Glove with Free-floating Double Layer of Protective Mesh

Abstract

A protective material that prevents cut and puncture injuries using two layers of metal mesh woven from 0.2 mm or less diameter wire, with apertures of 0.45 mm or less. The mesh layers are sandwiched between two, outer layers of fabric that are attached to each other, but not to the mesh. The two mesh layers are free-floating, held in place by being sandwiched between the outer layers, and can slide past each other, mitigating buckling when the material is bent. Protective gloves can be constructed using the material to cover over 60% of the glove's palm region, or cut to match a silhouette of a human hand. In another embodiment, the glove has fastenings at the extremity that loosely attaches the mesh layers to the outer fabric layers. The metal meshes can be spot glued at one or more locations to facilitate easier handling during assembly.

Description

CLAIM OF PRIORITY

This application is a National Stage filing of PCT application PCT/US 12/66527 filed on 26 Nov. 2012, which in turn claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application 61/683,240 filed on 15 Aug. 2012, and to U.S. Provisional Application 61/643,453 filed on 7 May 2012 all of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention relates to a fabrics that protect against both cut and puncture, and more particularly to gloves having protective regions having multiple layers of woven metallic mesh that are either not attached or only loosely attached to the rest of the glove.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Protective gloves are widely used in industrial settings from oil rigs to waste collection. The gloves used in these setting are required to protect a workers hands against both cuts, from items such as, but not limited to, broken glass, and puncture wounds, from items such as, but not limited to, needles or nails. The gloves should also be comfortable to be worn in both warm and cold environments and should only minimally inhibit the flexibility of the wearer's hands.

Woven metallic meshes have proved to be very effective against both cut and puncture wounds and are widely used in protective gloves. They do, however, have some limitations. A particular limitation is that when flexed too far, metallic meshes have a tendency to buckle, or crinkle and to stay in that crinkled state even when the mesh is un-flexed.

The present invention mitigates this limitation of metallic mesh materials by using free-floating, multiple layer of metallic mesh. By allow mesh layers to slide past each other, the buckling of the metallic mesh under bending stresses is considerably reduced, and the meshes return to their original state after the stress is released after considerably greater bending that anchored, single layer meshes, as is described in detail later.

Description of the Related Art

The relevant prior art includes:

U.S. Pat. No. 6,581,212 issued to Andresen on Jun. 24, 2003 entitled “Protective” that describes a protective garment for protection of body parts against cuts or puncture wounds comprising an inner layer, a protective layer and an outer layer, the protective layer being composed of a wire mesh of woven metal wires, the thickness of the metal wires being between 0.03 mm and 0.20 mm and the apertures in the wire mesh being between 0.05 mm and 0.45 mm, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

U.S. Pat. No. 7,191,803 issued to Orr, et al. on Mar. 20, 2007 entitled “Elastic fabric with sinusoidally disposed wires” that describes a fabric for use with a system for monitoring prescribed body functions comprising an elastic fabric, adapted to be carried by a torso, which is stretchable in its longitudinal direction so as to expand and contract in response to body movement and size. The carrier includes at least one conductive and inelastic yarn arranged longitudinally of and located between upper and lower surfaces. The conductive yarn is arranged in sinusoidal configurations longitudinally of the fabric. The conductive yarn forms a breakout through one of the outer surfaces, at selected locations along the length of the fabric, forming opposed exposed ends above the surface. A monitoring unit, which includes a connector and a sensor, is secured with the one surface at the breakout with the connector being united with the exposed ends of the conductive yarn. The fabric acts to maintain the monitoring unit in a desired stationary position allowing the sensor to sense signals emitted from the torso and transmit these senses signals.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,903,920 issued to Granqvist on May 18, 1999 entitled “Garment for personal protection” that describes a garment for personal protection against both shots from firearms and stabs from stabbing weapons, wherein the garment comprises an outer covering, an inner covering, and a shot-absorbing unit located between the outer covering and the inner covering. The shot-absorbing unit includes: (i) a plurality of first layers of woven fibers with different mesh sizes, the first layers being flexibly fixed relative to one another and being positioned in mutually different directions, (ii) a plurality of second layers of woven fibers with different mesh sizes, the second layers being flexibly fixed relative to one another and being positioned in mutually different directions, and (iii) at least one intermediate member provided between the first layers and the second layers, the intermediate member being flexibly fixed relative to at least one of the first layers and having mutually interlinked and at least partially mutually movable rings which are made of a material which is capable of resisting sharp objects. The first and second layers of the shot-absorbing unit are placed in a direction of potential incidence of a bullet and a stabbing weapon, with the first layers being positioned closest to the outer covering and the second layers being positioned closest to the inner covering. The second layers are greater in number than the first layers and a total number of the first and second layers and a density of each of the first and second layers are such that the garment has as light a weight and as thin a size as possible and such that the garment maintains relative flexibility in order to thereby be adaptable to and accompany movements of a wearer without obstructing the wearer in any essential respect.

