This invention relates generally to curtains and, more specifically, the invention relates to a detachable, ventilating enclosure for use with a supporting structure or railing to provide an enclosure of the type utilized for hospital settings, surgical facilities, or the like.
Curtains are often used to divide larger hospital rooms into individual patient or examination areas. They are useful in providing a patient with his or her own private area when other patients are in the room or to provide privacy in higher traffic settings in a hospital, clinic or other healthcare facility, such as an emergency room or post-operative recovery room. Often, the curtains are attached by hooks or other means that are slidably mounted to curtain tracks attached to the ceiling of the hospital room or other healthcare facility. The slidable mounting makes it convenient for the curtains to be moved back and forth between open and closed positions so that a health care professional, visitor, or the patient may enter and exit the area with ease.
Typically, hospital curtains are made from cloth or a cloth-like material. Due to the fibrous nature of this type of material, the cubicle curtains often become a haven for bacteria and microbial growth. Bacteria and germs are transmitted to and from the curtains through the air or by physical contact, often by the hands of a health care provider or visitor who did not have an opportunity to wash his or her hands after examining the patient and before moving the curtain. Moreover, the process of installing a new or washed and cleaned curtain may result in the curtain contacting the floor and attracting contaminants and unwanted particles that might be present on the floor.
Such curtains in the prior art are expensive to manufacture, difficult to launder, and increase the risk of infection. One noted problem is that removal of prior curtains for cleaning often requires the individual removing the curtain to stand on a chair or similar piece of furniture to reach the top of the curtain and detach the curtain from the ceiling mounted rail or support mechanism. Replacement of a curtain has a similar problem. This can be dangerous to the individual doing the removing and any patient nearby. Use of a chair or ladder may be required to adequately access and remove/install the curtain. This can be potentially dangerous if the person falls from the chair of ladder and, at the least, is time consuming and cumbersome, especially if dozens of curtains are being removed and reinstalled at a time.
It is known in the art to make a bottom portion of the curtain separable from the top portion as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 9,204,749, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. In the invention disclosed in the ′749 patent, the hospital curtain is made up of a ventilated top portion attached by curtain carriers and eyelets to a ceiling mounted curtain track, and a bottom portion joined to a bottom edge of the top portion by a zipper for selective removal of the bottom portion for washing or replacement. However, the zipper is often located at a height well above the floor of the room and is difficult for most service personnel to easily unzip or zip the bottom portion from/to the top portion without the benefit of a ladder, step stool or other device. One of the drawbacks to this type of design is that most zippers are designed for attaching two portions of material along a substantially straight section of each portion of the material.
A typical zipper has two interlocking tracks each made up of dozens of teeth, each of which combines a hook and a hollow. A closed zipper is one in which every hook on each of the two tracks is latched into a hollow on the opposite track. The latching mechanism, called the slide or hub, is just a collection of wedges. As the slide or hub moves along the zipper, the two teeth tracks must enter at a specific angle. As the tracks move through the slide, the slide's inclined edges push the teeth toward each other. The tracks are offset from each other, so each hollow settles onto a hook in sequence. For this to work properly, each tooth must be exactly the same size and shape, and they all must be perfectly positioned on the track.
In a well-made zipper, the interlocking teeth form an incredibly secure bond making it very difficult to separate the teeth by pulling the two strips apart. But the slide can easily separate the teeth, using a simple plow-shaped wedge. When the slide is pulled, the wedge pushes against the slanted edges of the hooks, pivoting each tooth off of the tooth below it. Just like that, the zipper tracks are unzipped and detached. If the zipper has a curved path, such as for use with a foldable curtain, the zipper is difficult to use. More specifically, when the zipper has a curved path and both sides of the zipper are in the same plane (i.e., the x-y plane of the curtain), the track of the zipper attached to the lower curtain has a shorter radius in relation to the track of the zipper attached to the upper curtain portion. This makes the zipper difficult to use around the corners because there is an imbalanced amount of stress placed on the track of the zipper connected to the lower portion than the track of the zipper connected to the upper portion. A typical zipper is designed for connecting two sheets of material along a substantially straight surface and a curved zipper path creates un-equal stresses on the mating teeth of the zipper and, as a result, difficulty in moving the zipper slide or hub along the zipper path. This imbalanced stress is increased, and the difficulty in moving the zipper slide increased, when the radius of the curve is smaller.
