What are CPE gloves, TPE gloves and PE gloves? Their names are very similar, many people really confuse their differences and don’t know how to distinguish them. Like 11 years ago, i just graduate from university and join into this company, i really don’t know what they are and don’t know how to make them. No one can help, but here i can help you to solve your questions, here we go.
Covid-2019, novel coronavirus, it really destroy a lot things and the safety world health system and economic system. Until now the November 2020, there are still a lot new infected people every day and more than more death. No really useful drug and vaccine invented, so it is very important to pretend yourself now, not only face masks also gloves. Nitrile gloves is the best choice now, but it is really expensive and small quantity, in recent days, it is mainly used for medical purpose, because we must protect doctors and nurses firstly, they face the virus every day and directly!
What we can choose instead of Nitrile gloves in our daily life? PVC gloves, TPE gloves and CPE gloves are the best choices for you. PVC gloves are also seamless and strong enough for whole day using. But it is also very expensive now, and not good to environment, even not good to users’ health, because it has plasticization and also it contain chlorine. CPE and TPE gloves are heated by glove model and two layers film. Though they have seam, but strong enough for daily use and protect you from the virus, and some TPE gloves are all approved the AQL 1.5 quality lever, though they can’t used for medical purpose, but they do have achieved the quality demand.
More brand owners and companies realize it and start to import and sale them, more and more users accept them in daily use. At the first beginning, they found they are a little big and not fit well as Nitrile gloves, but after days use, they accept them and know how to use them well. That’s why the CPE gloves and TPE gloves quantity demand increase a lot.
More helpful to environment, no matter HDPE gloves, LDPE gloves, CPE gloves or TPE gloves, they are lighter than Vinyl gloves and Nitrile gloves, less weight means less energy use and less waste to solve, if every one use TPE gloves instead of Nitrile gloves, we can reduce more than 1000 tons waste each day and much more energy.
20 years ago, we only have PE Gloves in the market of food contact , it contains HDPE and LDPE Gloves, HDPE is harder and thinner, LDPE is softer and stronger.
They are made from blowing machines and already known by lots people. Here i simply introduce it for you again.
PE gloves also called poly gloves, because everyone know poly, and recognize polyethylene as poly and also think poly is just polyethylene. So the PE gloves are well known by everyone anywhere in the world, and the PE gloves are real disposable, only one-time use. Because it is very thin and not strong enough for long time use. But after many years development, it has been separated into many small parts to meet customers’ requirement.
Not all restaurants and small hotels can afford the expensive gloves, and many competitors of gloves wholesales want to win the market even just 5% or 3% percent cheaper, but for very big company, 3% is a lot of money, if they can purchase cheaper gloves, that means more profit. To meet this point, some factories cut the length, shorten the width, and use thinner film to let the weight of gloves lighter. And some add calcium, some use recycle material, some even don’t have quality inspectors and managers even machine repairs to reduce the cost. New double models machines invent in this purpose.
Some customers still insist on good quality PE gloves, weight above 0.7 gram even 1.0 gram. To make sure the quality, some factories add LDPE into HDPE gloves to make the seam heated stronger, because LDPE material has very good heated performance. Also LDPE can make the film looks more clear and clean, some customers prefer it, it looks pretty transparent and good for healthy and beautiful. Especially for Japanese market, 0.8 gram is the bottom weight, because it should be strong enough for one hour use, and should be not broken when using.
Though it is very difficult to meet this quality standard, but lots factories tried, because more and more hair dye companies and brand owners want to cut their cost. In last years, PVC gloves and Nitrile gloves is want they packed in hair dye products, but now LDPE gloves are used a lot in this industry, because it is strong enough for one-time hair dye operation. And LDPE gloves have good seam heated performance, can approve AQL 2.5 even AQL 1.5 water test.
If you have things in your hands, and want to pick up something else but you don’t want to touch it directly, such as fish, chicken, meat, i think you don’t want to wash your hands especially in such virus environment, then you need it, the easy wear hang up PE gloves, just need to reach out your hands into the gloves. It’s useful ideas that gloves industry develop to meet people’s demand.
Though most people think it cheap and easy to get, it help a lot in daily use.
CPE gloves only has one more character than PE gloves, looks very similar, and if you search on the internet, you will found two different explanation on it. One said CPE is chloridize polyethylene, but it is wrong, totally wrong! Chloridize polyethylene can’t make film gloves. The right explanation about CPE gloves is Cast-PE gloves, use nearly the same material with PE gloves, to be exact, the same material with some LDPE gloves, that’s why we said it is developed from PE gloves.
At the first time CPE gloves invented, it is made by chlordize polyethylene with wet casting film machine, after few years developed, people found the extruder machine can also do it with special models, called film models. But normal blowing LDPE material can’t used in cast film machines, because some material Melt Flow Rate can’t meet standard, if it can’t reach 2.0 g/min, it will fail to make film in casting machines.
From 2000, CPE Gloves has appeared on the market, mainly for Japanese food market, because it is thicker and much stronger than PE Gloves, very fit for food factories, that workers need to wear them whole day or half days. If you use PE Gloves, it must be broken after one hour using even the gloves are very thick, because the film is not strong enough.
