Leaching

The washing process, commonly used during the manufacturing of gloves, to remove or denature natural water soluble proteins and remove adverse materials such as processing chemical residues. Water or wet gel leaching is the process of immersing the latex coated formers into a bath or spray of water, to wash out excess additives from previous stages, such as coagulant. Chemical and protein content is reduced at this stage. The effectiveness of the process is dependent on the temperature of the water, the duration of the process and the rate of water exchange. Dry Film leaching is similar to wet film leaching, except it is carried out on the dry/vulcanized latex film. The effectiveness of this process in reducing water extractives is a function of time and temperature.