Patent Application
20180194539
Disposable gloves are commonly used by doctors, nurses and health care providers generally when examining patients. The health care provider typically uses the gloves to as sterile a contact with some portion of the surface of the patient.
In accordance with the invention there is provided an apparatus 5 enabling serial delivery of a plurality of interconnected gloves 10, the apparatus comprising:
a plurality of flexible gloves 10, each flexible glove comprised of a top 50 and a bottom 60 sheet of polymeric material, the top and bottom sheets being sealably attached to each other in an arrangement that forms five enclosed fingers, TR, IR, MR, RR, LR, adapted to generally receive five fingers of a human hand, and an enclosed palm portion 10p having an open bottom end 59o adapted to generally receive a palm of a human hand,
a distal tip end 300, 302 of one or more of the fingers IR, MR, RR of a downstream one 10c the plurality of gloves being readily detachably 302p, 304p attached to a bottom proximal edge 57 of an open bottom end 59o of an immediately upstream one 10b of the plurality gloves,
the attached upstream 10b and downstream 10c gloves forming a continuum of serially attached gloves formable into a cylinder or roll 20,
each of the serially attached gloves having a longitude L generally extending from the distal tip end 304 of the one or more fingers to the open bottom end 59o,
the serially attached downstream 10c and upstream 10b ones of the plurality of gloves 20 being readily detachable from each other by exertion of human manual pulling force on one or both of the serially attached gloves wherein the pulling force is exerted in a direction along the longitude L of the serially attached gloves that pulls the serially attached gloves in opposite directions or away from each other.
The tip ends 302p, 304p of at least two of the fingers of the downstream one of the serially attached gloves is readily detachably attached to the bottom proximal edge 57 of the open bottom end 59o of an immediately upstream one of the plurality gloves.
Each of the gloves can have five fingers arranged and configured generally corresponding to the arrangement of a thumb, a forefinger, a middle finger, a ring finger and a pinky finger of a human hand, wherein the tip end of either the forefinger and the middle finger or the middle finger and the ring finger are the only fingers that are readily detachably attached to the bottom proximal edge of the open bottom end of an immediately upstream one of the plurality gloves.
The at least two of the fingers of the downstream one of the serially attached gloves are typically readily detachably attached to the bottom proximal edge 57 of the open bottom end 59o of the immediately upstream one 10b of the plurality gloves in an arrangement that forms an enclosed groove or slot S between opposing edges 302e, 304e of the at least two fingers of the immediately downstream one 10c of the gloves and the bottom proximal edge 57 of the open bottom end 59o of the immediately upstream 10b one of the gloves.
The apparatus can further comprise a dispenser 800 comprising a base 121 and a cylinder 152 mounted on the base 121, the cylinder 152 having an axis A around which the roll 20 of gloves is mounted and is rotatable R, the dispenser including a detent 126 mounted to the base in an arrangement relative to the cylinder wherein a downstreammost glove 10c on the roll 20 is manually graspable by a user to dispose the detent 126 within the slot S with a downstream pulling motion P to forcibly engage the detent 126 against the bottom proximal edge 57 of a glove that is attached immediately upstream 10b to the downstreammost 10c glove.
The downstream and upstream gloves can be readily detachably attached to each other via a series of adjacent perforations 202p, 302p formed in sequential linear or curvilinear arrangement or seam in a sheet of the polymeric material that extends between the distal tip ends of the one or more fingers of the downstream glove and the bottom proximal edge 57 of the open bottom end 59o of the upstream glove, the perforations being formed of a size selected to enable ready detachment along the linear or curvilinear arrangement of perforations by exertion of normal pulling force by human hand.
A plurality of additional gloves 10a et al. are typically readily detachably attached to the upstream and downstream gloves in the same manner that the upstream and downstream gloves are readily detachably attached to each other to form a continuum of at least three serially attached gloves that are formable into a cylinder or roll 20.
The sheet of polymeric material typically comprises a woven or punch formed fabric, a paper material or a solid polymeric material comprised of one or more of polyethylene, polypropylene, polyester or the like and wherein the sheet has a thickness of less than about 500 microns.
In another aspect of the invention there is provided a method of delivering a series of gloves to a user in serial fashion comprising rotatably mounting a roll of interconnected gloves as claimed in claim 1 on a cylinder in an arrangement wherein a downstreammost glove on the roll is readily manually engageable by a user to pull the downstreammost glove apart from an immediately upstream attached glove.
