Wonderful FCGZS

Prosthetic and orthotic clinics, limb-fitting centres and the workshops that assemble upper-limb prostheses are where the FCGZS does its work. Each of those settings dresses prosthetic hands in cosmetic gloves, and each meets the same moment in the job: getting a close-fitting silicone glove onto the hand. The FCGZS meets that moment with its zip, which opens the glove for the hand to enter and closes it again into a fitted cover.

Prosthetists use it at the final stage of a fitting, once the prosthetic hand is set on the socket and ready to be covered. With the zip open at the cuff, the glove goes over the hand in one guided movement, and fastening the zip completes the cover. Technicians in a prosthetic workshop use it in the same way when they finish a hand before it leaves the bench, because the open zip gives them room to seat the glove before the closed zip draws the silicone in.

Glove changes are the other part of its working life. When a cover is replaced during a review appointment, the zip lets the clinician open the old glove, slide it free and dress the hand in a new one without wrestling the silicone at the cuff. For the wearer, that keeps the appointment focused on the prosthesis.

Patients who wear a prosthetic hand for appearance in daily life are the people the glove serves. The silicone gives the hand its cosmetic outer form, and the zipped closure keeps that form snug on the hand once it is fastened.

Three sizes let a clinic or workshop hold small, medium and large on the shelf and pick the one that closes neatly over each hand it fits. The short length suits fittings that call for a compact glove on the hand.

Fitting that starts with an open glove

Parting the silicone at the cuff widens the glove before the hand goes in. The prosthetic hand enters an opened glove, so fitting begins without forcing the silicone over the fingers.

A fitted cover once the zip is fastened

Closing the zip pulls the opened silicone back together around the hand. What went on loose finishes snug, and the glove settles as a neat, fitted cover.

Two-step dressing of a prosthetic hand

Open, then close. Dressing the hand comes down to those two actions on the zip, which makes the task easy to teach and quick to repeat in a busy fitting room.

Removal that mirrors fitting

The zip that closes the glove also releases it. Undone, it frees the cuff so the glove comes off the hand as readily as it went on, which suits clinics that change covers at review.

Effort carried by the closure

Opening and closing are done by the zip, so the work of fitting sits with the closure and the silicone is spared repeated hard stretching at the cuff.

Closure and glove as one piece

The zip is part of the silicone body. A fitter handles one item, with no separate fastening to find, attach or keep track of.

Three sizes for a close match

Small, medium and large give the fitter a choice that brings the glove close to the size of each prosthetic hand. With a close match, the fastened zip draws the silicone into a snug finish.

A short glove for compact fittings

The short length keeps the glove compact on the hand, matched to fittings where a shorter cosmetic cover is the aim.

Zip closure

The glove opens and closes on a zip. It is the feature that the whole fitting sequence of the FCGZS is built around.

Opening at the cuff

The zip opens at the cuff, the end through which the hand enters. Widening the glove there gives the hand a larger mouth to pass through.

Open position for fitting

Unzipped, the glove stands open at the cuff and ready to receive the prosthetic hand.

Closed position for wear

Zipped, the two edges of silicone meet and the glove holds as a fitted cover around the hand.

Silicone construction

Silicone forms the entire glove. It gives the FCGZS the skin-like surface expected of a cosmetic glove for a prosthetic hand.

Zip set into the silicone body

Closure and glove are one piece. Nothing separate needs to be joined to the glove before it goes onto the hand.

Cosmetic outer form

The glove carries the outward shape of a hand, so the prosthesis it covers takes on a hand-like appearance once dressed.

Short length

Short is the length of the FCGZS. The glove keeps that length across its three sizes.

Small size

A small glove is available for prosthetic hands at the smaller end of the range.

Medium size

Medium sits in the middle of the range and is chosen when that size gives the close fit the zip is meant to finish.

Large size

For larger prosthetic hands, the large size gives the glove room to go on and still close snug.

Release by reopening

Undoing the zip parts the cuff again. Opening it frees the glove from the hand for replacement or refitting.

Item number FCGZS

The glove is identified by item number FCGZS under the printed name "Cosmetic glove with zip and filed Short".

The FCGZS suits prosthetic clinics and workshops that dress hands in silicone cosmetic gloves and want the zip to carry the hardest part of the job. Its case rests on one mechanism used in two directions: opened, the zip lets the glove pass over the prosthetic hand at the cuff; closed, it draws the silicone into a snug, fitted cover. That makes it a strong choice where gloves go on and come off regularly, at fittings and at reviews, and where a short glove is the length wanted. With small, medium and large available, the FCGZS is a silicone glove whose fit is finished by fastening its own zip.