Covering for Providing Watertight Protection to an Appendage

Abstract

A covering for providing watertight protection to an appendage comprises a hollow enclosure, an adhesive band, a first liner, and a second liner. The hollow enclosure is dimensioned to slide over the appendage and defines an open end surrounded by a region of the hollow enclosure that is folded back on itself to form a cuff. The adhesive band runs along substantially the entire cuff. Lastly, the first liner covers a first portion of the adhesive band, and the second liner covers a second portion of the adhesive band.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to apparatus and methods for providing watertight protection to an appendage, and, more particularly, to gloves, boots, and sleeves adapted to provide watertight protection to an arm, hand, leg, or foot.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

There are many situations that demand that a person protect his or her arms, hands, legs, or feet from coming into contact with a liquid. A doctor, nurse, or lab technician may, for example, need to handle a biohazardous material. Likewise, a patient with a bandage, plaster cast, or intravenous catheter may desire to shower or bathe without having the bandage, cast, or catheter get wet.

As a result, there have been several attempts to produce gloves and boots that can provide a watertight covering for a person's extremities. These attempts include, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,727,864; 4,845,780; 4,884,300; 5,867,832; and 6,442,761; as well as U.S. Patent Publication Nos. 2006/0185059 and 2010/0017939; and European Patent No. 695157. Each of these various designs relies on a mechanism for tightly closing the open end of the glove or boot around the wearer's appendage in order to produce a watertight seal. Nevertheless, these existing solutions suffer from several disadvantages. They are difficult to use, are ineffective at keeping the wearer dry, and/or are overly complex and therefore expensive to manufacture.

For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for a covering that is capable of providing reliable watertight protection to the wearer while, at the same time, remaining easy to use and inexpensive to manufacture.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention address the above-identified need by providing coverings capable of offering reliable watertight protection to a wearer's arms, legs, hands, and feet, or combinations thereof.

In accordance with an aspect of the invention, a covering for providing watertight protection to an appendage comprises a hollow enclosure, an adhesive band, a first liner, and a second liner. The hollow enclosure is dimensioned to slide over the appendage and defines an open end surrounded by a region of the hollow enclosure that is folded back on itself to form a cuff. The adhesive band runs along substantially the entire cuff. Lastly, the first liner covers a first portion of the adhesive band, and the second liner covers a second portion of the adhesive band.

In accordance with one of the above-identified embodiments of the invention, a glove includes a closure mechanism that surrounds the glove's open end. The closure mechanism comprises a folded cuff on which runs a band of adhesive. Two separate liners cover this adhesive band. Once the glove is donned, pulling the two liners away from the glove causes the cuff with its adhesive band to unfold against the skin of the wearer, thereby causing the cuff of the glove to tightly seal about the wearer's forearm. Such a seal has been demonstrated to be extremely effective at preventing liquids from entering the glove.

Advantageously, aspects of the invention can easily be expanded from protective gloves to other form factors including, but not limited to, protective boots as well as protective sleeves. In each case, the covering, whatever its particular form, provides reliable protection against liquids, is easy to use, and is inexpensive to manufacture.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with regard to the following description, appended claims, and accompanying drawings where:

FIG. 1A shows a plan view of a glove in accordance with an illustrative embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 1B shows an enlarged view of a portion of the FIG. 1A glove;

FIG. 1C shows a side view of the FIG. 1B glove portion;

FIG. 1D shows a sectional view of the FIG. 1B glove portion;

FIG. 2 shows a top perspective view of a portion of the FIG. 1A glove on a human arm;

FIG. 3 shows another top perspective view of a portion of the FIG. 1A glove on a human arm;

FIG. 4 shows a flow chart describing a first illustrative method of forming the FIG. 1A glove;

FIG. 5 shows a flow chart describing a second illustrative method of forming the FIG. 1A glove;

FIG. 6 shows a plan view of a boot in accordance with an illustrative embodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 7 shows a plan view of a sleeve in accordance with an illustrative embodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention will be described with reference to illustrative embodiments. For this reason, numerous modifications can be made to these embodiments and the results will still come within the scope of the invention. No limitations with respect to the specific embodiments described herein are intended or should be inferred.

FIG. 1A shows a plan view of a glove 100 in accordance with an illustrative embodiment of the invention. The illustrative glove 100 is folded flat in the manner in which many disposable gloves are packaged and presented to the end-user. The glove 100 comprises a hollow enclosure 105 with an open end 110 into which the wearer places the wearer's hand and forearm. Opposite the open end 110, the hollow enclosure 105 terminates in a finger portion 115 adapted to enclose the wearer's thumb and fingers.

