Patent Application
20250031781
The present inventions relate to the field of protective face masks, and more specifically, to devices anti-fog devices for use on protective face masks. Among other things, the disclosed inventions provide a barrier to prevent or greatly reduce fogging of eyewear and other eyewear worn by a user when the user is exhausting air or vapor while wearing the protective facemask.
Embodiments of the inventions improve upon the prior art by providing an anti-fog protective strip affixed to a protective face mask.
Embodiments of the inventions are directed to an anti-fog strip that is positioned along the top inner portion of a protective face mask to conform with the nose of a user to prevent the breath of a user to escape out of the protective face mask along the top portion of the mask which would cause glasses or eyewear worn by a user to fog.
In some embodiments, the anti-fog strips can be positioned along the sides of the facemask.
Additional embodiments of the present invention, the antifog strip is constructed of a porous material made from a polymeric material that comprise a low-density foam material such that the material prevents fogging.
Some embodiments provide an anti-fog strip that can be affixed to a separately sold facemask by means of an adhesive applied to the anti-fog strip such that the anti-fog strip may be affixed to the facemask by means of the adhesive.
Further yet, additional embodiments of the inventions are directed to an antifog strip positioned around the entire inner perimeter of the facemask.
Before any embodiments of the invention are explained in detail, it is to be understood that the inventions are not limited in their application to the details of construction and/or arrangement of components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the following drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments, and of being practiced or carried out in various ways. Also, it should be understood that the phraseology and terminology used herein should not be regarded as limiting the scope of the inventions unless explicitly stated.
The following discussion is presented to enable a person skilled in the art to make and use embodiments of the inventions. Various modifications to the illustrated embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art. Thus, embodiments of the invention are not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown but are to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and features disclosed herein. The following detailed description is to be read with reference to the figures, in which the elements in different figures have life reference numerals. The figures, which are not necessarily to scale, depict selected embodiments and are not intended to limit the scope of embodiments of the inventions. A person having ordinary skill in the art will recognize the examples provided herein have many useful alternatives and fall within the scope of embodiments of the invention.
The present invention includes an anti-fog device incorporated into a protective face mask. The invention contemplates that the anti-fog strip may be affixed to the protective mask by way of example either sewing the anti-fog strip to the protective mask or using an adhesive material to secure the anti-fog strip to the protective mask. The purpose of the anti-fog strip is to prevent or greatly reduce the amount of fogging of glasses or other eyewear worn by a user wearing a protective mask. The invention contemplates that the protective mask could include surgical masks, KN95 masks, cloth masks, respirators, LICAP procedure masks, activated cardon masks, sponge masks and the like. It is understood that the anti-fog barrier may be made of a polymer compound which exhibits anti-fog properties. The anti-fog barrier may be made of a sponge like polymer or other low density foam material. The important feature of the anti-fog barrier is that the air exiting the mask does not cause any eyewear 50 worn by the user to fog over. The anti-fog barrier therefore prevents or greatly reduces the amount of fogging of any lens worn by the user of the mask. The antifog strip could be made of several layers including a high-density foam material that contacts a user's skin and a porous layer made of low-density foam that is positioned adjacent to the face mask that acts as the anti-fog barrier. The anti-fog strip must be made from a material that does not irritate a user's skin while at the same time preventing the user's breath from causing any eyewear to fog; such material can be of polypropylene (PP), Spunbond-Meltblown-Spunbond (SMS) or equivalent.
It should be understood that the anti-fog strip can be permanently affixed to the protective mask, the anti-fog strip can be an integral part of the protective mask, or in alternative embodiments the anti-fog strip can be sold separately and later attached to the protective mask.
Turning now to
The protective mask 20 can be made of many different types of material. For example, the protective mask can be made of cotton, bamboo, filter materials such as PM 2.5 or KN95, kitted synthetic fabric materials. Medical protective masks 20 can be made of non-woven fabric, which has better bacteria filtration and air permeability. The non-woven fabric in a medical mask 20 is either sandwiched between cotton-free absorbent gauze or is the surface material with a layer of filter paper in between. Disposable procedural 3-ply facemasks contain an inner soft absorbent cellulose non-woven fabric, a middle melt-blown polypropylene material that acts as a filter and an outer hydrophobic non-woven fabric. The 3-ply mask is made of cellulose, melt-blown polypropylene, and polyester. Disposable surgical facemasks 20 are usually made of spun-bond polypropylene outer and cellulose or thermal bonded polypropylene inner. The outer material in N95 masks could be made of spun-bond polypropylene or cellulose, while the materials in the inner layer could include cellulose, thermal bonded polypropylene, or spun-bond polypropylene.
Turning to
The anti-fog barrier 40 of the present invention may be a membrane comprised of low-density polyethylene (LDPE), polypropylene and/or an ethylene-vinyl acetate (EVA). Polypropylene is a fabric made of soft textured plastic fibers which are fused together using ultrasound and steam. The material is porous and can be manufactured having a number of pores per inch of density, including by way of example, 60 pores per inch, 30 pores per inch or 10 pores per inch. The term porosity, measured in Pores Per Inch, designates the number of pores in one linear inch of the material. The number of pores per inch measures the cell density in the piece of foam. Porosity in foam describes how many pores—small openings on the surface of the material—are present within the material. Greater porosity means more pores are present. Foams that are high in pores are more permeable, which means they will allow more liquids and gases to pass through them. Porous foam tends to also be less dense and will compress more than non-porous foam. They also have a high surface area to volume ratio and an open-cell structure. Porous foams are typically made from polyurethane foam or ester polyurethane foam. Less porous foams tend to be classified as closed-cell, meaning that the cells of the material are more densely packed together and enclosed. This makes the foam less permeable and denser.
The anti-fog barrier 40 of the present invention may also be constructed from a non-woven fabric. Non-woven fabrics are fabrics that are produced by mechanical, thermal or chemical processes, but without being woven and without the need to convert fibers into yarn, since the fiber webs are bonded together as a result of the inherent friction (entanglement) from one fiber to another. The anti-fog barrier 40 may be made up of multiple layers including a polypropylene layer formed using a spunbond process where the polypropylene is stretched into a continuous filament, to which the addition of chemical, thermal or mechanical bonding processes, cause the fibers form a strong, durable fabric. In addition, a meltblown layer may be bonded to the spunbound layer to form the anti-fog barrier 40. A meltblown is a nonwoven polypropylene fed though a linear matrix to form long, thin fibers. The multilayer anti-fog barrier 40 comprising the meltblown and spunbond layers tends to repel water and has the characteristics the porous material described above.
The anti-fog barrier 40 may be affixed to the protective mask 20 through several means. For example, the anti-fog barrier 40 may be affixed to the protective mask by sewing the anti-fog barrier 40 to the protective mask 20. Alternatively, the anti-fog barrier 40 may be affixed to the protective mask by securing the anti-fog barrier 40 to the protective mask 20 by means of an adhesive, glue or other types of viscous adherent. As shown in
It should be understood that there are many components to the inventions of the anti-fog protective mask. While specific combinations of elements are disclosed in specific embodiments, it should be understood that any combination of the different features may be utilized in the anti-fog protective mask.
The foregoing disclosure and description of the invention are illustrating and explanatory thereof, and various changes in the size, shape and materials as well as in the details of illustrated construction may be changed without departing from the spirit of the invention.
It is understood that the invention is not limited to the specific embodiments disclosed and that modifications and other embodiments are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims. Although specific terms are employed herein, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation.
