The transmission of vibration from tools, through work gloves and into the hands, is affected by many factors such as glove material properties, tool vibration conditions, temperature, and grip force. This study investigated how glove material properties affect tool vibration transmission into the index finger. Three samples of material (two taken from differently designed anti-vibration gloves and another for comparison that was designed for mounting vibration-sensitive equipment) were assessed using stepped sinusoidal vertical vibration excitations covering a range of a one-third octave band (from 20 to 400 Hz). Twelve human subjects were used for the testing. For all samples and subjects, measurements were obtained for: (I) dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) of the samples; (II) the transmissibility of vibration to the index finger at a grip force of 30 N, across the range of frequencies; and (III) transmissibility of vibration to the index finger at a frequency of 125 Hz for finger grip forces of 15, 30, and 45 N. No significant vibration attenuation was provided at frequencies below 150 Hz. The two materials taken from the gloves that passed the ISO 10819:1996 test showed resonance at frequencies of 150 and 160 Hz a, but the material that did not pass the ISO test showed resonance at 250 Hz. The attenuation for all three materials was occurred at 400 Hz. There was no significant change of transmissibility across the range of finger grip forces for any of the material samples. The level of transmissibility was found to vary between samples and subjects
