Patent Application
20070006356
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of wetsuits used for diving, surfing and the like, and more specifically to an improved wetsuit comprising two layers of laminated rubber sponge material which may or may not be coated with fabric and a stuffing material of variable thickness, between the two rubber sponges.
The two layers of laminated rubber sponge material are glued at the borders of the sponges and form a water-tight construction, called an “Air Chamber”. Using the stuffing material to hold and increase the amount of air in the Air Chamber reduces the rate of temperature conduction of the water, thereby slowing down thermal loss of the wearer's body. The stuffing material is light with a density of 0.02˜0.05 mg/cm3, and a multi-layered fiber structure and the like. The Air Chamber can be located at any part of the wetsuit, but is normally on the breast or back and the selected portion when used, provides the person who wears the wetsuit the function of heat retaining/thermal insulation and impact protection.
2. Background Art
There have been numerous disclosures of wetsuits which employ a fabric carrying internal channels, sacs and the like for containing a material for better controlling temperature. By way of example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,960,469 to Nuckols et al discloses a wetsuit or drysuit having an internal manifold for circulating an insulating liquid near the skin to protect a diver in cold water. In another example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,004,662 to Buckley discloses a laminated composite material containing a thermal buffer in the form of phase change material embedded in capsules. Other prior art discloses wetsuits designed to protect the wearer against inadvertent impact. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,434,749 to Grounds et al, discloses a wetsuit having inserted pads in selected areas. The pads are placed in pockets which may be between wetsuit layers or in sealed sacs containing a gel, water or air.
Such prior art tends to be either very cumbersome, or irreversible and generally does nothing to add to the aesthetic appearance of the wetsuit.
It would be highly advantageous to have a wetsuit made of a laminated sponge material having built-in chambers for receiving a stuffing material which could add to the thermal insulation properties of the fabric while also affording a degree of impact protection. It would also be advantageous if such a fabric employed such chambers in a selected location which added to the aesthetic appearance of the wetsuit.
The present invention comprises a wetsuit and wetsuit fabric made of a multi-layer laminated sponge material having a plurality of air chambers formed between the sponge layers. The air chambers are formed by unattached regions between sponge layers that are otherwise attached such as by gluing. The unattached regions are free to separate from each other and expand in response to receiving low density stuffing material. Using the stuffing material to hold and increase the amount of air in the Air Chamber reduces the rate of temperature conduction of the water, thereby slowing down thermal loss of the wearer's body. The stuffing material is light with a density of 0.02˜0.05 mg/cm3, and of multi-layered fiber structure and the like. The Air Chamber can be located at any part of the wetsuit, but is normally on the breast or back and the selected portion when used, provides the person who wears the wetsuit the function of heat retaining/thermal insulation and impact protection.
In the embodiment described herein, these chambers are of a selected shape, however, it will be understood that these chambers may be virtually any shape depending simply on the design chosen for the air chambers. The disclosed embodiment illustrates application of the invention in the front and back chest area of a wetsuit. However, it will also be understood that sponge material employing expandable air chambers may be employed at virtually any location in a wetsuit as well as in accessories such as gloves, boots and hoods. Irrespective of their shape and location, the expandable air chambers within the layers of a wetsuit sponge, provide increased thermal insulation, improved impact protection and a new aesthetic effect in the wetsuit design. All of these advantages are achieved without substantially complicating the manufacture of the wetsuit fabric by simply controlling the application of glue between the sponge layers such as by embossing the glue in a selected pattern before joining the layers and placing very low density material between the sponges where no glue has been applied.
The aforementioned objects and advantages of the present invention, as well as additional objects and advantages thereof, will be more fully understood hereinafter as a result of a detailed description of a preferred embodiment when taken in conjunction with the following drawings in which:
Referring to the accompanying drawings, it will be seen in
In the preferred embodiment shown herein, these air chambers are filled with a low density stuffing material 4. This material will preferably have a density of 0.02˜0.05 mg/cm3 such as can be achieved using a multi-layered fiber structure (i.e., layered cotton fiber, synthetic fiber or the like). Any desired thickness of stuffing material can be used.
The stuffing material serves multiple purposes. It serves an aesthetic purpose by changing the outer aesthetic appearance of the wetsuit material. It serves as a thermally insulating material along with the air that fills the chamber occupied by the stuffing material to better protect the areas of the body inside the portions of the wetsuit having such a chamber. It also serves to protect against impact at the wetsuit surface.
It will now be apparent that what has been disclosed herein is an illustrative embodiment of the invention hereof and which comprises a unique wetsuit construction having two layers of sponge material at least some parts or regions of which remain unglued and thus separatable to form air chambers preferably filled to a selected degree with a low density stuffing material. Those having skill in the wetsuit art will now perceive various modifications which may be made to the illustrated embodiment. Therefore, it will be understood that the invention hereof is not limited to the disclosed embodiment, but only by the appended claims and their equivalents.
