Patent Application
20160270566
This invention relates generally to feather-filled bedding articles, including pillows, comforters, featherbeds and the like, and more specifically concerns such a bedding article which includes user protection against feather quills.
Bedding articles, such as pillows for instance, but others as well, using feathers for fill are popular; they have the advantage of low cost relative to down fill and yet have potentially the same flexibility and suppleness as down-filled pillows. However, feather-filled pillows have the disadvantage of discomfort from the feather quills making contact with the user, through the pillow shells and other fabric layers. Further, normal movement of the pillow or the user on the pillow during use creates noise as the feathers move, which can be a disadvantage for some users.
The primary means currently of overcoming these disadvantages is the use of a polyester batting layer with a quilted construction binding the upper and lower fabric layers, respectively, of bedding articles such as pillows. In other bedding articles, just the upper layers are quilted, since the article is always in one orientation, such as a feather bed. However, this construction, while generally overcoming the discomfort caused by the quills, has its own disadvantages, as the article tends to become stiff, losing the normal fluid feeling or adjustability of a feather-filled article. The article seems to have a stiff platform as opposed to an adjustable, fluid-like feeling. Hence, it is desirable to have a feather-filled article, such as a pillow, with a construction which has a barrier function for feather quills, but which maintains the natural suppleness and adjustability of a feather or down-filled pillow.
Accordingly, the feather-filled, non-quilted bedding article, comprises: a top fabric layer; a supple, flexible polyester or wool felt layer below the top fabric layer, the felt having a weight in the range of 50 gsm to 150 gsm; an upper inner lining fabric layer providing protection for a user against feather quills; a baffle assembly or no baffle assembly; and a bottom fabric layer, wherein feathers are located within the baffle assembly when a baffle assembly is present, wherein when no baffle assembly is present, the article includes a lower inner lining fabric layer and a supple, flexible polyester or wool felt layer above the bottom fabric layer and wherein feathers are located between the upper and lower inner lining fabric layers.
The present invention is directed toward a bedding article, for instance a pillow, which is feather-filled, as opposed, for instance, to down filled or polyester filled. The present bedding article has a construction which protects the user against feather quills, and yet retains the natural suppleness and adjustability of feathers or down as fill, without the use of quilting in the construction for quill protection.
Positioned adjacent the top fabric layer and the bottom fabric layers, respectively, are layers 24 and 26 of poly felt material. The two layers of poly felt are important for the present invention. The felt layer is typically 100% polyester with a weight of between 50 gsm to 150 gsm, with approximately 100 being preferred. In the embodiment shown, the felt has a needle punch construction which creates a felt product without the use of water. While there are many different types of felt using various natural or synthetic fibers, the present polyester felt layers 24 and 26 are soft and supple while still heavy enough to act as a barrier to the quills. In needle punch felting, special needles are used in felting machines which in operation grab the top layer of the fibers, entangling them with the inner layer of fibers as the needle enters the polyester fibers. The tangles and compressed fibers with the needle punch process results in a strong yet supple and soft felt material. The resulting felt layer provides the required superior quill barrier because of its density characteristics, while retaining suppleness for maintaining adjustability of the pillow. The same characteristics are true for both felt layers 24 and 26. The pillow has in addition two inner lining layers 30 and 32 with upper inner liner layer 30 being adjacent the upper felt layer 24 and bottom or lower inner lining layer 32 being adjacent the poly felt layer 26. These layers can be standard woven polyester or cotton fabrics or non-woven fabrics.
In the embodiment shown, the six layers are sewn or otherwise attached together around the peripheries thereof, leaving an opening 34 (
The result as explained above is a pillow which retains the natural suppleness and adjustability of feathers or down, while providing superior barrier protection against quills and the noise of feathers during adjustment. The present invention thus makes possible a less expensive feather pillow without any of the disadvantages of conventional feather-filled pillows.
A comforter article will have a substantially identical construction, with top and bottom fabric layers, adjacent felt layers and top and bottom inner lining fabric layers. Feather fill is positioned between the top and bottom inner lining layers.
The featherbed can be of various dimensions, for instance standard, queen and king size beds, as well as other bed sizes. The featherbed 40 shown in
As explained above, the present invention includes a plurality of layers of material forming a bedding article, for instance the pillow of
Although a preferred embodiment or the invention has been disclosed for purposes of illustration, it should be understood that various changes, modifications and substitutions may be incorporated in the preferred embodiment without departing from the spirit of the invention as defined by the claims which follow:
