After gloves go through the production process—formers dipped in solution, dried in high heat, rinsed in a chlorinated solution (in the case of latex), dried again—their interior needs to be finished.
This process makes it easier to pull on and remove gloves. Without interior finishing, gloves can stick to skin and cause a struggle to get them on or off.
What’s so interesting about how disposable gloves are made? Quite a lot, it seems.
We frequently get questions about what’s involved in making gloves. We’ve also published a few blog posts over the years describing the manufacturing process, and they’re always among our most popular.
Latex allergies get a lot of attention, especially in the disposable glove business. An important part of finding “the right glove for the job” is determining whether the person wearing said glove is allergic to natural rubber latex proteins, and recommending substitutes if necessary.
In truth, such allergies are rare. They affect approximately 1 percent of the general population and 8 to 12 percent of healthcare workers. (Latex allergies become more prevalent in people who are exposed to the material regularly, and most medical-grade gloves are made from latex.)
“Workplace safety” may be a somewhat vague and generalized term, but it nevertheless carries huge significance for businesses of all sizes.
The trend toward workplace safety is clear over the last 30 to 40 years. In 1980, probably 1% of auto mechanics used disposable gloves. In 2022, that figure is much higher—and because it’s still relatively small in the context of the overall industry, there is lots of room to grow.
Fentanyl is a national health menace. The damage it causes is far-reaching and heartbreaking, and first responders are well aware of the dangers it poses in even casual contact.
Up to 100 times stronger than morphine, this synthetic opioid was developed for managing extreme pain in cancer patients. It has also been subverted as a highly addictive “recreational” drug, added to heroin or mixed into other drugs that pose potentially fatal risks to unknowing victims.
While orange and green are popular colors for nitrile disposable gloves—especially when they feature Raised Diamond Texture—AMMEX has over the last decade-plus sold more black than any other color.
Why? Because there is something universally appealing about black gloves. From an aesthetic point of view, they convey a sense of authority, that the wearer means business. On a practical level, they conceal grease, grime, and dirt to maintain a professional appearance. And if we’re talking about fashion sense, well, nothing says cool like basic black.
How is your glove business holding up? Are you concerned about what’s ahead for the rest of the year?
For the first three quarters of 2021, the U.S. economy expanded at a torrid pace, as industries that were shut down during the pandemic—especially restaurants, hospitality, and travel—reopened. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development projected that the U.S. economy will experience 6% overall growth in 2021, putting it substantially ahead of where it was in late 2020.
AMMEX has made a number of improvements to the online portal to enable our distributors with a set of new sales tools. We listened to you and made changes based on your input. We also incorporated industry best practices for UX/UI and the online behavior of our customers.
One of the helpful new features is Your Product Toolkit, a subsection (along with Manage Your Business) of the AMMEX Partner Business Center. It can help you gain product expertise with information tools, media assets, guides, and much more.
Healthcare professionals are particular about their equipment—and thankfully so. Any patient wants a high degree of diligence paid to the quality of products used to ensure their well-being.
That same level of attention is important when it comes to disposable gloves. They protect the caregiver as well as the recipient of that care from bloodborne pathogens and environmental contaminants.
On June 1, AMMEX ended the practice of glove allocations. We made our entire inventory equally available to all distributor partners on a first-come, first-served basis.
Allocations had grown out of supply shortages created by the coronavirus, which wreaked havoc on the disposable glove market for more than a year.