The open end 110 of the glove 100 is surrounded by the glove's closure mechanism 120. This closure mechanism 120 is detailed in FIGS. 1B, 1C, and 1D, which show a plan view, a side view, and a sectional view, respectively (the glove 100 still being folded flat). The closure mechanism 120 provides a means for allowing the wearer to tightly seal the open end 110 of the glove 100 about the wearer's forearm. In doing so, the closure mechanism 120 prevents liquids from entering the glove 100, thereby providing watertight protection to the wearer.

Now referring to FIGS. 1B-1D, it will be observed that the closure mechanism 120 comprises several elements, namely, a cuff 125, an adhesive band 130, a first liner 135, and a second liner 140. The cuff 125 surrounds the open end 110 of the glove 100. The cuff 125 consists of a region of the hollow enclosure 105 that is folded back on itself. Folded in the manner, a surface of the hollow enclosure 105 that initially faced the inside of the glove 100 (i.e., where the arm and hand go) now faces outward. The adhesive band 130, in turn, runs along substantially the entire cuff 125, thereby effectively forming a ring of adhesive around the open end 110 of the glove 100. Finally, the first and second liners 135, 140 each cover about one half of the adhesive band 130. Each of the first and second liners 135, 140 is substantially larger than the respective portion of the adhesive band 130 that it covers. Moreover, each of the first and second liners 135, 140 defines a respective widened region 145 and 150.

Once the closure mechanism 120 is so configured, forming a sealed, watertight closure around the wearer's forearm becomes relatively easy. The wearer inserts the wearer's hand and forearm into the glove 100 and then the wearer, or alternatively a person helping the wearer, grasps both liners 135, 140 and pulls them away from the glove 100, preferably in the direction indicated by the arrows 155 in FIG. 1D. The relatively large size of the first and second liners 135, 140 and their widened regions 145, 150 facilitate a firm grasp on these elements when performing this step. Pulling the liners 135, 140 in this manner has two effects: 1) it releases the liners 135, 140 from the adhesive band 130, thereby exposing the adhesive band 130; and 2) it causes the exposed surface of the cuff 125 with the now-exposed adhesive band 130 to unfold against the skin of the wearer. Once turned back in this manner, part of the adhesive band 130 directly contacts the wearer's skin and forms a seal thereto. Any part of the adhesive band 130 that cannot be made to contact the wearer's skin is simply folded back on itself to form a flap that takes up the excess.

FIG. 2 shows a perspective view of the glove 100 closed about a wearer's forearm 200. A flap 160 takes up the excess cuff area caused by the cuff 125 having a diameter larger than that of the wearer's forearm 200. Optionally, if it is desired that such a flap 160 not protrude laterally in the manner shown in FIG. 2, the flap 160 may be further folded over onto the remainder of the glove 100 as shown in the top perspective view in FIG. 3. Slightly misaligning the opposed parts of the adhesive band 130 that form the flap 160 has been found to be an effective way of exposing just enough adhesive to adhere the flap 160 against the remainder of the glove 100 in this manner. Gloves configured as shown in both FIGS. 2 and 3 have been determined to provide excellent watertight protection to a wearer.

The hollow enclosure 105 of the glove 100 may comprise polyethylene or any other equally suitable material. Advantageously, suitable disposable polyethylene gloves are commonly used in, for example, the food industry and thus are readily available and inexpensive (e.g., less than $0.01 per glove at the time of this writing). Because of the ability of the closure mechanism 120 to accommodate excess cuff area, the glove 100 may be substantially oversized in relation to the wearer, thereby facilitating “one size fits all” and not requiring that several different sizes be made available. The adhesive for the adhesive band 130, moreover, is also commercially available. One particularly suitable adhesive is that used by 3M (St. Paul, Minn., USA) in their Double Coated Medical Tape, Product Number 1509. This adhesive comprises an acrylate and has been proven to be suitable for medical and surgical applications wherein it comes directly in contact with human skin. Finally, the first and second liners 135, 140 may also comprise polyethylene or any other suitable liner material that is able to readily release the adhesive (e.g., silicone coated kraft paper).

Manufacture of the glove 100 may be accomplished in several ways, the automation of which will be well within the capabilities of one having ordinary skills in the automation arts. A first illustrative method 400 is described in the flow chart shown in FIG. 4. In step 410, the glove 100 is acquired with the hollow enclosure 105 dimensioned to slide over the appendage of the wearer. Subsequently, in step 420, a region of the hollow enclosure 105 is folded back on itself to form the cuff 125 that surrounds the open end 110 of the glove 100. In step 430, the adhesive band 130 is deposited on the cuff 125 so that it runs along substantially the entire cuff 125. Finally, in step 440, the first liner 135 is applied to the adhesive band 130 so that it covers about one half of the adhesive band 130, and the second liner 140 is applied to the adhesive band 130 so that it covers about the other half of the adhesive band 130. The glove 100 shown in FIGS. 1A-1D is thereby formed.

