Development, modeling, testing and evaluation of vibration attenuating gloves
Abstract
Gloves that attenuate vibration above approximately 25 Hz and that exceed the characteristics of standard viscous-elastic, neoprene based gloves have been developed using an air bladder system in the palm and fingers of a gLove Testing was performed on a variety of viscous-elastic gloves currently marketed to obtain the ratio of energy leaving the handle of a vibrating device and the energy entering the hand. Several, simple rectangular air bladders of varying thickness were developed and tested for their vibration attenuating characteristics. A four degree-of-freedom, lumped-parameter model of the vibration response of the human hand and bladder was developed using measured hand and bladder parameters. This model, along with subjective criteria, was used to design and fabricate two prototype bladder-glove units. These units were tested and found to exceed adopted standard requirements and the characteristics of standard viscous-elastic gloves. The prototypes in this study will be further developed, adapted and marketed for practical applications.