Patent Grant
8143553
The present invention relates to towel warmers and more particularly to portable sterilizing towel warmers.
Warm and sterile towels are more than just creature comforts in the modern world; they have therapeutic as well as medicinal value. While it may be merely desirable to have a warmed towel available after bathing or showering, a warm and sterilized towel could be an absolute necessity in a medical environment. It is well known that a warmed towel serves to offset the chilling effect due to evaporation of water from the body after showering, even at normal room temperatures.
From the user's perspective, the feel of a warm towel against the skin immediately after a shower or a bath is a delight. If the experience is enjoyed in one's home, it is usually because one has managed to complete a shower shortly after having run a load of towels through the dryer. Today's typical dryers do not have a sterilizing feature. So although a warm towel may feel good on the skin it may be serving as a vehicle for germs. It is impractical for dryers to have a sterilizer because even if a towel were sterilized it would have to be stored in a sterile environment until needed. Clearly this would be impractical. Having a sterilized towel handy outside of a hospital environment is rare, some first aid kits contain sterilized gauze and bandages but these are not warm nor do they cover the same skin area as that of a towel.
With the rise of antibiotic resistant bacteria, flesh eating bacteria and other pathogens, cleanliness is of the utmost importance. Sterilizing a towel is the best way to ensure that there are no pathogens on surface that is going to be in direct bodily contact. If a towel contaminated with a dangerous virus or bacteria came in contact with several individuals the potential for the spread of disease is greatly increased. The pleasant soothing feeling that a warm towel provides after a bath or shower is positive reinforcement to a user to continue using warmed towels on a regular basis. By combining a sterilizing feature, a user will benefit from a clean sterile towel free of dangerous bacteria and other pathogens. Unfortunately, at this time there are no devices that both warm and disinfect towels that are designed for the home market.
Furthermore, it would be advantageous to have a device that would not only warm and sterilize a towel but was also portable and could be easily transported. A lightweight device that an individual could carry and take on an airplane that was no larger than a small suitcase would be the optimal solution.
At this time there are no devices available to the public that provide such portability. Today, only hospitals and well stocked medical facilities have the means to provide warm sterile towel to patients. Environments outside of hospitals may provide warm towels but they usually have not been sterilized. There is no provision at this time for portable convenient means for providing warm and sterile towels. A heating device should be capable of warming uniformly through several layers of towel over a period of a few minutes.
While a number of apparatus have been proposed for this purpose, all of them have many disadvantages. These disadvantages include complexity, expense, permanent installation as well as the inability to satisfactorily sterilize a towel or other fabric article. Prior art towel warmers have hung a single section of a towel in front of a blower so that warm air is directed against one side of the towel. Such warmers generally rely on relatively slow heat conduction from one side of the towel to the other to thoroughly warm the towel. Other warmer have placed a heating element within a perforated support mounted in housing. However, in such warmers, no provision has been made for forcing air to flow over the towel from within the towel support or around the support within the housing. As a result, the warming is relatively slow and uneven.
Other towel-warming devices utilize a system of racks that have rods for hanging a draped towel under a hood. A blower mounted in the hood above the towel blows air downwardly over the outside of the towel.
Yet in another variation, a towel is hung freely from a bar of the support, a blower-heater below the towel directs warm air upwardly across the freely hung towel. The disadvantage of all such devices is obvious, all of these devices are intended to be permanently mounted on the floor or installed in the wall of an existing bathroom. Clearly this is not a portable solution.
In the past there have been portable towel warmers introduced. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,918,290. This device includes a rigid cabinet, an electrically operated heater, perforated means for supporting the towel, and means for exhausting heated air. The disadvantage of this device is relative complexity, noise produced by blower and considerable weight and size. Furthermore, this device has no provision for sterilization. While a towel may have been warmed, the device itself may be responsible for spreading disease; lastly this device still requires considerable space for storage.
Nothing in the art discloses a device that could have practical applications at a disaster relief site, temporary hospital or even a traveler's hotel room. All of the aforementioned devices suffer from shortcomings that make them unacceptable for the purposes of a portable sanitary towel warmer in either normal use or in emergency situations. Natural disasters, terrorism and other cataclysmic events dictate the need for a device that is portable and can efficiently warm and sterilize a towel.
The present invention is directed to a portable apparatus for warming and sterilizing towels. The present invention is embodied in the form of a compact lightweight, heat resistant, portable enclosure that can quickly heat and sterilize a towel or other small fabric article. The overall dimensions of the device are not much larger than that of a standard bath towel itself. When not in use the device may be stored under a bed or in a small closet.
The device's enclosure is formed with five sides surrounding an aperture at the top. Within the back wall of the enclosure is formed a series of apertures. One of the apertures forms an integral carrying handle for the present invention while the other apertures are intended for use as means of hanging the present invention on a door, wall or other vertical surface. This is one of the multiple use configurations available to the present invention.
The embodiment provided herein further discloses a door being hingedly affixed to the enclosure, a heating element, a sterilizing element and a pivoting towel support being disposed within the enclosure. The heating element is provided as means to heat a towel or other fabric article while the sterilizing element is provided as a means of sterilizing a towel or fabric article. The pivoting towel support plate is provided inside the enclosure for supporting a towel during the heating and sterilizing process. The pivoting feature of the towel support works in cooperation with the enclosure to facilitates easy insertion and extraction of a towel or fabric article. In at least one embodiment of the present invention disclosed herein, a heating element is incorporated within the pivoting towel support.