Various implements are known in the art, but fail to address all of the problems solved by the invention described herein. One embodiment of this invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings and will be described in more detail herein below.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention pertains to protective materials, particularly those that may be used in gloves to prevent both cut and puncture injuries to the wearer's hands.

In a preferred embodiment, the main protective layer may include two layers of wire mesh that may be made of woven, metal fibers. The metal fiber from which the layer may be woven preferably has fiber of 0.2 mm diameter or less. The woven metal mesh preferably has apertures in the wire mesh of 0.45 mm or less. Both these dimensions are important in providing protection against puncture type wounds, particularly puncture by medical needles.

The two layers of wire mesh may be placed in proximity to each other, and then sandwiched between two more layers of non-metallic fabric. The two outer layers of non-metallic fabric may be fixedly attached to each other by, for instance, a fastening means such as, but not limited to, stitching, gluing, stapling or some combination thereof. In a preferred embodiment, the two outer, non-metallic fabric layers may not, however, be fixed to the two protective layers made of woven, metal fibers. The two protective layers may, therefore, be free-floating, held in place merely because they are sandwiched between the two outer, non-metallic fabric layers. The two protective layers may, therefore, be free to slide past each other, mitigating their buckling when the protective material may be bent.

One preferred embodiment of the present invention is a protective garment, such as, but not limited to, a protective glove that may be constructed using the protective material described above, and in more detail below.

A protective glove may, for instance, include a palm region that may have protective material over 60% or more by area of the palm region.

In an alternate embodiment, the protective glove may include a palm region made of the protective material that may be shaped to substantially match a silhouette of a human hand.

In a further alternate embodiment, the protective glove may have a fastening, such as stitching, at the extremities of finger and lower palm that may loosely fix the layers of wire mesh to the outer layers of non-metallic fabric.

The protective glove may also have a protective material in which the woven metal fiber layers may be spot glued at one or more locations. Such spot gluing may, for instance, facilitate easier handling of the protective material when assembling the protective glove.

Therefore, the present invention succeeds in conferring the following, and others not mentioned, desirable and useful benefits and objectives.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a protective material with greater resistance to crinkling.

It is another object of the present invention to provide a protective material that is easy to assemble into protective garments such as protective gloves.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide protective gloves that allow full moment of the hand while providing protection against both cut and stab injuries.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a protective material that may be used to provide cost effective protective garments such as, but not limited to, protective gloves.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A shows a cut-away plan view of a protective glove of the present invention taken on the plane “BB”.

FIG. 1B shows a cross-sectional view of a protective glove of the present invention taken on the line “AA”.

FIG. 2A shows a cut-away plan view of a further preferred embodiment of a protective glove of the present invention taken on the plane “BB”.

FIG. 2B shows a cross-sectional view of a further preferred embodiment of a protective glove of the present invention taken on the line “AA”.

FIG. 3A shows a cut-away plan view of yet a further preferred embodiment of a protective glove of the present invention taken on the plane “BB”.

FIG. 3B shows a cross-sectional view of yet a further preferred embodiment of a protective glove of the present invention taken on the line “AA”.

FIG. 4A shows a cross-section view of flat piece of protective material of a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4B shows a cross-section view of a slightly bent piece of protective material of a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4C shows a cross-section view of a bent piece of protective material of a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4D shows a cross-section view of a more bent piece of protective material of a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5A shows a cross-section view of flat piece of protective material of a further preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5B shows a cross-section view of bent piece of protective material of a further preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5C shows a cross-section view of more bent piece of protective material of a further preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 shows a plan view of the protective material for a glove for another preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 shows a plan view of the protective material for a glove for yet another preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 shows a plan view of a cutting lay out for the protective material for a glove for a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings. Identical elements in the various figures are identified with the same reference numerals.

Reference will now be made in detail to embodiment of the present invention. Such embodiments are provided by way of explanation of the present invention, which is not intended to be limited thereto. In fact, those of ordinary skill in the art may appreciate upon reading the present specification and viewing the present drawings that various modifications and variations can be made thereto.

FIG. 1A shows a cut-away plan view of a protective glove of the present invention taken on the plane “BB”.

