Patent Application
20150151147
The present invention relates, in general, to breathing protective device.
In particular, this invention relates to a powered adaptor for facial masks and respirators with replaceable air filtering cartridges.
Face masks are being used by millions of people around the world for either protecting own respiratory system from foreign particles in the air (with the use of respirator masks), or for preventing own exhaled material from contaminating the environment (with the use of surgical mask). However the typical passive masks require the user to generate significantly higher vacuum in order to suck in the required among of filtered air because the suction needs to overcome the resistance of airflow through the filter. Even worse is that the exhaled gas is mostly trapped in the masked volume, and the user's inhalation mostly takes in the exhaled gas within the mask. Such lack of fresh air causes nausea and discomfort among vulnerable users such as those with chronic respiratory problems, elderly people and young children.
There had been attempts to ease the release of exhaled gas from the mask. An approach commonly adopted is with the inclusion of a one-way exhalation release valve such as the 3M's ‘Cool Flow’ valve. However such use of the valve only marginally improves the comfort of using it as it still requires expending strength of breathing to force the valve to open during exhalation. Moreover the inclusion of such a valve in each unit of disposable mask would significantly increase the price of the mask.
There are also a large variety of powered and supplied air respiratory systems available in the market. Examples are the 3M's Versaflo and Powerflow 7900 PF systems. However these systems are typically bulky and expensive and not for the consumer market. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,854,464, and 7,464,705 and 4,233,972 also describe various forms of powered respirators that involve the use of electric fans to overcome the resistance to air flow in the filtration elements.
In particular, U.S. Pat. No. 6,257,235 describes an invention of a face mask with a fan attachment to enhance the breathability and comfort of the mask. However this invention has numerous drawbacks. Firstly it requires a special mask designed with an interface to secure the fan onto it, which is different from the traditional face masks currently available in the market. This implies that the popular disposable masks cannot be used unless significant modification is carried out. Secondly the fan is located near the bottom of the mask which implies that those hot exhaled gas not immediately sucked out by the fan would rise and be trapped in the air chamber near top of the mask. Thirdly the exhaled gas is also directly blown towards the mask and its moisture and heat could be retained in the filter media of the mask and eventually returns along with the filtered air. Having moisture trapped in the filter would negatively affect the effectiveness of the filter. Fourthly the mask is soft and conforming and this could cause the fan to move too close to the wearer's face and thereby not giving sufficient clearance for the fan to function properly.
The present invention seeks to provide an improved respiratory aid that could greatly alleviate the difficulty inherent with overcoming the resistance against air flow through the air filter while not requiring the user to change his breathing method. The air filter could be face mask that blocks the particles or organic materials suspended in the air with electrostatics and/or interception and diffusion by the fibres, or replaceable cartridge type with active chemical components such as 3M's 6001 Organic Vapor Cartridge that could neutralize the active harmful chemicals in the air. The mask could be respirator type that prevents the harmful particles from the environment reaching the user's respiratory system, or the surgical type that prevents that harmful material generated from within the user's respiratory system from reaching the environment. In the following description all these air filters will be referred to as ‘mask’.
The target is to create a device that could work along with the passive masks currently available in the market, and it allows the user to breathe as easily as if he is not wearing the mask while getting the full benefit of using it.
It comes in the form of a powered adaptor for the masks currently available in the market, is compact in size and light in weight and not significantly larger than the typical disposable mask currently being used.
It utilizes two commonly available components: the portable battery pack developed for mobile phones' charging, and micro-size fans developed for cooling electronic components. The use of such low-cost matured components makes the apparatus affordable to the consumers.
The simplified form of the device basically consists of a mounting module that has receptive means for securely attaching a mask onto it and also allows it to be properly mounted onto the user's face in air-tight manner. The purpose of this mounting module is to create an air chamber bounded by its wall, the mask and the user's face.
The mounting module has an air vent at the top portion, with a fan mounted on it so that the air can be blown into or out of the air chamber in the mounting module. The fan could be a suction or blower type depending on the usage of the apparatus. If the apparatus were to be used with the respirator mask, the fan would be of suction type that helps in removing the exhaled gas trapped within the air chamber, while also create vacuum that helps in sucking in fresh air from outside the device through the mask. If the apparatus were to be used with the surgical mask then the fan would be blower type that blows the air from outside through the vent into the air chamber, while forcing the exhaled gas from the user through the surgical mask.
For use with the respirator mask, it is also essential to add a deflector in the mounting module positioned in-between the mask and the user's face. The purpose of this deflector is to prevent most of the exhaled gas from reaching the mask and thereby leaving the heat and humidity inside the filter. Another function of the deflector is to detour the exhaled gas to the vent and be effectively sucked out of the air chamber by the fan. In this way the contamination of filtered air inside the air chamber by the exhaled gas could be minimized.