As usual, CPE gloves mainly has 22 microns, 25 microns and 28 microns types now, some even want 20 microns, but it’s too thin to supply Japanese market. Now the 22 microns thick CPE gloves are most popular in the world. Because normal CPE gloves are all have very deep embossing, you will feel thick even it only has 20 microns.
After embossed, it will be around 100 microns that even thicker than PVC gloves and Nitrile gloves. Though most of them can’t approve the water test AQL 4.0, but in daily use and food contact factories, it’s enough to meet all requirements. Cheap, easy to wear, not easy broken, strong enough and food contact safety, these trait make CPE gloves popular in the food contact industries. And now, more and more people prefer it.
In 2009, Blackbox Plastic is proud of developing the TPE Gloves, and speedy supply it into the world market, also has a great cooperation with L’oreal, P&G, Mcdonalds’ and other famous brand in the world. And till now, it is still the biggest and best supplier in the world.
TPE gloves are very similar to CPE gloves, some customer even don’t know how to distinguish them. Nearly same production method, but different material, that’s why we also call it second generation CPE gloves, C2 gloves, C2 PE gloves. CPE gloves usually use very thick embossing to increase the feeling thickness, but TPE gloves usually use smooth embossing to strengthen its soft feeling and better elongation and also tensile. But in recent years, some customers need to stick and better grip TPE gloves, Blackbox invent some new embossing called 3D emboss, diamond emboss, it really very very welcome by all customers.
TPE gloves usually use TPE material, LDPE, LLDPE and MLLDPE, but some factories use SEBS,TPR, TPV, POE, POF, EVA such softer material instead of TPE material.
TPE called thermoplastic elastomer, it is plastic but also has some rubber function, so when it making gloves, the model is different to make the gloves seam stronger. After it mixed with LDPE and LLDPE, it will be easy to make film and gloves, but it is not easy to make gloves strong enough to approve AQL 1.5. People who want to buy TPE gloves all need it strong enough to take place of Nitrile and PVC gloves.
Because the production method is very simple and very similar, most gloves prices depends on the weight. PE gloves are most light, so it is also cheapest in all kinds of Disposable Gloves. CPE gloves are little expensive than PE gloves, even the same weight, because different film making method. Casting film machines need more energy to melt the material, and with higher temperature, the casting film machine can produce much more than blowing machines. TPE gloves are little expensive than CPE gloves, because the TPE material are much more expensive than normal PE, nearly double. It cause the TPE gloves’ price is very high.
Here you are the form for your clearer understanding.
PRICE (USD/1000pcs) Film thickness (Micron) 8 10 15 20 22 25 28 33 50 HDPE GLOVES 1.5-2.0 1.8-2.5 2.0-3.0 2.5-3.5 LDPE GLOVES 2.2-3.2 2.7-3.8 2.9-4.0 3.2-4.2 3.5-4.5 CPE GLOVES 4.5-5.5 5.5-7.0 6.5-7.5 6.8-8.0 7.5-9.0 TPE GLOVES 7.5-9.0 9-15 12-18In this form you will find the PE gloves are really really cheap from factory, but even the most expensive TPE gloves are still much much cheaper than PVC or Nitrile gloves. That’s also the main reason more people choose them. They are all food contact safety.
Even you use it every day, and every day you use 10 pieces gloves, for one whole year, you only need to afford around 50 dollars, that’s the most cost you may pay, but you can protect yourself and your family everyday! How cheap and how worthy they are!
PE, CPE, TPE Gloves’ main material are all LDPE, LLDPE and some MLLDPE, nearly the same, but different manufacturing. PE Gloves is stamped from blowing film, blowing machine is not very stable, but can blow very thin film. The machines are much cheaper than casting film machines. CPE and TPE Gloves are stamped from casting film. Casting film machine can produce as thin as 18 micron, and the thickness and quality can be very stable, much better than blowing machine, machines are also much bigger than blowing film machines.
Because different film manufacturing, it cause totally different performance. PE Gloves is cheaper, thinner but won’t very strong, because the film is cooled down by air, can not very speedy and not stretched by rolls. CPE and TPE Gloves are much stronger than PE, but more expensive than it, and can’t be so thinner. TPE Gloves are called second generation of CPE gloves too, because it developed from CPE Gloves. Different material and different manufacturing makes it much stronger than CPE Gloves, even stronger than PVC Gloves, near Nitrile. The tensile is above 3.6N and 500% if the glove weight is above 3.0 gram, so it is welcome in food factories.
Let’s talk about it deeply.
Please look into the photos above, i think you can find the different.
First of all, the glove size and dimension, normally, HDPE gloves and LDPE gloves are bigger than CPE gloves, because PE gloves are not strong enough and very thin, when people wear them, it need to be easily worn, and easily take off.
Secondly, the embossing. All PE gloves, no matter HDPE or LDPE, if it has emboss on it, the embossing is in one direction, and because the embossing step is after the film cold down, the embossing is not full, one side is dent, one side is bulge.