Accordingly, what is needed is an improved hospital curtain that can be easily and safely removed and replaced without the need for a ladder or other assisting device to remove and replace the curtain.
Furthermore, there exists a need for a zipper which is suitable for providing a selective connection between portions of the curtain having various curves.
The above and other objects and advantages in accordance with the principles of this invention shall be made apparent from the accompanying drawings and the description thereof.
This invention overcomes these and other shortcomings of the prior art by providing a hospital curtain having of a ventilated narrow top portion slideably attached along a ceiling track. A wide bottom portion of the curtain is removably attached to the narrow top portion by a zipper extending therebetween.
One feature of the hospital curtain according to various embodiments of this invention is a zipper or other attachment mechanism which joins the lower edge of the top panel to the upper edge of the bottom panel. Zippers are well known in the art for such an attachment mechanism, but the zipper according to various embodiments of this invention may have a contoured shape or curved portions to join the bottom edge of the top portion to the top edge of the bottom portion. The curved portions allow for the ends of the zipper tracks to extend downwardly for easier access to a user zipping the curtain portions together or unzipping them apart. The contour of the zipper includes relatively small radius curved portions to may make it easier for an installer who may not be able to reach the lower edge of the top panel for installation and/or removal of the bottom panel. The lateral ends of the zipper extend downwardly from the lower edge of the top panel for more convenient access when mating the zipper portions on the top and bottom panels together or unzipping them apart.
This invention is directed to a combination of a fastener or zipper for use with a curtain for a hospital room or clinical setting. The zipper also changes from being in a two-dimensional plane through linear portions of its path to a three-dimensional plane around a curved portion of the zipper joint, reducing the stress placed on the portion of the zipper connected to the bottom portion of the curtain. The zipper attachment device selectively connects the bottom and top portions of the curtain together. The zipper is disposed in a first plane in the areas of the straight portion of the zipper track, and the zipper is in a second plane not parallel to the first plane in the areas of the curved portion of the zipper track to reduce stress on the zipper components and allow for easier movement of zipper in tight radius corners.
The zipper includes a first seam connecting the first half of the zipper to the bottom portion of the curtain such that a portion of the first half is disposed in the first plane, and a portion of the first half is disposed in the second plane. The zipper also includes a second seam connecting the second half of the zipper to the top portion of the curtain such that a portion of the second half is disposed in the first plane, and a portion of the second half is disposed in the second plane. The change in position of the zipper between the first plane and the second plane reduces the amount of stress on the zipper in the curved portions of the zipper track.
An additional aspect of various embodiments of this invention is a zipper assist pole with a head feature designed to engage a zipper pull on the zipper and allow a user to pull the zipper pull across the joint between the top and bottom portions to zip them together or unzip them apart. The zipper assist pole allows a user to comfortably stand on the floor grasping the pole and engage the zipper pull with the zipper assist pole head to pull the zipper pull along the zipper track above head level.
The top panel may be solid, or include a mesh or mesh-like fabric or substance. The top panel may be constructed so as to allow air, light, and/or water to pass through. The bottom panel may be opaque so as to provide privacy, and may be manufactured from a variety of materials known to the industry, including but not limited to polypropylene, polyester, treated natural fibers, or other fabrics. The material may be flame resistant and/or antibacterial. The bottom panel may be single-use or disposable, or may be reusable. In one exemplary embodiment, the bottom panel is manufactured from sturdy material able to withstand frequent washings or cleanings. Once removed from the top panel, the bottom panel may be discarded or laundered and re-installed on the same or a different top panel. Once the bottom panel is removed from the top panel, a different and clean bottom panel may be installed onto the top panel.