A second illustrative method 500 is described in the flow chart in FIG. 5. Here, steps 510 and 520 are performed in a manner similar to steps 410 and 420, respectively, described above. Nevertheless, the remainder of the steps divert from the previous method by having two adhesive bands applied to the liners 135, 140 first, and subsequently applying the liner/adhesive-band combinations to the cuff 125. More particularly, in step 530, the first liner 135 and the second liner 140 are covered by a first adhesive band and a second adhesive band, respectively, each adhesive band dimensioned to run along about one half of the cuff 125. In step 540, the first and second adhesive bands and their associated liners 135. 140 are then attached to separate sides of the cuff 125 with the glove 100 folded flat. With the first and second adhesive bands collectively forming the adhesive band 130, the illustrative glove 100 shown in FIGS. 1A-1D is again formed.

Importantly, while the illustrative glove embodiment 100 described above is designed to protect a wearer's forearm and hand from contact with liquids, the invention is not limited to this particular application. Instead, aspects of the invention may be applied to providing watertight protection to several different appendages (or portions thereof) by making simple modifications to the glove embodiment 100. FIG. 6, for example, shows a boot 600 in accordance with an illustrative embodiment of the invention for protecting a wearer's leg and foot. The boot 600 comprises a closure mechanism 605 similar to the closure mechanism 120. FIG. 7, in turn, shows a sleeve 700 in accordance with another illustrative embodiment of the invention. The sleeve 700 comprises two open ends 705 and 710, with corresponding closure mechanisms 715 and 720. Again, these closure mechanisms 715, 720 are similar to that described above. The sleeve 700 is suitable for protection of a portion of the wearer's arm or leg, while, at the same time, leaving the wearer's corresponding hand or foot uncovered.

It should again be emphasized that the above-described embodiments of the invention are intended to be illustrative only. Other embodiments can use different types and arrangements of elements, or different method steps, for implementing the described functionality. These numerous alternative embodiments within the scope of the appended claims will be apparent to one skilled in the art.

Moreover, all the features disclosed herein may be replaced by alternative features serving the same, equivalent, or similar purposes, unless expressly stated otherwise. Thus, unless expressly stated otherwise, each feature disclosed is one example only of a generic series of equivalent or similar features.

Claims

1. A covering for providing watertight protection to an appendage, the covering comprising:

a hollow enclosure, the hollow enclosure dimensioned to slide over the appendage and defining an open end surrounded by a region of the hollow enclosure that is folded back on itself to form a cuff;

an adhesive band, the adhesive band running along substantially the entire cuff;

a first liner, the first liner covering a first portion of the adhesive band; and

a second liner, the second liner separate from the first liner and covering a second portion of the adhesive band.

2. The covering of claim 1, wherein the covering forms part of a glove.

3. The covering of claim 1, wherein the covering forms part of a boot.

4. The covering of claim 1, wherein the hollow enclosure defines a second open end.

5. The covering of claim 1, wherein the first liner covers about one half of the adhesive band and the second liner covers about one half of the adhesive band.

6. The covering of claim 1, wherein the first liner is substantially larger than the first portion of the adhesive band.

7. The covering of claim 1, wherein the second liner is substantially larger than the second portion of the adhesive band.

8. The covering of claim 1, wherein the hollow enclosure comprises polyethylene.

9. The covering of claim 1, wherein the adhesive band comprises an acrylate.

10. The covering of claim 1, wherein at least one of the first liner and the second liner comprises polyethylene.

11. A method of forming a covering for providing watertight protection to an appendage, the method comprising the steps of:

providing a hollow enclosure dimensioned to slide over the appendage and defining an open end;

folding a region of the hollow enclosure back on itself to form a cuff that surrounds the open end;

depositing an adhesive band running along substantially the entire cuff;

covering a first portion of the adhesive band with a first liner; and

covering a second portion of the adhesive band with a second liner separate from the first liner.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the covering forms part of a glove.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the covering forms part of a boot.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the hollow enclosure defines a second open end.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein the first liner covers about one half of the adhesive band and the second liner covers about one half of the adhesive band.

16. A method of forming a covering for providing watertight protection to an appendage, the method comprising the steps of:

providing a hollow enclosure dimensioned to slide over the appendage and defining an open end;

folding a region of the hollow enclosure back on itself to form a cuff that surrounds the open end;

depositing a first adhesive band on a first liner;

depositing a second adhesive band on a second liner;

attaching the first adhesive band to the cuff; and

attaching the second adhesive band to the cuff;

wherein the first adhesive band and the second adhesive band collectively run along substantially the entire cuff.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the covering forms part of a glove.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the covering forms part of a boot.

19. The method of claim 16, wherein the hollow enclosure defines a second open end.