In another aspect of the invention there is provided an apparatus 5 enabling serial delivery of a plurality of interconnected gloves 10, the apparatus comprising:
a plurality of flexible gloves, each flexible glove comprised of a top 50 and a bottom 60 sheet of polymeric material, the top and bottom sheets being sealably attached to each other in an arrangement that forms a first thumb 105 receptacle and at least a second finger receptacle 108 that is adapted to receive at least two other fingers 110, 112, 114 of a human hand, and an enclosed palm portion 10p having an open bottom end 59o adapted to generally receive a palm of a human hand,
a distal tip end 67 of the second finger receptacle 108 being readily detachably attached to a bottom proximal edge 57 of an open bottom end 59o of an immediately upstream one 10b of the plurality gloves,
the attached upstream 10b and an immediately downstream 10c glove forming a continuum of serially attached gloves formable into a cylinder or roll 20,
each of the serially attached gloves 10a, 10b, 10c having a longitude L generally extending from the distal tip end 67 of the second finger 108 receptacle to the open bottom end 59o or edge 57,
the serially attached downstream and upstream ones of the plurality of gloves being readily detachable from each other by exertion of human manual pulling force on one or both of the serially attached gloves wherein the pulling force P is exerted in a direction along the longitude L of the serially attached gloves that pulls the serially attached gloves in opposite directions or away from each other.
The second of the at least two finger receptacles is typically adapted to receive at least three fingers 110, 112, 114 of a human hand.
The tip end 67 of the second 108 of the at least two finger receptacles of the downstream one 10c of the serially attached gloves is preferably readily detachably attached 30, 32 to the bottom proximal edge 57 of the open bottom end 59o of an immediately upstream one of the plurality gloves.
The tip end 67 of the second 108 of the at least two finger receptacles of the downstream one 10c of the serially attached gloves is readily detachably attached to the bottom proximal edge 57 of the open bottom end of an immediately upstream one 10b of the plurality gloves.
Such an apparatus can further comprise a dispenser 800 comprising a base 121 and a cylinder 45 mounted on the base, the cylinder 45 having an axis A around which the roll 20 of gloves is mounted and is rotatable R such that a downstreammost 10c glove on the roll 20 is manually graspable by a user to pull the downstreammost glove 10c apart from an immediately upstream attached glove 10b.
The downstream and upstream gloves 10b, 10c are readily detachably attached to each other via a series of adjacent perforations 30 formed in sequential linear or curvilinear arrangement or seam 32 in a sheet of the polymeric material that extends between the distal tip end of the second of the finger receptacles of the downstream glove and the bottom proximal edge of the open bottom end of the upstream glove, the perforations being formed of a size selected to enable ready detachment along the linear or curvilinear arrangement of perforations by exertion of normal pulling force by human hand.
A plurality of additional gloves are typically readily detachably attached to the upstream 10b and downstream 10c gloves in the same manner that the upstream and downstream gloves are readily detachably attached to form a continuum of at least three serially attached gloves that are formable into a cylinder or roll.
The sheet of polymeric material preferably comprises a woven or punch formed fabric, a paper material or a solid polymeric material comprised of one or more of polyethylene, polypropylene, polyester or the like and wherein the sheet has a thickness of less than about 500 microns.
In another aspect of the invention there is provided a method of delivering a series of gloves to a user in serial fashion comprising rotatably mounting a roll of interconnected gloves as claimed in claim 10 on a cylinder in an arrangement wherein a downstreammost glove on the roll is readily manually engageable by a user to pull the downstreammost glove apart from an immediately upstream attached glove.
In another aspect of the invention there is provided an apparatus 5 enabling serial delivery of a plurality of gloves 10, the apparatus comprising:
a series of gloves mounted in a stack 450 on a mount 500,
each individual glove 10 in the stack comprising a top or front thin sheet 50 and a bottom or back thin sheet 60, the top and bottom sheets formed integrally together to form a flexible glove having one or more enclosed finger receptacles TR, IR, MR, RR, LR adapted to receive one or more complementary fingers of a human hand, and an enclosed palm portion 10p having an open bottom end 59o adapted to generally receive a palm of a human hand,
the front and back sheets each having a different front and back longitudinal length L1, L2 respectively extending from a common distal or top edge 304t of the longest finger receptacle MR to a proximal or bottom edge 57, 57p of each of the front and back sheets of the glove respectively,
wherein the longitudinal length of the back sheet L2 is longer than the longitudinal length L1 of the front sheet, the proximal or bottom edge of the back sheet 57p extending longitudinally past the proximal or bottom edge 57 of the front sheet and forming a flap FCS,
the flap FCS being readily detachably interconnected to a mount sheet 10bs,
the mount sheet 10bs being fixedly attached to the mount 500,
each individual glove 10 being readily detachable from the mount sheet 10bs via manual pulling on an outermost mounted one 10tm of the gloves away from the mount sheet 10bs.
In such an apparatus, the flap FCS is readily detachably interconnected to the mount sheet 10bs via a series of adjacent perforations 57p formed in sequential linear or curvilinear arrangement or seam 57p in a sheet of the polymeric material that extends between the flap FCS and the mount sheet 10bs.
