Patent Application
20060090233
The invention relates to protective clothing and flexible mesh made from interwoven metal rings for production of protective clothing.
Clothing made from interwoven metal rings is worn by persons handling tools, machines or objects that involve an especially high risk of injury, especially a risk of gashes to the body and its limbs. Typical work in areas, where such protective clothing is worn, includes meat processing activities in slaughter-houses, the poultry and fish industry. Flexible mesh of interwoven metal rings has heretofore given good results in such applications, because it offers sufficient protection from gashes and cuts and because it adapts itself readily to the human body, due to its excellent flexibility, and does not hinder movements of the body. The high degree of flexibility is achieved by the fact that the metal rings of the mesh surround each other mutually and loosely.
However, the high flexibility of such mesh material is also connected with certain disadvantages. This will become apparent, for example, from a protection for the forearm that can be fastened on a glove in the form of a cuff. If that forearm protection consists of a metal ring mesh, it will collapse and telescope in the area of the wrist, unless some stiffening is provided that prevents the cuff from collapsing or unless the forearm protection is made longer to extend over the elbow where it can be fastened by a strap wrapped around the arm.
It has been known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,507,353 to stiffen a metal ring mesh by bands consisting of silicon or a plastic material, with a strip of the metal ring mesh embedded in it. It is, however, a disadvantage of that solution that such silicon or plastic bands complicate the cleaning and disinfecting processes for such protective clothing. This is a disadvantage especially in applications in the foodstuff industry. In addition, such silicon or plastic bands are subject to heavy wear and abrasion in practical use.
A protective glove made from a metal ring mesh and provided with a cuff with interwoven spiral springs has been known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,088,123 A. Production of such a glove is complex. The spiral springs add thickness to the cuff and render cleaning difficult, which is undesirable. The ends of the spiral spring can be hidden only with difficulty and provide a risk of injury.
GB 2 275 174 A discloses a protective glove having a cuff made from a metal ring mesh, in which pockets are formed that receive an oblong, flat, wave-shaped spring made from spring steel. Such a protective glove is complicated to produce and consists in its stiffened area of three, instead of one, superimposed layers which extremely complicates cleaning of the glove and increases its weight.
German Utility Patent G 91 13 608.3 discloses a protective glove, made from a metal ring mesh, with a cuff formed completely or partially from a set of rigid plates arranged around the arm and connected one with the other by individual rings independent of the metal ring mesh. Such a cuff is, however, uncomfortable and its poor adaptation to the arm becomes worse as the length of the plates increases so that longer cuffs require the use of a plurality of plates in series.
US 2004/0031079 A1 discloses a mesh for protective clothing consisting of metal rings, which is stiffened by welding or soldering together interlinked rings in partial areas of the mesh. This permits, for example, protective gloves with stiffened cuffs to be formed that offer increased comfort to the wearer and can be cleaned as easily as mesh without any stiffening. It is, however, a drawback of that system that the welding points existing between the welded rings are only small. This is connected with the risk that the number of welding points and, thus, the rigidity of the mesh will decrease over time as a result of use of the protective clothing.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,729,831 A discloses a protective glove with a cuff made from a metal ring mesh. The cuff is provided with a longitudinal slot and is stiffened along the edge of the slot by a silicon band passing through the mesh. Stiffening the material by means of a silicon band is connected with the same disadvantages as those indicated above in connection with U.S. Pat. No. 4,507,353. Two closing straps, made from the metal ring mesh, are provided on the edge of the slot, with a closure element attached to each of the straps, the closure elements comprising claws by means of which they can be hooked into the metal ring mesh.
The object of the present invention is to provide a metal ring mesh, stiffened in places, from which protective clothing, especially gloves, can be formed that offer high comfort to the wearer, can be produced at low cost and are easy to clean.
This object is achieved by a flexible mesh of interwoven metal rings for production of protective clothing, which is provided with one or more recesses in which an oblong stiffening element is arranged, which latter consists of a metal strap made from a spring material and provided with holes at least along its edge, which holes can be engaged by rings of the mesh that are located along the edge of the at least one recess.
The object is further achieved by a protective clothing made from the flexible mesh of interwoven metal rings and comprising one or more recesses in which an oblong stiffening element is arranged, which latter consists of a metal strap made from a spring material and provided with holes at least along its edge, which holes can be engaged by rings of the mesh located along the edge of the at least one recess.
The invention offers essential advantages:
In order to permit the stiffening element to be optimally fitted in the mesh formed from rings, the stiffening elements are provided with holes, preferably along their entire outer edge. Further holes may be provided in that area of the stiffening element, which is enclosed by holes provided along its edge, which further holes, by their number and arrangement, may have a favorable influence on the weight, the flexibility and ventilation of the wearer's skin. Preferably, the respective stiffening element is linked with all rings that form the edge of the at least one recess in the ring mesh in which the stiffening element is fitted. One thereby achieves especially intimate, optimum linking between the stiffening element and the flexible mesh. To this end, the holes provided on the outer edge of the stiffening element are conveniently arranged and adapted to the structure of the flexible mesh so that each hole on the outer edge of the stiffening element can be engaged, and indeed is engaged, by one ring of the mesh.
