Cut, abrasion and/or puncture resistant knitted gloves

Abstract

An improved protective knitted glove assembly includes a knitted glove and two or more non-coplanar arrays of printed guard plates. The guard plates are small, regularly-spaced, generally uniform thickness, non-overlapping, hard polymer material members arranged in a predetermined pattern having an area parallel to a surface of the glove with major and minor dimensions. The major dimension to minor dimension aspect ratio of the guard plates is between about 3 and 1. The overall abrasion resistance of the glove assembly is substantially greater than an abrasion resistance of the knitted glove without the guard plates.

1 . A protective knitted glove assembly; comprising:
 a knitted glove; and   two or more non-coplanar arrays of small, regularly-spaced, generally uniform thickness, non-overlapping, hard printed polymer material guard plates arranged in a predetermined pattern and having an area parallel to a surface of the glove with major and minor dimensions, wherein the major dimension to minor dimension aspect ratio is between about 3 and 1 and the overall abrasion resistance of the glove assembly is substantially greater than an abrasion resistance of the knitted glove without the guard plates.   
   
   
       2 . The protective knitted glove assembly of  claim 1  wherein the glove assembly includes:
 a first array of guard plates on at least portions of a palm side of the glove; and   a second array of guard plates on at least portions of sides of one or more fingers of the glove.   
   
   
       3 . The protective knitted glove assembly of  claim 2  wherein the second array of guard plates is on at least a portion of the sides of a thumb and forefinger of the glove. 
   
   
       4 . The protective knitted glove assembly of  claim 3  and further including a third array of guard plates on at least a portion of a crotch between the thumb and forefinger of the glove. 
   
   
       5 . The protective knitted glove assembly of  claim 4  and further including a fourth array of guard plates on at least a portion of a back of the glove. 
   
   
       6 . The protective knitted glove assembly of  claim 5  wherein the guard plates are arranged in a predetermined pattern free from extended-length straight gap sections, the polymer material of the guard plates partially penetrates into the knitted glove across the area of the guard plates to provide a mechanical bond between the guard plates and the glove, widths of the gaps between adjacent guard plates are substantially less than the lengths of the minor dimensions, and a thickness of the guard plates is substantially less than the lengths of the minor dimensions. 
   
   
       7 . The protective knitted glove assembly of  claim 1  wherein the guard plates are arranged in a predetermined pattern free from extended-length straight gap sections, the polymer material of the guard plates partially penetrates into the knitted glove across the area of the guard plates to provide a mechanical bond between the guard plates and the glove, widths of the gaps between adjacent guard plates are substantially less than the lengths of the minor dimensions, and a thickness of the guard plates is substantially less than the lengths of the minor dimensions. 
   
   
       8 . The protective knitted glove assembly of  claim 1  wherein widths of the gaps between guard plates are less than about 50 mils. 
   
   
       9 . The protective knitted glove assembly of  claim 8  wherein the major dimensions of the guard plates is less than about 200 mils. 
   
   
       10 . The protective knitted glove assembly of  claim 1  and further including elastomeric dots on at least a portion of the arrays of guard plates. 
   
   
       11 . The protective knitted glove assembly of  claim 1  and further including a continuous layer of elastomeric material on at least a portion of the arrays of guard plates. 
   
   
       12 . The protective knitted glove assembly of  claim 1  wherein at least two of the non-coplanar arrays of guard plates are non-parallel arrays. 
   
   
       12 . A method for making a protective knitted glove assembly, including:
 placing a first portion of a knitted glove on a generally planar surface of a former;   screen printing onto the first portion of the knitted glove a first array of small, regularly-spaced, generally uniform thickness, non-overlapping, polymer material guard plates arranged in a predetermined pattern;   placing a second portion of the knitted glove that is non-coplanar with the first portion on a generally planar surface of a former;   screen printing onto the second portion of the knitted glove a second array of small, regularly-spaced, generally uniform thickness, non-overlapping, polymer material guard plates arranged in a predetermined pattern, wherein the second array of guard plates is non-coplanar with the first array of guard plates; and   curing the polymer material to harden the guard plates.   
   
   
       13 . The method of  claim 12  wherein:
 placing a first portion of a knitted glove on a former includes placing at least a portion of a palm side of the glove on a former;   screen printing onto a first portion of the knitted glove includes screen printing the first array of guard plates onto at least a portion of a palm side of the knitted glove on the former;   placing a second portion of the knitted glove on a former includes placing at least a portion of a side of one or more fingers on a former; and   screen printing onto a second portion of the knitted glove includes screen printing the second array of guard plates onto at least a portion of a side of a finger of the glove on the former.   
   
   
       14 . The method of  claim 13  wherein:
 placing at least a portion of a side of one or more fingers on a former includes placing a former between the thumb and forefinger with at least a portion of the sides of the thumb and forefinger on a planar surface of the former; and   screen printing the second array of guard plates includes screen printing guard plates onto at least a portion of the sides of the thumb and forefinger.   
   
   
       15 . The method of  claim 14  wherein screen printing the second array of guard plates includes screen printing guard plates onto at least a portion of a crotch between the thumb and forefinger. 
   
   
       16 . The method of  claim 15  and further including:
 placing at least a portion of a back of the glove on a former; and   screen printing an array of small, regularly-spaced, generally uniform thickness, non-overlapping, polymer material guard plates arranged in a predetermined pattern on at least a portion of the back of the glove.   
   
   
       17 . The method of  claim 12  wherein curing the polymer material includes:
 partially curing the polymer material of the first array of guard plates before screen printing the second array of guard plates; and   fully curing the polymer material of the first and second arrays after screen printing the second array of guard plates.   
   
   
       18 . The method of  claim 12  and further including placing at a least portion of the glove having the guard plates on a three dimensional former before finally curing the guard plates. 
   
   
       19 . The method of  claim 12  and further including applying elastomeric material over at least a portion of the arrays of guard plates.