In another aspect of the invention there is provided a method of delivering a series of gloves to a user in serial fashion comprising mounting a stack of gloves as described above on the mount 500 in an arrangement wherein an outermost glove 10ts in the stack is readily manually engageable by a user to pull the outermost glove 10ts apart from the mount sheet 10bs.
In another aspect of the invention, the present invention provides an apparatus and method for delivering a disposable glove from a roll of connected gloves such that the user can simply manually grab the distal open end of a distal-most glove on the roll and immediately insert a hand into the glove where the distal end of the glove on the roll is already open to enable faster insertion of the hand to best minimize contact with ambient microorganisms, chemicals or other matter.
The apparatus preferably provides a serially deliverable plurality of gloves that are attached to each other in roll form and separable from each other by pulling one glove at the end of the roll with relatively minor pulling force away from the bottom of the next glove on the roll to which the top of the glove being pulled is attached. The roll typically comprises a rolled up cylinder of flattened plastic gloves attached serially or sequentially to each other from top end (tip end of finger) to bottom end (bottom tip end of the wrist portion of the glove). The last glove on the outside of the roll is arranged such that the open end of the glove is at the distal end and the proximal tip end of one of the fingers is readily detachably attached to the open or openable proximal wrist end of the immediately sequentially next glove in the series on the roll. When the distal-most end glove on the roll is detached, the next glove from which the distal-most glove has been detached is left behind such that the open or openable wrist end of the glove is left open upon detachment.
Each glove is formed and adapted to comprise a pair of opposing thin sheets of flexible polymer material that are adjoined to each other around a perimeter or circumferential edge to form five fingers and a wrist portion of a glove having an enclosed interior formed between the opposing sheets of polymer material.
The roll of serially attached gloves is typically rolled up as a cylinder having a center axial aperture which can be mounted on a support rod such that the cylinder can be rotated around the rod and gloves serially delivered as one is detached.
The tip distal end of one glove is detachably attached along a line of perforations to the tip proximal end of the wrist portion of an immediately serially adjacent glove. Two attached gloves can readily be torn apart from each other manually by the user. The gloves are configured to have an overall upstream to downstream length that will accommodate both receipt of the length of the fingers within the receptacles and receipt and coverage of the length of the palm of the hand up to at least the point of the wrist of a larger than normal sized hand.
In one embodiment the polymeric material comprising the gloves comprises a sheet of flexible material having a thickness of typically less than about 500 microns and more typically less than about 100 microns. The sheet material itself typically comprises a woven or punch formed fabric, a paper material or a solid polymeric material comprised of one or more of polymers such as polyethylene, polypropylene, polyester or the like.
The number and frequency of successive perforations provided along the perforated seamed lines of attachment and separation seams between successively attached gloves are preferably configured to be of such a size and with such regularity that successive individual gloves can be readily detached from each other, an opening being formed when two successive bags are detached from each other along the perforated bottom end of the proximal wrist portion of the gloves.
The continuum of gloves on the roll of bags is arranged such that the distal-most end of the distal-most glove on the roll of gloves is the open end with the detached tip end of the finger remaining closed, an open end of the wrist portion being immediately accessible and available to the user to insert the user's hand when detached from the roll. The remainder of the gloves in the cylindrical roll are insulated from engagement with a user's hand or other body part due to the formation of the roll which encloses the remaining gloves from exposure to the open environment.
The present invention therefore provides a roll of enclosed gloves adapted to function as a glove, the gloves being sequentially attached to each other along a readily separable seam line, the seam line typically comprising a seam having a series of perforations along the seam line that weaken the seam line such that two attached gloves can be separated from each other by relatively minor manual pulling force. The gloves are preferably attached sequentially to each other and formed into a compact cylindrical roll of gloves comprised of parallel arranged flattened sheets of flexible polymeric material. Each individual glove preferably comprises two opposing sheets attached along two opposing continuous edges of polymer material and attached at top and bottom edges to successive bottom and top edges of successive gloves, the top and bottom edge attachments being readily separable.
A glove apparatus according to the invention therefore can comprise a series of interconnected gloves, each glove having a wrist end 55 having a proximal terminal edge 59 and a finger end having a distal terminal edge 67, the terminal edge 59 of one glove being readily detachably attached to the proximal terminal edge 59 of an immediately adjacent glove, each glove comprising a thumb receiving portion 105 and a multiple finger receiving portion 120, the distal terminal edge 67 that is readily detachably attached being disposed along a distal terminal edge of the multiple finger receiving portion 120, 108, the glove 10 comprising a pair of opposing flexible thin walled sheets 50, 60 of plastic, polymer or fabric joined to each other along a perimeter to form an enclosed space between the sheets forming a glove 10 readily detachable from another glove, the proximal terminal edge 59 of the detached glove 10d forming an open terminal wrist end 59o upon detachment such that a human hand can be inserted through the open wrist edge 59o and into an enclosure formed between the pair of sheets that are joined around their perimeter.
