Hydrostatic Penetration Testing of Protective Glove Materials Using Water and Synthetic Blood to Evaluate Hole Size and Screen Mesh Using an Automated Pressure Delivery System.

There are several international standards that address the resistance of chemical protective clothing materials to the penetration by liquids. The hydrostatic pressure has been documented to discriminate between protective clothing material performance and correlates with visual penetration results that are obtained with human factors validation. The same methodology, based on hydrostatic pressure equipment, is referenced also in other standards addressing penetration resistance of protective clothing and glove materials against synthetic blood or blood-borne pathogens. In this study, we present an automated hydrostatic penetration testing that integrates testing procedures from several standards to evaluate the resistance of materials to penetration by liquids under pressure. The automated control system allows the user to select a specific test method and automatically sets a stepped pressurization protocol to test the material. A pass or a fail result is produced at a certain time and pressure. As an example of application, the penetration of synthetic blood was assessed through gloves made from different materials with ISO 16603, method B, one of the five possible penetration methods and protocols available in the test equipment. The results indicate that the developed system facilitates the application of test methods used to evaluate the barrier effectiveness against liquids of materials used for protective clothing and gloves and show up that the characteristics of the retention grid used have a decisive influence on the test results. In some of the tested glove materials, holes were intentionally performed with needles with different gauges. The capacity of pinhole detection in gloves was evaluated according to the test method selected and compared with results obtained with the classic water leak test method for gloves described in EN ISO 374-2.