Develop and Manufacture an Ergonomically Sound Glovebox Glove Report

Technical Report · Wed Oct 18 04:00:00 EDT 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1402566· OSTI ID:1402566

Lawton, Cindy M. ^[1]

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1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Ergonomic injury and radiation exposure are two safety concerns for the Plutonium Facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL). This facility employs the largest number of gloveboxes (GB) at LANL with approximately 6000 gloves installed. The current GB glove design dates back to the 1960’s and is not based on true hand anatomy, revealing several issues: short fingers, inappropriate length from the wrist to finger webbing, nonexistent joint angles and incorrect thumb placement. These design flaws are directly related to elbow (lateral epicondylitis) and thumb (DeQuervain’s tenosynovitis) injuries. The current design also contributes to increased wear on the glove, causing unplanned glove openings (failures) which places workers at risk of exposure. An improved glovebox glove design has three significant benefits: 1) it will reduce the risk of injury, 2) it will improve comfort and productivity, and 3) it will reduce the risk of a glovebox failures. The combination of these three benefits has estimated savings of several million dollars. The new glove design incorporated the varied physical attributes of workers ranging from the 5^th percentile female to the 95th percentile male. Anthropometric hand dimensions along with current GB worker dimensions were used to develop the most comprehensive design specifications for the new glove. Collaboration with orthopedic hand surgeons also provided major contributtions to the design. The new glovebox glove was developed and manufactured incorporating over forty dimensions producing the most comprehensive ergonomically sound design. The new design received a LANL patent (patent attorney docket No: LANS 36USD1 “Protective Glove”, one of 20 highest patents awarded by the Richard P. Feynman Center for Innovation. The glove dimensions were inputed into a solid works model which was used to produce molds. The molds were then shipped to a glove manufacturer for production of the new glovebox gloves. The new glovebox gloves were tested against the presently used glovebox gloves for design validity. The testing included a subjective survey and four dexterity tests. The prototype was statistically significant in 3 dexterity tests and favorable on 8 out of 10 survey questions. The more ergonomically sound glovebox glove will improve worker comfort, mitigate glovebox worker injuries, and reduce glove breaches.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC52-06NA25396
• OSTI ID: 1402566
• Report Number(s): LA-UR--17-29530
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
Ergonomic Evaluations
Analysis and Assessment
ergonomics
glovebox glove