The present invention provides means for a plurality of use configurations including standing upright, lying down and hanging vertically. During upright use the enclosure is supported in a vertically position by a plurality of removable supports. These supports are removably affixed to the bottom of the enclosure and allow the invention to be deployed while standing on the ground, a floor or other flat surface. The supports are easily removed when the invention is being stored or in traveling.
While the following detailed description describes at least one embodiment of the present invention, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and arrangement of parts illustrated in the accompanying drawings since the invention is capable of other embodiments and of being portrayed in various ways. Furthermore, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present invention may be practiced in more than those embodiments described herein.
The present invention described herein is directed to portable towel warmers and more specifically to portable towel warmers that are also sterilizers. The present invention is intended to be used by everyone, from the average consumers in the home or traveling to medical personal at makeshift hospitals and disaster relief sites. The benefits provided by the present invention are numerous, including but not limited to, preventing the spread of disease by disinfecting towels and other fabric articles, providing a user with an enjoyable warming experience when removing water from the skin and allowing a user to bring that enjoyable experience with them where ever they travel.
Referring now to the drawings;
Further depicted in
Attached to the front of the enclosure 10 is a door 17. In this embodiment of the present invention the door 17 is the front of the enclosure 10, it should be noted that the inventors contemplate other embodiments wherein the door would include a separate frame (not shown). In the alternate embodiment, the frame (not shown) would form the front of the device and a door would be disposed within it. The door 17 of the present invention is hingedly affixed to the enclosure 10 by a set of hinges 16. The hinges 16 are affixed to one side 11 of the enclosure 10. The hinges 16 allow the door 17 to swing outward away from the enclosure 10.
Also depicted in
The two apertures, noted as 13b, are formed in the shape of inverted keyholes; these are disposed in the rear portion 13 of the enclosure 10. They are formed completely through the material and set equidistantly apart on a parallel axial line with the plane of the bottom 14 of the enclosure 10. This aperture 13b arrangement aids the user by allowing them to hang the enclosure 10 in a level attitude with relative ease. The user need only place a level line against a wall or other vertical surface and the user can hang the enclosure 10 quickly and accurately. The inverted keyhole shape of the apertures 13b is designed to be placed over a screw head and slid down in order to capture the head of the screw thus providing a mechanical lock.
The light weight and small size of the present invention once again benefits the user. Because of the small enclosure 10 size, relatively little wall space is taken up, furthermore, because of the relatively light weight the invention, the enclosure 10 can be hung on modern gypsum board walls, commonly referred to as “drywall”, with simple nails or screws alleviating the need for special provisions such as expanding drywall fasteners, commonly referred to as “molly bolts”. After being hung on a wall, the unit can be removed at a whim and transported elsewhere without leaving significant damage or scarring to the wall.
Lastly,
The internal area of the enclosure 10 is coated with a reflective coating that helps propagate the sterilizing rays emitted by the sterilizing lamp 25. During use, sterilizing rays emitted from the lamp 25 reflect all along the inner surfaces of the enclosure 10 and bathe the towel 28 in germicidal light killing germs and bacteria.
Also shown in
In operation, the door 17 of the invention is opened; the towel support plate 19 pulled forward at its top causing it to pivot from the pivot point 20 at the base. The towel support plate 19 rotates in an arc a distance for the rear portion 13 of the enclosure 10. The towel support plate's arc motion is arrested by the folding pair of linkages 21. A temporary space is now formed between the towel support plate 19 and the rear portion 13 of the enclosure 10. The user then places a towel on the towel support plate 19 such that it is equally divided over the towel support plate 19. Then the user raises the towel support plate 19 which acts to fold the linkages 21 into the enclosure 10. Once the towel support plate 19 is in the upright vertical position, the user closes the door 17 and engages the latch 18 to the side 12 of the enclosure 10 in order to prevent the door 17 from opening during use. The unit is then automatically activated by a sensor (not shown) and all three heating elements 22a, 22b and 22c respectively, instantly heat up and begin to radiate heat into the towel 28. At the same time, the sterilizing lamp is also activated. Within a few seconds the towel 28 is very warm to the touch, completely sterilized and ready for use. The sensor determines the temperate of the towel and automatically shuts the unit off in order to prevent overheating.
It should be noted that the inventors contemplate various means to activate and shut off the present invention. While an automatic electronic sensor was disclosed for the above embodiment, a wealth of mechanical, electrical and electronic actuator and timing means both manual and automatic are also contemplated by the inventors. These include but are not limited to; infrared heat sensors to detect optimal temperature reached, mechanical timers, electronic timers, web based control (both manual and automatic) and microcontroller slaved sensors designed to prevent overheating and automatically shut off. Finally, it should be noted that the inventors have contemplated that the invention can be used with many sizes of towels and bath sheets the largest of which is only limited by the size of the enclosure 10.
As with any device intended for use by the consumer, safety is of the utmost importance. The present invention also utilizes a temperature limiting switch (not shown) which is provided to prevent overheating of the unit thus protecting the unit from premature burnout and potential fire hazard.
At this point the reader may find it useful to refer to
The plan view depicted in
At this point in the reading the reader may wish to view
Lastly,
The forgoing detailed description is to be understood as being in every respect illustrative and exemplary, but not restrictive, and the scope of the invention disclosed herein is not to be determined from the detailed description but rather from the claims as interpreted according to the full breadth permitted by the patent laws. It is to be understood that the embodiment shown and described herein are only illustrative of the principals of the present invention. Those skilled in the art could implement various other feature combinations without departing from the scope and sprit of the invention.
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20080173631 | Gagas et al. | Jul 2008 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 2008006326 | Jan 2008 | KR |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20100206862 A1 | Aug 2010 | US |
