How to manufacture latex surgical gloves?

Latex surgical gloves are manufactured from latex, a natural product that is derived from rubber trees. It is a milky white liquid that comes out from the shaved end of a rubber tree bark. In a rubber plantation unit, the farmers tap the trees and facilitate extraction of the liquid at night. As latex is a naturally occurring product, it needs to be collected and stabilized quickly in order to prevent it from being ruined. Most of the latex collectors operate during the early morning hours, i.e. between 6:00 am and 8:00 am. After collecting the latex that has accumulated into the tapping cups, they load the liquid into large containers. The raw, liquid latex has to be quickly treated with chemicals in order to prevent it from hardening into a gum.


The large containers carrying the liquid latex then arrives at the collection centers. It is here that processing of the fresh latex takes place. Water, proteins and various types of impurities are then removed from the latex by a process known as centrifuging. The collection centers then add ammonia to the latex which acts as a preservative, thus protecting it from being ruined.

The quality of latex used for preparing gloves directly impacts the quality of the surgical gloves themselves. Hence the latex is exposed to pre-treatment and additional centrifuging which helps in the removal of any traces of proteins or impurities that might be present. After being moved to the quality control, it is then send in for storage. Some manufacturers are nowadays adding proteolytic enzymes before centrifugation in order to break down the proteins and reduce the total quality of proteins present in the end products.

The processes of pre-centrifugation and centrifugation are followed by compounding which involves adding of chemicals like accelerators and antioxidants. Accelerators help in controlling the vulcanization process and the antioxidants prevent deterioration of rubber molecules in final products by moisture, heat and ozone. A coagulant is used to coat the hand-shaped formers, which are then dipped into latex to cover them with a very thin layer of latex. The liquid latex layer is converted into a wet-gel by the coagulant. The coagulation process is completed by passing the whole thing through a heated oven.

The latex-coated formers are exposed to pre-vulcanization leaching to wash off excess coagulants or proteins. Then the formers are vulcanized to add strength and elasticity to them. After the vulcanized gloves are exposed to post-vulcanization leaching, they are lubricated by using hydrolyzed corn starch. Chlorination can also be performed in some occasions.        

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