Coming up with effective hand protection in dangerous environments like construction sites has been an elusive goal for many years, but Chilean inventor Jorge Sgombic claims to have finally come up with a truly safe solution.

Boots with built-in toe protection have become a requirement on most construction sites these days, so foot safety is no longer an issue, but the human hands are an infinitely trickier problem. Protective gear companies are actively trying to strike the perfect balance between functionality, mobility and safety when creating new work gloves, but so far the results have been unimpressive. Workers still have to put up with the excruciating pain of banging their fingers with large hammers, or, even worse, slice part of them off in gory work accidents. But Jorge Sgombic’s  innovative Mark VIII safety gloves aim to fix this problem.

Photo: Resafe

Adding too much protection to a work glove inhibits movement, preventing workers from properly using their hands on the job, while too little protection leaves the hands open to potentially devastating injuries. The award winning Mark VIII gloves feature rigid protection only around the finger tips – the part of the hand most exposed to accidents – while otherwise ensuring full mobility.

Sgombic’s invention uses a shatter-proof thermoplastic material to shield the fingertips against hammer blows, all sorts of cuts, punctures and crushing. Promotional videos for the Mark VIII show the gloves handling all kinds of abuse with ease, offering both safety and perfect mobility at all times. While the first layer of the gloves can be easily penetrated, the protective cover seems virtually indestructible.

The Chilean inventor sees his Mark VIII gloves being used  “from maintenance and operation to entire industries such as mining, forestry and the fishing industry. They can be used for domestic activities in general, for any activity where there is a degree of exposure to an accident involving the hands.”

Mark VIII gloves come in four different varieties ranging from nitrile gloves with a short cuff kidskin to leather gloves with a long cuff for things like welding.

The Mark VIII gloves won a gold medal at the Invention & New Product Exposition, in Pittsburgh, in the “Safety and Security-Personal” category.

The prricing and availability of these innovative gloves are still a mystery, but Sgombic is reportedly looking to work with large distribution companies to sell his invention worldwide.

via PlanSwift