Understanding AQL: The Basics of Acceptable Quality Level in Glove Manufacturing

As a brand and production house for disposable gloves, we often are compliant with industry standards. There are various measurements that gloves must meet in order to be sold on the market. This is a topic that the ASK GIA blog has talked about frequently. ASTM D5151 is the standard test for any holes that water or air can leak through, which may compromise the performance of the glove. The results are measured in Acceptable Quality Level (AQL). AQL is an acronym for an accepted quality level. This measurement details the statistical measurement of the maximum acceptable number of defective goods in a particular sample size.

For gloves, there are different minimum AQL measurements depending on the type of glove. Exam gloves are monitored for pinhole defects, with AQL 2.5 FDA requirement as they are used in healthcare workplaces. Due to health concerns, exam gloves require higher quality specifications with less defects per total sample size. Industrial gloves or general use gloves are not regulated by the FDA, but the industry standard sets an AQL of 4.0. Failure is used to describe a glove that has any pinhole defects. The lower the AQL, the higher the quality of the production batch.

How are gloves tested for AQL?

First, the production house takes note of the size of the batch. Then, based on the number of gloves in the batch that are produced, a certain number of random gloves, referring to rejection and/or acceptance criteria given as in ISO2859-1:1999 or ANSI-ASQCZ1.4:2003, in the batch are tested. This is done either with a water or air penetration test to detect microporous holes (defect naked-eye cannot detect), as per ASTM D5151-19(2023) or EN 455-1:2000. Lower AQL means the higher the quality of glove lot and minimum the probability of getting a pinhole defective glove from every box of gloves used. SW products have always gone through rigorous quality control inspection and testing to ensure the quality of every glove dispensed. Our test results are listed under documents on each product’s webpage.