Effects of firefighting gloves styles on manual performance

Abstract

This study analyzes structural characteristics of firefighting gloves from the perspective of style design, to investigate the impact of the fit of four types of selected firefighting gloves on firefighters’ manual operation efficiency. Seventeen male college students participated in the ergonomic trial to compare manual work done with bare hands and while wearing gloves. The results showed that the participants’ hand dexterity decreased after wearing firefighting gloves, but there were significant differences between different styles of gloves. As glove thickness increased, the time to complete manual work increased continuously. But the change in the participant’s hand and finger length did not affect the tactile perception of gloves. The construction of fingers had an inverse significant effect on dexterity and grip performance. To enhance manual performance, it is recommended that hand length, finger length and finger girth be considered when designing firefighting gloves based on the motion characteristics of firefighting operations.

Keywords:

• firefighting gloves
• hand dimensions
• fit
• manual performance
• hand function evaluation

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support from Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities and Shanghai Summit Discipline in Design.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The authors received financial support from Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [grant number 2232020G-08] and Shanghai Summit Discipline in Design [grant number DD18005].