Shear Management Gloves

Abstract

A glove provides high palm shear force and reduced finger shear force when pulling elongated articles such as a rope, a rod, and the like. A high COF material is applied to palm and a low COF material is applied to inner finger surfaces. The fingers are still used to grasp the elongated article, but the shear pulling force on the fingers is reduced and the shear pulling force on the palm is increased. In one embodiment, the underlying glove material on the palm and finger grasping surfaces is a synthetic leather material, the high COF material on the palm is a silicone rubber material deposited on the synthetic leather material and the low COF material on the inner finger surfaces is a ballistic material sewn onto the synthetic leather material, for example, an aramid fiber material sold under the trademark Kevlar®.

I claim: 
     
         1 . A shear management glove comprising:
 a glove body comprising:
 a finger portion including glove fingers; 
 a palm portion; 
 a wrist portion; and 
 grasping surfaces facing articles grasped by the glove body; 
   a low Coefficient Of Friction (COF) material attached to the grasping surfaces of the finger portion, the low COF material configured to cover nearly all of the grasping surfaces of the finger portion making contact with an elongated article when the glove is worn while grasping the elongated article, the low COF material reducing shear forces communicated between the glove finger portion and the elongated article; and   a high COF material attached to a glove palm of the glove, the high friction material having a higher COF than the low COF material.   
     
     
         2 . The shear management glove of  claim 1 , wherein the low friction material reaches down nearly to bases of the glove fingers. 
     
     
         3 . The shear management glove of  claim 2 , wherein:
 the glove is an open finger glove; and   the low COF material reaches up proximal to but not beyond ends of the glove fingers.   
     
     
         4 . The shear management glove of  claim 3 , wherein the low COF material reaches down proximal to the bases of the glove fingers. 
     
     
         5 . The shear management glove of  claim 4 , wherein the low COF material reaches nearly the widths of the glove fingers on palm facing surfaces of each of the four fingers. 
     
     
         6 . The shear management glove of  claim 5 , wherein the low COF material is a ballistic material. 
     
     
         7 . The shear management glove of  claim 6 , wherein the four fingers are open ended fingers. 
     
     
         8 . The shear management glove of  claim 9 , wherein the high COF material reaches up generally to within ¼ to ½ inches from the bases of the fingers and no farther. 
     
     
         9 . The shear management glove of  claim 8 , wherein:
 the wrist portion is defined to be a portion of the glove below a glove thumb base; and   the high COF material reaches down generally within ¼ to ½ inches of the wrist portion and no closer.   
     
     
         10 . The shear management glove of  claim 9 , wherein the high COF material reaches to between ¼ and ½ inches from an end of the glove thumb. 
     
     
         11 . The shear management glove of  claim 10 , wherein the high COF material reaches across the glove palm proximal to a side opposite to the glove thumb. 
     
     
         12 . The shear management glove of  claim 1 , wherein the high COF material is a silicone material. 
     
     
         13 . The shear management glove of  claim 1 , wherein the high COF material is a silicone rubber material. 
     
     
         14 . The shear management glove of  claim 13 , wherein the glove palm is made from a synthetic leather material and the silicone rubber material is deposited on the synthetic leather material. 
     
     
         15 . The shear management glove of  claim 1 , wherein the high COF material on the palm has a first coefficient of friction COF 1  between three and five times greater than a second coefficient of friction COF 2  of the low COF material on the fingers. 
     
     
         16 . The shear management glove of  claim 1 , wherein the low COF material is an aramid fiber material and the high COF material is a silicone material. 
     
     
         17 . The shear management glove of  claim 1 , wherein the low COF material is an aramid fiber material and the high COF material is a silicone rubber material. 
     
     
         18 . The shear management glove of  claim 1 , wherein the low COF material is a ballistic material and the high COF material is a polyurethane silicone blend. 
     
     
         19 . A shear management glove comprising:
 a glove body having inner surfaces facing articles grasped by the glove body;   glove fingers extending from the glove body;   low Coefficient Of Friction (COF) aramid fiber material sewn to inner palm facing surfaces of the glove fingers, the low COF material configured to cover nearly all of a surface of the glove fingers making contact with an elongated article when the glove is worn while grasping the elongated article and reducing shear forces between the glove fingers and the elongated article; and   high COF silicone rubber material deposited to a glove palm of the glove, the high COF material configured to cover nearly all the glove palm making contact with the elongated article when the glove is worn while grasping the elongated article and increasing shear forces between the glove palm and the elongated article, the high COF material has a coefficient of friction COF 1  of at least three times the coefficient of friction COF 2  of the low COF material.   
     
     
         20 . A shear management glove comprising:
 a glove body;   a finger portion of the glove body reaching up from a base of finger slots between glove fingers;   a wrist portion of the glove body reaching down from a base of the glove thumb;   a palm region of the glove between the finger portion and the wrist portion;   open finger ends of the glove fingers;   an open thumb end;   a palm and finger grasping panel of a glove body made from synthetic leather;   low COF aramid fiber material sewn to inner palm facing surfaces of the finger portion of the palm and finger grasping panel and reaching:
 up proximal to ends of the glove fingers; 
 down proximal to bases of the glove fingers; and 
 the widths of the glove fingers; and 
   high friction silicone rubber material deposited on the palm portion of the palm and finger grasping panel, the high friction silicone rubber material having a COF 1  between three and five times a COF 2  of the low friction material, the high friction silicone material reaching:
 up to between ¼ to ½ inch from the bases of the finger portion; 
 down to between ¼ to ½ inch from the wrist portion; 
 proximal to the open thumb end of the glove thumb; and 
 across the glove palm proximal to a side opposite to the glove thumb.