The oblong stiffening elements have lengthwise edges that preferably extend in parallel one to the other, which makes them especially well suited for stabilizing the length of the flexible mesh in a given direction. The holes intended for interlinking with the rings of the flexible mesh, which holes are identical in diameter, are arranged on the lengthwise edges of that stiffening element, conveniently at regular spacing, the centre spacing of the holes preferably being approximately identical to the outer diameter of the rings so that the rings and the holes are arranged in a modular pattern optimally matching each other.
Stiffening elements having a width of between 1.5 cm and 3 cm, especially between 1.8 cm and 2.5 cm, are especially well suited. Stiffening elements of that width offer high wearing comfort of a forearm protection, for example a cuff on a glove. A plurality of such stiffening elements may be arranged around the arm in the longitudinal direction of the forearm protection, in which case a strip of the metal ring mesh should remain between every two stiffening elements. A glove comprising a forearm protection of that kind also can be turned inside out.
It is further an advantage in terms of wearing comfort if at least one of the two ends of the stiffening element is rounded. In the case of a forearm protection, for example a cuff on a glove, at least the end of the stiffening element near the wrist should be rounded.
In known mesh material formed from metal rings the rings generally consist of stainless steel or of titanium. These materials are also suited for purposes of the present invention. In mesh materials according to the invention, the stiffening elements preferably consist of stainless steel or of a superelastic alloy. Especially well suited for stiffening elements made from stainless steel is a spring-steel band material having a tensile strength of 1900 mm2 to 2100 N/mm2, for example the steel DIN No. 1.4310, with a thickness of 0.3 mm. A superelastic alloy especially well suited is Nitinol, an alloy that consists of nickel and titanium in approximately equal parts and that shows superelasticity in a selectable temperature range and shape memory in another temperature range.
The invention is especially well suited for flexible mesh which has a top side and an underside, and is built up from lines of rings arranged one beside the other with each line, that does not form an edge of the mesh, being enclosed between a first adjacent line of rings on the one side and a second adjacent line of rings on the other side, and each ring of a line, that is not located on an edge of the mesh, engaging in two adjacent rings of the first adjacent line from the top and in two adjacent rings of the second adjacent line from the bottom. The rings in one line do not, however, engage in rings in the same line. The mesh therefore shows a zigzag pattern between the top side and the underside in transverse direction to the lines, with the effect that the stiffening elements fitted in the recesses of the mesh are located between its top side and its underside, which prevents the stiffening elements from digging their edge into the skin of a person wearing the mesh. This situation does not change even if a glove made according to the invention is turned inside out. Due to the described line-by-line structure the mesh can be pushed together to a considerable greater degree in a direction transverse to the direction of the lines than in the direction of the lines. The direction of the lines is also known as grain direction. The oblong stiffening elements are fitted in the mesh preferably transversely to the grain direction of the mesh, i.e. parallel to the ring lines.
The invention is suited for stiffening protective clothing for different purposes, for example for stiffening aprons, especially however for stiffening protective gloves provided with a cuff. In that case one or more stiffening elements are fitted in an identical number of recesses of the metal ring mesh forming the cuff, preferably from the area of the wrist up to rear end of the cuff, or to a point near the rear end of the cuff.
The glove 1 illustrated in
The basic structure of a glove of that kind is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,729,831 A, to which express reference is herewith made with the intention to incorporate the disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 5,729,831 A in the present application.
The structure of the metal ring mesh of the glove 1, including its cuff 2 and the fastening straps 3 and 4, is shown in
The stiffening elements 14 are fitted in matching recesses in the metal ring mesh. Each ring 14 located on the edge of such a recess passes through one of the holes 15 and at the same time through two adjacent rings 10 of the metal ring mesh.
On the two lengthwise edges of the stiffening element 14 it is the rings 10 of a single line 9 that pass through the holes 15.
Each of the rings 10, passing through the holes 15, engages additionally two rings 10 of the adjacent line 9 that does not form the edge of the recess. At the rounded ends of the stiffening elements 14, the rings engaging the holes 15 are not the rings of a single line, but rather rings 10 of different lines 9, namely of those lines that are crosses by the edge of the stiffening elements 14.
In the area of the rear end of the stiffening elements 14 two further holes 16 are provided in that element, in which a closure element 5 provided on the rear fastening strap 4 can be engaged by its hooks 6. The rest of the stiffening elements 14 is not provided with holes and, consequently, can be labeled, for example with a model designation, a size, an order number and/or a mark.
The realization of the interlinking between the metal ring mesh and the stiffening element 14 is illustrated in detail in