In a preferred embodiment, the protective glove 125 of the present invention may include a wire mesh of woven, metal fibers 105 that may have a lower palm region 155 and a palm region 130, as well as a non-metallic fabric 110, stitching 145, at least one finger portion 170 and a upper extremity of a thumb region 175.

FIG. 1B shows a schematic cross-sectional view of the protective glove of the present invention taken on the line “AA” of FIG. 1A.

The cross-section shows the protective material 100 that may be comprised of two layers of wire mesh of woven, metal fibers 105 that may be placed in proximity to each other. The two layers of wire mesh of woven, metal fibers 105 may be sandwiched between a third and a forth layer that may be made of a non-metallic fabric.

The wire mesh of woven, metal fibers 105 is preferably made of a suitable metal such as, but not limited to, stainless steel or other suitable, non-corroding, alloys that may include mixtures of elements such as, but not limited to, copper, iron, manganese, aluminum, tungsten, tin, titanium, chrome or some combination thereof.

In order to resist both puncture and cut wounds, the wire mesh of woven, metal fibers 105 is preferably made of fibers having a diameter of 0.2 mm or less, and more preferably of fibers having a diameter of 0.03 mm or less. For the same reasons, the apertures in the woven, wire mesh are preferably less that 0.45 mm in maximum separation, and more preferably less than 0.05 mm. These sizes provide cut resistance and puncture resistance against blades and sharp objects such as, but not limited to, cut glass, knife blades, medical needles, nails or some combination thereof.

The non-metallic fabric 110 may be any suitable fabric that help provide additional properties required of the protective material. In gloves, for instance, the non-metallic fabric 110 may be any suitably soft, flexible, hard wearing fabric such as, but not limited to, leather, cotton, linen, rubber, synthetic fiber, synthetic non-fibrous material, or some combination thereof. Important aspects of the non-metallic fabric 110 in a protective glove 125 may, for instance, be to provide a comfortable feel where it touches the wearer's hand, and to provide weather and wear protection where it contacts the objects the wearer may be handling. Breathability of the material, water resistance, and weight may also be important factors in some circumstances.

The cross-section of FIG. 1B show how the outer layers of non-metallic fabric 110 as well as the inner layers of non-metallic fabric 110 may be held together by, for instance, stitching 145. In other embodiments, the protective glove 125 non-metallic fabric 110 layers may also, or instead, be secured to each other by other joining methods such as, but not limited to, gluing, welding, stapling or some combination thereof.

The cross-section of FIG. 1B also show how the protective layers 120 of wire mesh 115 may be placed in proximity to each other, but only sandwiched between the joined non-metallic fabric 110 layers, and not joined to them. This arrangement may allow the two protective layers 120 of wire mesh 115 to slide past each other when the protective glove 125 or the protective material 100 may be bent. This sliding may reduce the stresses on the wire mesh 115 during bending and allow them to be bent, or deformed, further than a single mesh layer protective material, before the mesh crumbles and results in irreversible, or partly irreversible, crumpling or wrinkling. Possible mechanisms for the improved bending behavior of multi-layer metal meshes may be discussed in more detail later in this application.

As shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, the protective layers 120 of wire mesh 115 may only be places on the palm side of the glove, and may not cover the entire palm side of the hand. In a preferred embodiment, however, the protective wire mesh 115 may cover at least 60% by area of the palm side of the hand, and may be concentrated in the palm region of the palm side of the hand.

In a further preferred embodiment of the present invention the protective material 100 may be shaped to roughly match a silhouette of a human hand, and thereby constitute up to 100% of the palm side of the protective glove 125.

FIG. 2A shows a cut-away plan view of a further preferred embodiment of a protective glove of the present invention taken on the plane “BB” of FIG. 2B, while FIG. 2B shows a cross-sectional view of the same embodiment taken on the line “AA” of FIG. 2A.

The protective glove 125 of FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B may be similar in construction to the glove of FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B.

The protective glove 125 shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, however, may have stitching through the protective layers 195 in the vicinity of, for instance, the upper extremity finger portion 180, the lower palm region 155, the upper extremity of the palm region 185 or the upper extremity of a thumb region 175 or some combination thereof.

The protective glove 125 of this embodiment may still have the stitching through non-metallic fabric 190 around the periphery of the glove, holding all four layers of non-metallic fabric. By having stitching holding the wire mesh 115 to the palm side non-metallic fabric of the protective glove 125, the wire mesh 115 may be prevented from long term gradual migration within the glove, while continuing to have the two layers of wire mesh 115 slide past each other over large regions of the glove.

