Design approach for padding patterns of anti-vibration gloves and their influence on dexterity, strength, and muscle activity

Occupational hand-arm vibration from powered hand tools is a common industry occurrence, which is remedied by using anti-vibration gloves. However, existing gloves often protect at the cost of reduced dexterity and increased muscular effort. This study examines how different palm padding layouts influence hand-related performance. Three anti-vibration glove prototypes are developed with identical material stacks but different neoprene palm paddings: segment-based, gradient, and proximal interphalangeal joint-oriented paddings. Female participants perform six representative hand-use tasks under bare-hand and gloved conditions, and the outcomes are evaluated using forearm surface electromyography, hand-performance measures, and subjective ratings. The results show that all three gloves reduce grip strength and slow down pegboard screwing, but largely preserve the key pinch strength compared to the bare hand. Among the three designs, the glove with the continuous gradient palm padding shows the most favorable overall pattern, with better preservation of dexterity-related performance and the smallest increase in forearm muscle activity. The segmented layout is more often associated with poorer dexterity and higher forearm muscle activity during repetitive tasks. In contrast, the proximal interphalangeal joint-oriented layout shows more task-dependent effects, particularly in externally supported or load-transfer tasks. These findings suggest that palm padding configuration can influence dexterity and physiological demand independently of material composition.