CPE gloves are all has embossing on it, mostly are deep, few customers prefer shallow. And for CPE gloves, we also have inside embossing gloves and outside embossing gloves, because CPE gloves are made by two film roll, we can make the embossing both inside or outside. And also it different from PE gloves are one side is bulge, but another is flat, because the embossing step is on the very first step when the film is very hot and flow. The embossing will be better performance when using not like the PE gloves embossing disappear.
Thirdly, the physical performance, include elongation, tensile, water test. PE gloves, especially HDPE gloves, don’t have good elongation and very hard. Because of this point, it can be very thin but don’t have good seam strength. Normally, HDPE gloves only have 100-200% elongation and around 1.2N tensile at break, and can’t approve any water test. CPE gloves can have much better elongation and tensile though it’s nearly the same material with PE gloves, because the casting film machines heat the material to 240 degree, can let it plasticizing much better, make the film very soft and stronger.
The same, the first step, let’s discuss the photos above, i think you also can find some differences.
First of all, the glove dimension, though we can make totally same dimension gloves as well, but few customers want the TPE gloves as big as CPE gloves, because TPE gloves are much softer and have much better elongation, can fit hands better, every customers prefer it feeling a little tight after worn.
Secondly, the embossing is different, though some customers let us make the TPE gloves embossed the same as CPE gloves, but still 90% TPE gloves in the market are still the very smooth embossing, that called super powder emboss, you even can’t feel it on the glove surface. And in recent years, we develop some 3D embossing, like sucker, some customers call it diamond. Beautiful and better grip.
Thirdly, the physical performance, including water test, air pressure, elongation and tensile. TPE gloves must be strong enough, so air pressure is a new test method for inspecting the seam tensile. Water test is used to inspect the pink hole, because no matter how strong the gloves are, seam is easy to have pink hole to permeate water. But CPE gloves are not used to test the air pressure and pink hole, because of the deep embossing, it is very easy to have pink hole in the seam that can’t see. CPE gloves’ film tensile is also good because of the film casting technology, but elongation is not as good as TPE because of the material, the TPE gloves have so good elongation because it have TPE material in it. TPE material is made from rubber, that’s why it has so good elongation.
It is so huge, i didn’t want to talk about it before, but i found lots of European and American users don’t know CPE gloves before. They use PE POLY gloves and Nitrile gloves or PVC gloves before, and in Corona virus, the PVC and Nitrile gloves are so expensive, they have to choose one substitute, that’s why more and more brand owners want to expend their category immediately. TPE gloves is the best choice for them. So lots people want to know what TPE glove is, and why it’s much better than PE gloves.
You can find they are totally different by eyes, from the appearance and internal physical performance. TPE gloves are much thicker and softer, and have much better elongation and tensile, it’s your best choice to take place PVC gloves in daily life using.
Of course, every one want to use Nitrile or PVC medical gloves in any situation, but we shouldn’t do that, that is really a waste of resource.
After you know those different feature among PE, CPE, TPE gloves, i think you may have some ideas and suggestions in which situation you should use.
PE gloves are so thin, so fast food restaurant, and one-time touch need them for very short time using and easy to wear.
CPE gloves are stronger enough to prepare food and do some simple food contact working, just like in the family kitchen, supermarket back kitchen, some sushi bar that you will need to wear it to prepare food for customers in one hour.
TPE gloves are much stronger to take place of Nitrile gloves that you will find it can be used half a day won’t broken.
Thanks a lot for your reading, hope this short article can help you in your life. And if you have any suggestions and questions, welcome you leave a message here, and welcome you to discuss with us too!
Before 2020, only little people know CPE and TPE gloves, but now more and more person recognize them. As more competitors in this industry, factories has tried a lot new ideas of them. PE gloves also has very strong elongation type now, CPE gloves too, they has divided into more small family. TPE gloves because their expensive material and price, it has coming down to use cheaper type TPE material.
Automatic, no matter CPE gloves, TPE gloves or PE poly gloves, are all film type sealed gloves, so people want them cheaper and cheaper. Use machines to take place worker hand working is a good method to reduce the cost. And because of machines, it also can reduce hand or body touching, make the gloves more clean and healthy, if the automatic machines design and work well, the quality also will be better than hand making.
Easier use, less touch will make the gloves film more healthy and clean, more and more virus and bacteria happens in the world, some even are never happened before, disposable gloves are needed than ever before, but we don’t know whether it is clean or whether it is polluted after making during the transport and wearing. So some factories develop new model gloves, called Deli gloves, hanger gloves, some make new machines to help users to wear.
Environmental, more use means more waste and more pollution to the earth, we need to make it environmental and biodegradable to protect our earth. Many material are developed and used, though it is not good enough and strong enough, but worth, and will develop better in future.
After many years development, more new machines has came into this market, total automatic glove making machines, automatic glove folding machines, automatic glove packing machines are most useful machines now, they can reduce lots costs. Though these machines are not good enough like hand making, but because there is less workers now, they are welcome very much. And also when factories use these machines, they can reduce some costs and control the quality, machines can be improved quickly, but workers are not easily.