Armor Tip gloves from Hatch Corp have succeeded in preventing crushed, bruised, and broken fingers for employees at GM's Powertrain plant in Defiance, OH. Hatch, a glove manufacturer for the law enforcement, industrial safety, and emergency services industries, developed the solution specifically to address a unique problem that had been plaguing the facility for years.

Workers at the GM plant had been experiencing a consistently high number of crushed, bruised, and broken fingers in the foundry during finishing operations of crankshafts for GM trucks. As OSHA recordable accidents, these injuries affected not only employee morale and productivity, but also the company's insurance stature.

According to Mike Bernicke, GM general supervisor at the Defiance-Powertrain plant, Hatch was called last August to develop a glove that would help reduce the number of injuries caused by the 60-100 lb crankshafts shifting and rolling together while workers pull them off a conveyor for finishing. "With a typical production rate of 1,500 crankshafts per hour, we were averaging nearly five serious injuries per month before contacting Hatch for a solution."

Hatch's R & D team developed a special heavy-duty lined leather glove with high impact plastic inserts sewn into the fingertips and thumb. The objective was to devise a glove that would protect the fingers, yet still provide the dexterity needed to complete the job function. Prototypes of the new Armor Tip glove were sent to GM Defiance-Powertrain for evaluation in early October. Following encouraging results, Hatch began producing the gloves in various sizes for use by all Defiance-Powertrain workers on the crankshaft production line.

"Hatch's Armor Tip Glove has been an overwhelming success," states Bernicke. "Since we began using the gloves five months ago, our workers have not experienced a single recordable finger injury. We have less downtime and the production line morale and efficiency is at its highest level."