CHARACTERIZATION OF TENSILE STRENGTH OF GLOVEBOX GLOVES

A task was undertaken to compare various properties of different glovebox gloves, having various compositions, for use in gloveboxes at the Savannah River Site (SRS). One aspect of this project was to determine the tensile strength (TS) of the gloves. Longitudinal tensile samples were cut from 15 different gloves and tensile tested. The stress, load, and elongation at failure were determined. All of the gloves that are approved for glovebox use and listed in the glovebox procurement specification met the tensile and elongation requirements. The Viton{reg_sign} compound gloves are not listed in the specification, but exhibited lower tensile strengths than permissible based on the Butyl rubber requirements. Piercan Polyurethane gloves were the thinnest samples and exhibited the highest tensile strength of the materials tested.