Patent Application
20230366768
Special insulated gloves are necessary when working on vehicles with high voltage batteries such as hybrid gasoline/electric and all electric vehicles. These electrical-insulating gloves are made of dielectric materials to protect the worker from electrical shock. For safety reasons the gloves are required to be tested for leaks prior to use to avoid electrical current being transferred to the worker. To check for leaks, the existing solution is a manual air pump device that fills the glove up with air, whereupon the inflated glove is sealed and transferred to soapy water and checked for bubbles. After testing the tech needs to wipe all the water off (hopefully) using a clean rag. This process is cumbersome, inconsistent, and can miss small leaks. A better solution is needed that doesn't require a hand pump and is more repeatable and reliable than the existing technology.
The present invention is a device used to verify the integrity of heavy duty dielectric gloves and that does not require that the gloves be dunked in water to establish the absence of holes and leaks. The device begins with a supply of compressed air and further includes a pressure regulator, a pressure gauge, and a flow meter with an indicator to display current flow rate. The regulator includes a valve with 2 positions, one to permit the glove to be filled with pressurized air, and a second position that maintains a constant elevated pressure within the glove. A hose that delivers the air to the glove is attached to an adapter that fits the wrist of the glove to provide a sealed or closed system. The adapter has multiple variations, including an adjustable inflation cuff with a bladder that expands to fit the glove, a mechanical expansion device that expands to fit, or a step adapter that fits different size gloves.
The unit is connected to air supply and the flow meter is the first method of leak check. If the flow meter shows no air passing through the system, then the glove is leak-free. To insure glove meets the specifications, the unit can be changed to position decay check and pressure gauge can be checked for any decay in pressure.
As shown in
Once the air pressure in the glove reaches its designated test pressure, the air flow meter 22 and pressure gauge 24 will determine whether the glove 34 has a leak 50 or whether the system is closed and no air is escaping. That is, if the air flow meter 22 shows a continual flow of air into the glove 34 without a corresponding rise in air pressure as reflected in the pressure gauge 24, this indicates that air is leaving the system, presumably through a hole in the glove 34. The greater the value of the airflow shown by the air flow meter 22, the larger the leak. If the air flow meter indicates that the airflow has stopped, this means that no air is escaping and the glove's integrity is intact (
The system provides a back-up check to determine a leak, where after the glove is inflated the switch is moved to “decay,” closing off the flow of air to the adapter 16. If there is no leak, the pressure will remain constant since the system is designed to be a closed system. However, if the pressure begins to drop, this indicates that the closed system is in fact open and air is escaping, presumably through a leak in the glove. This secondary check ensures greater reliability when investigating the safety of the gloves being checked.
Although the foregoing description is based on a specific embodiment, it is to be understood that various modifications and substitutions are available and would be readily appreciated by one of ordinary skill in the art. Therefore, the invention should not be limited to only those components depicted or described herein, but rather by using the words of the appended claims using their customary and ordinary meanings, consistent with but not limited by this description and these drawings.