In yet a further embodiment, the stitching through the protective layers 195 and the stitching through non-metallic fabric 190 may be combined with each other in, for instance, the upper extremities of the finger portion 180, the upper extremity of a thumb region 175 or the lower palm region 155, or some combination thereof. Combing the stitching in these regions may, for instance, save labor and material costs.

The stitching through the protective layers 195 and the stitching through non-metallic fabric 190 may both also, or instead, be accomplished by other suitable methods of joining fabrics such as, but not limited to, gluing, stapling, welding or some combination thereof.

FIG. 3A shows a cut-away plan view of yet a further preferred embodiment of a protective glove of the present invention taken on the plane “BB” of FIG. 3B, and FIG. 3B shows a cross-sectional view of the same embodiment of a protective glove taken on the line “AA”.

The embodiment of the protective glove 125 shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B may be similar in construction to the embodiment of the protective glove 125 shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B. The embodiment shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B may, for instance, include one or more spot glued regions 160. These spot glued regions 160 may, for instance, hold the two wire mesh 115 layers together, without affecting the non-metallic fabric 110. In this way the two wire mesh 115 may be lightly held together to make handling them easier during assembly of the protective glove 125. The remainder of the glove may be secured by stitching through non-metallic fabric 190.

FIGS. 4A-4D shows the effect of bending a protective material 100 that may be made of a single layer of woven, wire mesh 220 sandwiched between a top layer of non-metallic fabric 210 and bottom layer of non-metallic fabric 215. The single layer of woven, wire mesh 220 may be free-floating within the sandwich, i.e., not fixedly attached to either the top layer of non-metallic fabric 210 or the bottom layer of non-metallic fabric 215.

The bending of the single layer material may then be compared to the FIGS. 5A-5C that show the bending of a protective material 100 having two layers of wire mesh 115 sandwiched between two layers of non-metallic fabric 110.

FIG. 4A shows a cross-section view of flat piece of protective material of a preferred embodiment of the present invention in which a single layer of woven, wire mesh 220 may be sandwiched between a top layer of non-metallic fabric 210 and a bottom layer of non-metallic fabric 215.

FIG. 4B shows a cross-section view of a slightly bent piece of protective material of a preferred embodiment of the present invention. The protective material 100 may be bent so that the bottom layer of non-metallic fabric 215 forms a concave shape. A compressive force 235 may then be experienced in the bottom layer of non-metallic fabric, and transferred via friction to the bottom surface of the single layer of woven, wire mesh 220. At the same time, the top layer of non-metallic fabric 210 may stretch and a tension force 240 may be experienced in the top layer of non-metallic fabric. This tension may be transferred to the top surface of the single layer of woven, wire mesh 220 by friction. With slight bending, the wire mesh 115 may act like a ductile material and expand on the upper surface and contract on the lower surface, both according to a linear elastic relationship.

FIG. 4C shows a cross-section view of a piece of protective material of a preferred embodiment of the present invention that has been bent further than in FIG. 4B. The greater tension force transferred from the top layer of non-metallic fabric 240 to the upper surface of the single layer of woven, wire mesh 220 may now approach, or exceed the wire metals lower yield point, resulting in some local flow of the metal in the upper surface of the mesh. This may then result in a mild buckling of single layer of woven, wire mesh 245.

FIG. 4D shows a cross-section view of a piece of protective material of a preferred embodiment of the present invention that has been bent even further than that shown in FIG. 4C. The tension and compression forces on the single layer of woven, wire mesh 220 may have now reached or exceeded the upper yield of the metal material of the mesh. The result may be severe, partially irreversible buckling of single layer of woven, wire mesh 250.

This type of buckling may be seen in actual protective glove 125 as crinkling of the metal mesh if the gloves are squeezed up too tightly.

In contrast, FIGS. 5A to 5C show how using a double layer of metal mesh can significantly alleviate this problem by reducing the stresses experienced by the mesh and significantly decreasing the bending radius at which buckling occurs.

FIG. 5A shows a cross-section view of flat piece of protective material of a further preferred embodiment of the present invention that may have a top layer of woven, wire mesh 255 in contact with a bottom layer of woven, wire mesh 260. Both layers of mesh may be sandwiched, in a free-floating configuration, between a top layer of non-metallic fabric 210 and a bottom layer of non-metallic fabric 215. FIG. 5A also shows a number of fiducial markers 265 on the top layer of woven, wire mesh, and a number of fiducial markers 270 on the bottom layer of woven, wire mesh. Initially the fiducial markers on the top and bottom layers of metal mesh are in alignment.

FIG. 5B shows a cross-section view of a piece of protective material of a further preferred embodiment of the present invention that may have been bent slightly. A tension force 240 that may be causing stretching of the top layer of non-metallic fabric 240 may be transferred to the top layer of the top layer of woven, wire mesh 255 by friction.

Similarly, compressive forces that may be causing contraction of the bottom layer of non-metallic fabric 235 may be transmitted, by friction, to the bottom surface of the bottom layer of woven, wire mesh 260.

Being metallic, the frictional forces between the top and bottom layers of wire mesh 255 are typically significantly lower than the friction forces between the wire mesh and the non-metal fabric outer layers.

As shown by the differential movement of the fiducial markers on the top and bottom layers of wire mesh, the top mesh layer expands and slides past the bottom layer of the mesh that is being forced to contract.

By sliding past each other, the mesh layers avoid transferring all their tension or compression to each other. Each layer therefore experiences significantly lower forces than the cast of the single layer.

As shown in FIG. 5C even when the bending of the material may be greater than the radius at which buckling occurred for the single layer case, the stresses in the meshes may still be well below the metals yield points, so that they continue to bend elastically.

The explanation above may also account for the fact that experimentally, no further improvement in preventing buckling may be observed with three layers of mesh material. This may be because the third, intermediate layer does nothing to further reduce the transfer of stress between the upper and the lower mesh layers.

FIG. 6 shows a plan view of the protective material for a glove for another preferred embodiment of the present invention.

In the protective glove 125 shown in FIG. 6, two pieces of mesh may be joined to produce an overlap in the palm region of the glove. The protective material 100 may, for instance, include a thumb and palm piece of metal mesh 310 and a palm and fingers piece of metal mesh 315. These two pieces of mesh may be joined by, for instance, stitching, or other joining means, that may be applied in a vicinity of the upper palm region 320. The joining means may also, or instead, be applied in a more central portion of the palm. The joining may be by a means such as, but not limited to, stitching with tread, gluing, welding, or some combination thereof.

The protective glove 125 may therefore have a double layer of free-floating mesh covering the palm region of the hand.

FIG. 7 shows a plan view of the protective material for a glove for yet another preferred embodiment of the present invention. The protective glove 125 of FIG. 7 may be similar in construction to that shown in FIG. 6. The protective mesh of the embodiment of FIG. 7 may, for instance have one or more cover-over flap for the fingertips 330 and/or a cover-over flap for the tip of the thumb 340. These cover flaps may, for instance, have side cut-outs 335 to help facilitate the flap being bent around the finger-tip or the thumb tip of the protective glove 125.

The cover-over flap may provide extra protection for the finger tips or thumb tips. This extra protection may, for instance, be valuable for chefs or other glove wearers that perform rapid slicing with sharp knifes in a close vicinity to their finger or thumb tips.

FIG. 8 shows a plan view of a cutting lay out for the protective material for a glove for a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

The thumb and palm pieces of metal mesh 310 may for instance be laid out in a “69” pattern in line with the palm and fingers piece of metal mesh 315. A second palm and fingers piece of metal mesh 315 could be laid out directly beneath the palm and fingers piece of metal mesh 315 so that protective mesh for a pair of gloves may be cut from a rectangular strip of mesh material with a low amount of waste material.

Although this invention has been described with a certain degree of particularity, it is to be understood that the present disclosure has been made only by way of illustration and that numerous changes in the details of construction and arrangement of parts may be resorted to without departing from the spirit and the scope of the invention.

Claims

1. A protective material, comprising:

a first and a second protective layer, said layers being comprised of a wire mesh of woven, metal fibers having fiber diameters of 0.2 mm or less, and apertures in the wire mesh of 0.45 mm or less;

a third and a forth layer, said layers being comprised of a non-metallic fabric; and

wherein said protective layers are placed in proximity to each other, and sandwiched between said third and a forth layer, with said third and fourth layers being fixedly attached to each other, but not being fixedly attached to said first and second protective layers.

2. A glove, comprising a palm region comprising 60% or more by area of said protective material of claim 1.

3. The glove of claim 2 wherein said palm region comprising the protective material of claim 1 is shaped to substantially match a silhouette of a human hand.

4. The glove of claim 3 having holding stitching extending through said protective layers at an upper extremity of at least one finger portion of said protective layers, said holding stitching at an upper extremity of a thumb region of said protective layers and said holding stitching in a vicinity of a lower edge of a lower palm region of said protective layers, and wherein said holding stitching fixedly attaches said protective layers to said sandwiching third and fourth layers.

5. The glove of claim 2 wherein said woven metal fiber protective layers comprise at least one spot-glued region, said spot-glued region fixedly joining said protective layers together in a vicinity of said spot-glued region.