Our company has been in the business of rubber glove processing until now, it has the knowledge and expertise in the field of manufacturing rubber gloves. Therefore, it has endeavored into manufacturing rubber gloves recently by acquiring plants and machinery in Jitra, Kedah with a staff number of 60. The company’s vision is to establish JR Engineering and Medical Technologies as a local company, which can bring foreign technology and expertise using local content and labour to enchance the company to develop high-end quality products to contribute to our country’s development. With this regard, the company has identified the manufacturing plant in Jitra, Kedah as a centre for manufacturing and packaging locally for local and export purposes. The merits of the new plant in Jitra, Kedah are as follows: -

Expenses are reduced through manpower saving and cheap rental by any standards.

Economy

Saves time and establishment cost.

Readymade Plant

Severe quality control and a well arrange working environment.

High Quality

Good working relationship with staff.

Simple Management at Plants

Directors are personally involved as key man.

Decrease in Outsourcing Expertise

Manufacturing Process

Dipping: Liquid latex concentrate is mixed with various compounding chemicals and is introduced into one of the tanks in the processing line. Clean, dry formers in the shape of hands are immersed first in a coagulant and then in the latex mix for appropriate dwell time to give the desired latex film thickness. The coagulant is applied to facilitate the deposition of a layer of latex on the formers.

Wet-gel leaching and beading: The thin latex film on each former is partially dried and leached briefly in clean water to remove the water-soluble materials. Beading also is introduced at this stage to give each glove a rolled bead or rim at the open end.

Drying and curing: The gloves are then dried and vulcanized. Drying and vulcanization or curing of the gloves are usually done in hot-air ovens, initially at lower temperatures of 80º-90º C, and then at higher temperatures of 100º-140º C where necessary.

Post-cure leaching or dry-film leaching: The cured gloves are immersed in clean water tanks to remove more water-soluble substances, particularly proteins on the surface of the gloves.

Powdered gloves: The leached gloves are dipped into cornstarch powder slurry to pick up a coat of lubricant that makes them easier to don. They are then further dried.

Glove stripping: This is the final operation on the production line - removal of gloves from the formers. This is often carried out manually, frequently with the assistance of compressed air, but an automatic stripping system is becoming more common.

Powder-free gloves: Latex gloves with very little or no powder lubricant can be prepared by either:

1. (i) Chlorination
2. (ii) Polymer Coating

While chlorination oxidizes the outer rubber surface to eliminate tackiness and reduce the residual soluble protein content, polymer coating involves replacing the powder with a suitable lubricating coat on the glove surface. Both processes can be carried out on-line, without the powder-coating step, or off-line by washing first the finished powdered gloves, then subjecting them to the chlorination or polymer-coating treatment.

Removing Glove Proteins: When subjected to ultracentrifugation at approximately 59,000 max, latex can be separated into three main fractions:

1. (i) Top rubber hydrocarbon fraction
2. (ii) The ambient serum (known as C-serum) in which all rubber particles are suspended
3. (iii) The denser bottom non-rubber particle fraction, particularly lutoids, which contain yet another serum (known as B-serum)

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