Hand Former for Rubber Glove Industry

Thailand is the world’s largest exporter of rubber. Only the rubber gloves made from natural latex worth 33,441 million baht in overall export value. (according to ministry of economic affairs) due to the increase of rubber tree plantation in eastern and north east region, leading to high prize in rubber products.

Many of you might never know before that the former of medical glove, household glove, and ballon made out of what material.

The truth is that those gloves, including condoms, or even swimming cap, are made out of the formers that are produced from ceramic and glass. Why so? The reason is that

• 1. Ceramic (Porcelain) and glass are resistant to acid and base in manufacturing process.
• 2. Ceramic can endure chemical and thermal shock (in case of clay preparation before the thermal shock.)
• 3. Ceramic lasts long enough to save the production cost.
• 4. Ceramic can be decorated in elaborate details.
• 5. Ceramic that is used to produce rubber glove can be either coated or non-coated.
• 6. Ceramic is more detailed than glass, but glass is much neater, therefore, it is more suitable in condom production.

With the consideration above, the porcelain former or mold is the most appropriate one to use in rubber glove industry.

Hand former production is various in types. It can be decided according to its function.

• 1. Medical glove formers for producing examination glove, surgical glove, and glove using in livestock. Each one has their own specific limitation in its compliance with F.D.A.
  
• 2. Household glove formers is the former for producing general glove such as ones for household use.
  
• 3. Industrial glove formers such as the one used in stainless industry, plastic industry, and textile industry.

In hand former production, besides being prudent and meticulous in selecting material, the research in developing both material and technique is necessary in keeping pace with global trend too. For example, it used to be acceptable to have certain amount of contaminated protein present in glove, but later it is not because there’re a lot of people who are allergic to the protein. So, there are more additional regulations that glove industry needs to comply with. It is necessary that each manufacturing process be consistently controlled to ensure production standard. For example, the hand former cannot have any pin hold or defects present at all. Although the overall of the regulation seems to be threatening, it’s good for customers in a way that there’s less risk.

Before the hand formers can be used in industry, they need to go through conveyor belt production. The sizes and the numbers of the former will vary depending on the space between each machine. The number of hand former used in each machine is approximately 1,500-2,500.

In designing the hand former, the manufacturer don’t really have much work to do due to the fact that there are rubber glove manufacturers’ demand as an indicator of what to produce. The products just need to follow the standard production. Regarding technology, the hand former production does not require many advanced technologies, it is more of conventional ceramics that is about adopting techniques to meet the customers’ demand.

One thing that is important and quite hard is the decoration. This process requires computer and software in designing the graphic in a way that the drawing line can be specified.

Standard control is necessary for hand former production. If there are a lot of differences present, for example, the height, the weight, and etc., the products will not be acceptable in the market.

There are a lot of hand former manufacturer in different countries such as Germany, England, Canada, USA, South Korea, Taiwan, China, Malaysia, and Australia. The products are in high quality and also high prize.

Research and development in quality of production is necessary because it will directly affect the quality of products produced from the hand former. The ceramic has played an important role to people’s way of life since in the past until now.

Referred from article of Asst. Prof. Venich Suwanmoli