Patent Application
20220194590
The present disclosure relates to an aircraft galley, and more particularly to an aircraft galley having copper plated touch surfaces to prevent bacterial and viral spread.
The COVID-19 virus and other common viruses can be transmitted by touching common surfaces and leaving behind some amount of saliva with viral particles. Due to the heightened need for aircraft and other high density vehicles to have additional protective measures to prevent or limit infection especially on high frequency touch points such as handles, knobs, latches and catches, to prevent cross contamination and the spread of the virus between passengers and cabin crew.
With a new global reality and increased risk in place a need has arisen for effective passive counter to viral contamination without any additional chemical cleaning, while providing simple installation and replacement, and potential for retrofitting to currently in-service aircraft. There also remains a need in the art for such systems, methods, and components that are economically viable. The present disclosure may provide a solution for at least one of these remaining challenges.
An aircraft including a cabin galley having a plurality of touch surfaces is disclosed. At least one of the touch surfaces includes a copper material and a user facing surface. The at least one touch surface can be connected to a touch-screen interface. The touch screen interface can be copper plated. The touch surface can include a counter top or a drawer handle. The copper plating can be transparent.
A majority of the touch surfaces can be copper plated. A portion of the touch surfaces or touch surface does not include copper. A majority of the touch surfaces of the cabin galley can include a copper material. A majority of handles within the galley can include a copper surface. The copper material includes a non-copper overlay, wherein the non-copper overlay is opaque. The non-copper overlay can include a non-copper dye. The non-copper overlay can cover a majority of the copper material. The non-copper overlay may leave a portion of the copper material uncovered. The copper material may be not visible on the human visibility spectrum. The copper material can include a copper alloy. The copper material overlays a substrate not including copper material. The copper material can be removably attached to a substrate.
These and other features of the systems and methods of the subject disclosure will become more readily apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments taken in conjunction with the drawings.
So that those skilled in the art to which the subject invention appertains will readily understand how to make and use the devices and methods of the subject invention without undue experimentation, preferred embodiments thereof will be described in detail herein below with reference to certain FIGURES, wherein:
Reference will now be made to the drawings wherein like reference numerals identify similar structural features or aspects of the subject invention. For purposes of explanation and illustration, and not limitation, a partial view of an exemplary embodiment of a galley of an aircraft in accordance with the invention is shown in
The touch surface can include a counter top 104 or drawer handle 106. It is conceived that a majority of the touch surfaces within the galley can be copper plated. Some touch surfaces are not able to include copper for electrical transmission purposes, thus some touch surfaces within the galley remain without a copper plating. Some of the touch surfaces can be partially covered with a copper material.
In order provide further antibacterial protection or to improve visibility of the copper material to a user, in order for the users to target the copper surfaces or portions of surfaces the copper can include a non-copper overlay or coating. The non-copper overlay wherein the non-copper overlay is opaque and is non-copper colored. The coating allows the copper antibacterial and anti-viral properties to still permeate and render the copper useful, while also enhancing the look, feel, and visibility of the copper surfaces. The non-copper overlay can include a color that includes a wavelength visible to the human eye. The non-copper overlay can cover a majority of the copper material but leave a portion of the copper material uncovered.
The methods and systems of the present disclosure, as described above and shown in the drawings, provide for a galley system providing better protection from viral and bacterial spread. While the apparatus and methods of the subject disclosure have been showing and described with reference to embodiments, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that changes and/or modifications may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and score of the subject disclosure.
