Covering for Providing Watertight Protection to an Appendage
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.
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 INVENTIONThere 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 INVENTIONEmbodiments 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.
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:
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.
The open end 110 of the glove 100 is surrounded by the glove's closure mechanism 120. This closure mechanism 120 is detailed in
Now referring to
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
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
A second illustrative method 500 is described in the flow chart in
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.
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.
Type: Application
Filed: Nov 24, 2010
Publication Date: May 24, 2012
Inventor: Theresa M. Tuttle (Wappingers Falls, NY)
Application Number: 12/953,632
International Classification: A41D 13/08 (20060101); A43B 23/07 (20060101); A41D 13/00 (20060101); A41D 27/02 (20060101);