The present invention relates generally to eyewear and particularly to protective loupes eyewear. More particularly, the invention relates to loupes eyewear with a laser protective insert assembly.
The use of laser equipment is common in the dental and medical arts. To protect the eyes of the laser device user, protective eyewear is recommended and required. Typically, the dentist or physician utilizes eyewear with magnifying loupes when working with the laser equipment. These eyewear structures restrict the ability to provide protective eyewear for the user because the loupes are positioned in front of the eyeglass lenses thereby necessitating the positioning of the protective laser filter lenses against the back or the inside of the eyeglasses.
Although prior art eyewear assemblies have been proposed and utilized to protect the eyes of dentists, physicians and other laser device users wearing loupes eyewear, the laser protective structure typically requires assembly before the loupes eyewear is utilized. Because the laser protection is not always required when the loupes eyewear is worn by the dentist or surgeon, a need exists in the dental and medical arts to provide a protective loupes eyewear assembly that is easily assembled and utilized when necessary, i.e., during the course of a dental or medical procedure.
The protective loupes eyewear assembly of the present invention provides an improvement and overcomes the difficulties and limitations of the prior art by providing a protective slip-in insert structure which matingly engages the inside of the eyeglass frame and which is easily positioned on the inside of loupes eyewear.
A protective loupes eyewear assembly having an eyewear frame with magnifying loupes extending outwardly therefrom. The top of the eyewear frame has notches therein and a bottom shelf structure on the inside of the frame.
An insert assembly having a mating configuration with the eyewear frame and which is constructed to be positioned and slipped inside and behind the lenses of the eyewear frame. A pair of outwardly extending tab members are provided on the top of the insert assembly for positioning the tab members into the notches at the top of the eyewear frame. The bottom edge of the insert has a configuration for positioning and resting in the inside bottom shelf structure of the eyewear frame.
The insert assembly has a lens structure which absorbs laser light of a specified wavelength or wavelength range.
An advantage of the protective loupes eyewear assembly of the invention is to provide an easy to utilize protective structure wherein the protective laser insert entirely slips in and is secured behind the loupes eyewear frame.
Another advantage is to provide a protective laser insert which mates into the inside of loupes eyewear and which may be easily slipped in and removed during the course of a dental or medical procedure.
These and other advantages of this invention will become clear from the following description by reference to the drawings.
Referring to
As further shown, eyewear frame 11 has hinges 26 and 27 and temples 24 and 25 extending therefrom for engaging the lateral portions and top of the ears of the wearer. The temples 24, 25 are shown joined to hinges 26, 27, respectively, by means of pin/screws 34, 35 as is known in the eyewear art. Although a curved, wrap around style eyewear frame is shown in
Referring further to
The base structures 32 and 33 and tabs 21 and 22, as particularly shown in
When in position, the lenses 29 and 30 of the insert assembly 12 provide laser protection for the lenses 13 and 14 of the eyewear frame 11. The lenses 29 and 30 are constructed of laser filter lenses for use with various laser light wavelength sources. For example, insert lenses may be provided for dental related lasers emanating laser wavelengths of 800-830 nm OD5, 735-1064 nm OD 5 and 1064 nm OD 7. Lenses may be provided to filter any laser light wavelength utilized in the various arts.
The eyewear frame 11 and insert assembly 12 may be constructed of polymeric materials or other materials utilized in the eyewear arts. The lenses 29 and 30 of the insert assembly 12 may be formed of a polycarbonate material, glass or other material adapted to absorb laser light.
The protective loupes eyewear assembly 10 provides an eyewear frame 11 having a removable insert assembly 12 with a mating shape and configuration which permits a wearer to easily remove and reposition the laser light protective insert assembly 12 behind the eyewear frame 11 by means of the cooperating tab structures 21, 22 and notches 18, 19 and cooperating bottom edge 31 and interior bottom ledge 23 of the insert assembly 12 and eyewear frame 11, respectively.
As many changes are possible to the protective loupes eyewear assembly embodiments of this invention utilizing the teachings thereof, the descriptions above, and the accompanying drawings should be interpreted in the illustrative and not in the limited sense.
This Application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/683,324, filed Jun. 11, 2018, entitled Protective Loupes Eyewear Assembly, and is fully incorporated by reference herein.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
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6371612 | Barrows | Apr 2002 | B1 |
20130278893 | Lemay | Oct 2013 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country | |
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62683324 | Jun 2018 | US |