The wearing of gloves by operatives in manufacturing industries, such as pharmaceutical, food and tobacco industries, is important to protect products from contamination and to preserve the required high standards of hygiene and cleanliness. A consequence of this is that a glove or a relatively small piece of a glove caused, for example, by the glove snagging or being torn, may become detached from an operative's glove and be mixed with products being manufactured.

To meet this problem, it is accepted practice that operatives'gloves should be coloured blue and it is now a requirement in many countries that this procedure be followed so that gloves can be detected visually. Visual detection is not foolproof, particularly where small glove pieces are concerned.

Electro-magnetic inspection of products leaving a production line is undertaken as a matter of course in many industries. Such inspections enable metal-based foreign bodies present in otherwise non-metallic products to be detected. In this way, contaminated products can be selectively discarded. Operatives'gloves are generally produced from a polymeric substance (e. g. a plastisol) and their presence in a product would not at present be detected other than by visual inspection.

One object of the present invention is to provide a glove for use by operatives on, for example, manufacturing production lines which can be detected electro-magnetically in the event that it or a part thereof becomes mixed with products during the manufacturing process.

According to the present invention in one aspect, there is provided a glove produced from a plastics material containing an evenly dispersed quantity of electro- magnetically detectable particles.

The plastics material may be a plastisol such a natural latex, acrylonitrile-butadiene (nitrite) or polyvinylchloride (pvc). Typically, the gloves are produced by a process in which a glove-shaped former is immersed for a relatively short period of time in a solution of the plastics material. The solution may also include various additives such as stabilisers, accelerators and fillers. To produce a single glove, the former may be sequentially immersed two or more times.

In another aspect, there is provided a glove which includes an evenly dispersed quantity of a magnetically detectable material in particulate form.

The electro-magnetically detectable material is preferably in powder form, the average particle size of the powder preferably being between 1 and 200 microns.

Typically, the average particle size is in the range 50 to 200 microns, preferably between 50 and 100 microns.

The electro-magnetically detectable material is preferably a ferrous material, more preferably ferrous oxide typically comprising yFe203. The material may consist solely of a single metallic substance e. g. a ferromagnetic or ferrimagnetic material, or it may comprise a mixture of two or more different electro-magnetically detectable materials including an iron-containing powder. Alternatively, the material may comprise a bronze alloy of copper with aluminium, manganese or beryllium. The alloy may be an alloy of copper and tin and may include other metals such as zinc or lead.

The electro-magnetically detectable powder is preferably mixed with the liquid plastisol to produce a relatively homogenous mix and the quantity of powder added preferably represents between 3 % and 6 % by volume of the mix. Typically, the quantity is of the order of 5% by volume. Homogenous distribution of the electro-magnetically detectable material allows even small fragments of a glove to be detected with conventional electro-magnetically operating detection equipment.

When the electro-magnetically detectable material is in powder form, then its type and particle size is preferably such as to be detectable in the frequency range 50 kHz to 600 kHz, which is a frequency range that is employed by conventional detection equipment. As mentioned, the particle size of the majority of the powder is preferably below 200 microns, and would usually be above 1 micron. More preferably the particle size of the majority of the powder is in the range 50 to 200 microns and most preferably it is in the range 50 to 100 microns.

In use, the intimate presence of the electro-magnetically detectable powder within the glove material is sufficient to activate conventional detection equipment in the event that a glove or a relatively small part of a glove is present in manufactured products leaving a production line as set out in the appended claims.

It will be appreciated that the foregoing is merely exemplary of gloves in accordance with the invention and that modifications can readily be made thereto without departing from the true scope of the invention.