A roll of such gloves can be easily mounted in a readily manually accessible location in every room or hallway of a medical institution.
In one embodiment of the invention individual gloves in a roll of successively attached glove can comprise three receptacles comprised of at least a first receptacle configured and having a complementary receiving aperture adapted to receive a thumb of human hand, a second receptacle configured and having a complementary receiving aperture adapted to receive at least the index or forefinger of a human user and third receptacle configured and having a complementary receiving aperture adapted to receive at least two or more of the other fingers of human hand. In such an embodiment, the distal top edge of the third receptacle is attached to the bottom or proximal edge of an immediately preceding glove in the roll of successively attached gloves, the two successively attached gloves being readily detachable from each other along a line of attachment between the edges.
In another embodiment of the invention individual gloves in a roll of successively attached glove can comprise five receptacles comprised of a first receptacle configured and having a complementary receiving aperture adapted to receive a thumb of human hand, a second receptacle configured and having a complementary receiving aperture adapted to receive at least the index or forefinger of a human user, a third receptacle configured and having a complementary receiving aperture adapted to receive the middle finger of a human hand, a fourth receptacle configured and having a complementary receiving aperture adapted to receive the ring finger of a human hand and a fifth receptacle configured and having a complementary receiving aperture adapted to receive the little finger of a human hand. In such an embodiment, the distal top edge of at least two of the second, third, fourth and fifth receptacles is attached to the bottom or proximal edge of an immediately preceding glove in the roll of successively attached gloves, the two successively attached gloves being readily detachable from each other along a line of attachment between the attached edges.
In another embodiment of the invention there is provided a series of gloves mounted in a stack on a mount, each individual glove in the stack comprising a top or front thin sheet and a bottom or back thin sheet, the top and bottom sheets formed integrally together to form a flexible glove having at least five receptacles comprised of a first receptacle configured and having a complementary receiving aperture adapted to receive a thumb of human hand, a second receptacle configured and having a complementary receiving aperture adapted to receive at least the index or forefinger of a human user, a third receptacle configured and having a complementary receiving aperture adapted to receive the middle finger of a human hand, a fourth receptacle configured and having a complementary receiving aperture adapted to receive the ring finger of a human hand and a fifth receptacle configured and having a complementary receiving aperture adapted to receive the little finger of a human hand. The front and back sheets each have a different front and back longitudinal length respectively extending from a common distal or top edge of the longest finger receptacle to a different proximal or bottom edge of each of the front (or top) and back (or bottom) sides or sheets of the glove respectively. The longitudinal length of the back (or top) sheet is longer than the longitudinal length of the front (or bottom) sheet, the proximal or bottom edge of the back (or top) sheet extending longitudinally past the proximal or bottom edge of the back or top sheet and forming a flap, the flap having a line of perforations extending laterally across the flap forming a proximal-most strip attached along the line of perforations to the proximal edge of the back or top, the perforations being adapted to enable a user to readily detach the back or top sheet from the proximal-most strip. The proximal-most strip of the back or top sheet is adapted to be readily mountable on a mount such that each individual glove is arranged in a stack of flat gloves one on top of each other.
The line 32 has a sufficient number of perforations 30 such that an individual glove 10 can be readily detached along the line 32 of perforations 30 from an adjacent glove 10 by steadily pulling one proximal bag away from the serially attached glove by hand under light manual force.
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The perforations 57p are disposed as close as possible to and the distal-most circumferential surfaces 302de, 304de so that when the perforations 302p, 304p of last glove 10c are torn apart and the last glove 10c is subsequently detached from an immediately upstream formerly attached glove 10b, the portion 302r, 304r,
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In all of the embodiments described herein the top 50 and bottom 60 sheets are generally flexible planar sheets arranged and attached to each other in generally parallel disposition. The top 50 and bottom 60 sheets are sealably attached to each other around their the entirety of their circumferential peripheries except at the bottom edge 57 such that an enclosed interior space IS is formed between the top 50 and bottom sheets with the bottom edges 57 of the two sheets 50, 60 remaining not attached so that a user can manually separate the bottom edges 57 of the two sheets 50, 60 with the aid of the flap FCS of sheet 60 extending W1 longitudinally L2 beyond the longitudinal L1 length of the top sheet 50. The flap FCS thus better enables the user to manually access the lip 57f of the edge 57 of the top sheet 50 and to open the end 59o as well as to provide a vehicle for mounting the glove 10 to the mounting strip 10bs via seam 57p.
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