accidents where a worker's hand was caught while wearing gloves or using abrasive cloth.Do not wear gloves when working close to drills, lathes or other spinning tools or workpieces. If a task seems to need hand protection, look at changing the method or at guarding first, and ask your safety adviser.
Cut resistance is rated on a lettered scale, A to F, with a higher letter meaning the material needs more force to cut under test conditions. It is a measure of the fabric in a laboratory test, not a guarantee against every sharp edge.No glove gives complete protection. A glove can fail against a heavy, pointed or powered tool, and coatings can change the cut performance of the fibre underneath. Choose the level by the edges you actually handle, such as sheet metal edges or cut burrs, make sure it fits well, and keep sharp work away from your hands whenever you can.
A thermal rating on a handling glove is made up of several separate results, covering things such as flame spread, contact heat, convective heat, radiant heat and small molten metal splashes, each given a level from 1 to 4. An X means that test was not carried out or no claim is made.Contact heat is tested at a stated temperature for a short time, so it describes brief handling, not holding a hot part for a long period. These ratings do not make a handling glove a welding glove. Look at which individual results are relevant to your job and follow the maker's guidance.