The power to the fan could be manually adjusted by the user via a switch to achieve comfortable level of air flow rate.
The air vent could also be covered with a lid. In this way the user could continue using the mask with the adaptor even if the fan fails to operate due to faulty circuit or depletion of battery power.
This invention has numerous advantages over the prior arts. Firstly the apparatus only needs common masks currently available in the market and this eradicates the need for special-produced masks. This makes the apparatus cost-effective because its disposable component is relatively low-cost and can be easily acquired. Secondly the mounting module provides a rigid structure that maintains sufficient clearance between the fan and the user's face so that the fan is able to function properly. Thirdly the fan is mounted near the top portion of the mask to ensure that all the hot exhaled gas can be removed by the fan and not be trapped inside the upper volume of the air chamber in the mask. Fourthly the deflector in the mounting module prevents much of the exhaled gas from being directly blown from the nose into the mask, thereby drastically reduces the amount of heat and moisture being retained in the filtration media and returns along with the filtered air. The reduction in the amount of exhaled moisture being trapped in the filter contributes to the maintenance of the effectiveness of the filter. It also acts as a partial partition screen and reduces the contamination of filtered air inside the air chamber by the exhaled gas.
A preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be more fully described, by way of example, with reference to the drawings of which:
A detailed description of the present invention will now be given in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention. In the following description, details are provided to describe the preferred embodiment. It shall be apparent to one skilled in the art, however, that the invention may be practiced without such details. Some of these details may not be described at length so as not to obscure the invention.
The present invention is generally aimed at providing a device that aids the user of face mask in overcoming the discomfort caused by the resistance in air flow due to the presence of filter. The generic embodiment is as shown in
The mounting module 100 also has four harness slots 105, 106, 107 and 108 that are used for securing the two elastic harness straps 130 and 131, and these are in turn used to secure the apparatus to the user's head. The upper harness strap 130 is tied onto the harness slot 106 on the left end and onto harness slot 107 on the right end, while the lower harness strap 131 is tied onto the harness slot 105 on the left end and onto harness slot 108 on the right end.
Referring now to
The mounting module 100 has a mask interface 113 that allows the outer rim of the mask 120 to be tightly conformed onto, such that an air-tight interface between them can be achieved. The middle of this mask interface 113 is the deflector 112, whose function is to detour the exhaled gas from the user towards the outer fan 110, and also to prevent most of the exhaled gas from reaching the mask 120 which otherwise would result in its heat and moisture being retained in the filter substrate of mask 120 and return along with the filtered air.
The mask interface 113 is flatter than the mask 120 so that when the latter is mounted onto the former there is a substantial gap in-between the two and only a small area near the rim of the mask 120 is in contact with the mask interface 113. This clearance ensures that much of the filtration surface of the mask 120 is functioning. The mask interface 113 also has numerous windows such as 114 and 115 that allow the filtered air from the mask 120 to flow around the deflector 112 and reach the user's nose.
The mask 120 available in the market comes with elastic harness braids for securing onto the user's face. They are usually in the form of upper and lower rings. For the mask 120 to be mounted to the mounting module 100, the upper ring is cut into two separate portions upper-left braid 122 and upper-right braid 123, while the lower ring is cut into lower-left braid 121 and lower-right braid 124. The upper-left braid 122 is then wrapped around the upper-left notch 102 on the mounting module 100. Similarly upper-right braid 123 is wrapped around upper-right notch 103, lower-left braid 121 is wrapped around lower-left notch 101, lower-right braid 124 is wrapped around lower-right notch 104. The upper-left braid 122 is then tied and knotted with lower-left braid 121 around the rim of mounting module 100, while the upper-right braid 123 is tied and knotted with lower-right braid 124.
The mounting module 100 has an air vent 240 near the top where the user's nose is supposed to be located. The outer fan 110 is secured at the exit top end of this air vent 240. The air vent 240 could be covered up with the use of a lid 230. This would close the air chamber so that the apparatus could still function as an air filter in case the outer fan 110 fails to operate due the reasons such as depletion of battery power. The power cable 160 of the outer fan 110 is secured along the slot 111 on the mask interface 113.
The mounting module 100 also could have an optional pin-holed container 220 that stores and gradually releases fragrance essence into the filtered air in the air chamber. This is to enhance the utilization of the apparatus by providing the additional option to the user. The fragrance essence could be liquid type and stored in cotton blob housed in the container 220. It could also be solid type and be directly slotted into the container 220. The mounting module 100 also has a soft compliant face mount 109 at the rear that snugly fits onto the user's face.
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It will be appreciated that although one preferred embodiment has been described in detail, various modifications and improvements can be made by a person skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the present invention.
