Polyurethane or nitrile gloves?

If you buy gloves for a manufacturing floor or an install crew, polyurethane and nitrile look like two versions of the same coated glove. They grip differently and wear differently, and a floor that buys one of them for every job ends up with the wrong glove on some of those jobs.

Polyurethane is the better glove for dry, precise work. Foam nitrile is the better glove for anything wet or oily. If your floor does both kinds of work, it may need both.

What polyurethane does well

A polyurethane coating is thin. It gives the closest thing to bare-hand feel you get in a work glove, so it's the one for small parts, assembly, wiring and anything where your people need to feel what they're holding.

It also breathes well, so hands sweat less over a full shift in a warm building.

Where it falls short is wet and oily work. Put a polyurethane glove on an oily part and the grip drops off. The thin coating also resists abrasion less than nitrile does, so on rough stock it wears through sooner.

What foam nitrile does well

Foam nitrile works like a sponge. The coating soaks up oil and pulls it away from the gripping surface, which is why it holds on wet and oily parts where polyurethane slips.

It's also tougher. Foam nitrile resists abrasion and punctures better than a thin polyurethane coat, so it lasts longer on metal stock, castings and anything with a rough edge.

Your people give up some feel for that, because the coating is thicker. Standard foam nitrile also doesn't breathe as well as polyurethane.

Nitrile is three different coatings

• Foam nitrile. The sponge-like coating above. The one to order for oily and wet work.

• Microfoam nitrile. A thinner foam. It breathes better and gives more feel than standard foam, and it still handles oil.

• Flat nitrile. Smooth, with no air worked into it. It repels liquid and grips well when things are dry, and it's poor on anything wet.

A quote that just says nitrile coated could be any of the three. Foam nitrile is the one that grips best on an oily job, so ask which one the quote means.

The shell under the coating

Under every coated glove is a knit shell. Gauge is how fine that knit is, and a lower number is a heavier knit.

A 13-gauge shell is thicker and more durable, and it's the common choice for general handling. A 15-gauge shell is thinner and gives more feel for small parts. At 18-gauge and up, the shell is very thin, with the most dexterity and the least durability.

So a polyurethane glove on a 13-gauge shell and a polyurethane glove on an 18-gauge shell are different gloves, even with the same coating.

The shell is also where cut protection comes from. A polyurethane or nitrile coating doesn't make a glove cut resistant. Cut resistance comes from the fiber knitted into the shell, such as high-performance polyethylene, and it's rated separately on the US cut scale, ANSI/ISEA 105, from A1 for light hazards up to A9. If your people handle sheet metal edges or glass, order the cut level. A grip coating won't give it to you.

What neither glove is for

A palm-coated knit glove is a grip glove, not a chemical glove. The back of the hand is bare knit, with no coating to keep liquid out.

Chemical gloves are chosen chemical by chemical, based on how long a given chemical takes to get through the glove material in testing. No single glove material resists everything. The safety data sheet for a chemical lists the protective equipment to use, in its section on exposure controls and personal protection. If a job involves solvents, concentrated cleaners or anything corrosive, that job needs a chemical glove picked for that chemical, not a better grip coating.

One glove or two

One glove for the whole floor is one part number to stock and reorder, and your people can't grab the wrong box. The cost is that some jobs get a glove that doesn't suit them.

If the work is all dry assembly, polyurethane covers it. If it's all oily parts, foam nitrile does.

If it's a mix and you want one glove, microfoam nitrile comes closest. It handles oil and gives more feel than standard foam, though it won't feel as close to bare-handed as polyurethane.

If the oily work is heavy, split it. Polyurethane for the dry jobs and foam nitrile for the oily ones is two part numbers, and each job gets the glove it needs.

What to put on the order

The coating, and which nitrile. Polyurethane, foam nitrile, microfoam or flat. "Nitrile coated" leaves the choice to whoever fills the order.

The gauge. It changes how the glove feels and how long it lasts, independent of the coating.

The cut level, if the job has edges. Name the ANSI level rather than assuming a coated glove covers it.

A size run. One size for the whole floor means some gloves don't fit, and a glove that doesn't fit gets taken off.

Pairs used, not price per pair. A cheaper glove costs more if a job wears through more of them. Count how many pairs a job goes through in a month before you compare prices.

We supply manufacturers and installers across a range of industries. Whatever they make, their people are drilling, assembling and cleaning, and all of that wears through gloves. We supply coated work gloves along with the fasteners and hardware in our catalog, and we'll help you source the rest of the safety gear your floor goes through, from safety glasses to reflective vests and harnesses. If you're not sure which coating a job needs, tell us what gets handled and whether it's oily, and we'll help you decide.