Easy removal and replacement of the bottom panel for cleaning and other purposes is thereby promoted by embodiments of this invention. Once removed, the bottom panel may be cleaned and re-installed onto the top panel. Alternatively, a different, new and/or clean bottom panel may be installed on the top panel which may be part of a service providers role in the maintenance of the clinical setting and associated curtain installation.
Further areas of applicability of this invention will become apparent from the detailed description provided hereinafter. It should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating embodiments of the invention, are intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.
The above-mentioned and other features and advantages of this invention, and the manner of attaining them, will become more apparent and the invention itself will be better understood by reference to the following description of embodiments of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
Turning now to the drawings, in which similar reference characters denote similar elements throughout the several views. With regard to the reference numerals used, the following numbering is used throughout the various drawing figures. The following discussion describes in detail at least one embodiment of the invention (and several variations of that embodiment). This discussion should not be construed, however, as limiting the invention to those particular embodiments, practitioners skilled in the art will recognize numerous other embodiments as well. For definition of the complete scope of the invention, the reader is directed to appended claims.
The top portion 16 may have a top segment made of a mesh material 20 for ventilation and is slideably attached along the ceiling track 12 using a number of curtain carriers coupled to spaced apart eyelets 22 on a top edge of the top portion 16. An attachment mechanism which in some embodiments is a zipper mechanism 24 extending between and selectively joining a top edge 14a of the bottom portion 14 to a bottom edge 16a of the narrow top portion 16 of the hospital curtain 10. The zipper mechanism 24 is shown in more detail in
A schematic of a path of the zipper 24 according to this invention is shown in
Referring to
The zipper mechanism 24 follows the path 28 of the joint between the various sections 30, 32, 34 of the top and bottom portions 14, 16. In the embodiment of the top portion 16 show in
According to various embodiments of this invention, the zipper mechanism 24 may include a slider hub 44 and a zipper pull tab 48 as seen in
When it is desired to attach or detach the bottom portion 14 to/from the top portion 16, the slider hub 44 of the zipper 24 is moved in a first direction or a second direction such that the tracks 24a, 24b of the zipper 24 are either connected or separated, depending upon whether the bottom portion 14 is being attached or detached. In either case, as the slider hub 44 is moved towards one of the curved portions 3o, both tracks 24a, 24b of the zipper 24 rotate about ninety-degrees and/or out of the X-Y plane, best shown in
To facilitate the repositioning of the tracks 24a, 24b of the zipper 24, the tracks 24a, 24b of the zipper 24 are attached to the portions 14, 16 along the straight portions 3o, 34 stitched (see
The zipper 24 having the cornering design of this invention facilitates the attachment and detachment of the bottom portion 16, without placing an imbalanced amount of stress on the zipper 24. While it has been described in this invention that the zipper 24 rotates to an angle of substantially ninety degrees, the rotation of the zipper 24 provides a reduction in stress on the zipper 24 when the zipper 24 is positioned in a range of generally about forty-five degrees to about one-hundred eighty degrees, typically from about sixty degrees to about one-hundred twenty degrees, and preferably about ninety degrees. Therefore, there is a benefit to the positioning of the zipper 24 at angles other than ninety degrees and/or out of the X-Y plane.
Another aspect of various embodiments of this invention is shown in
These foregoing embodiments of the invention are exemplary only and in no manner should be viewed as exhaustive or limiting on the scope of this invention. Alternative numbers of components, method steps, materials, parameters, arrangements and other aspects may be utilized within the scope of this invention.
From the above disclosure of the general principles of this invention and the preceding detailed description of at least one embodiment, those skilled in the art will readily comprehend the various modifications to which this invention is susceptible. Therefore, we desire to be limited only by the scope of the following claims and equivalents thereof.
This claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional patent application Ser. No. 63/280,651, filed Nov. 18, 2021; Ser. No. 63/304,833, filed Jan. 31, 2022; Ser. No. 63/317,112, filed Mar. 7, 2022; Ser. No. 63/320,369, filed Mar. 16, 2022; and Ser. No. 63/320,366, filed Mar. 16, 2022, each of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
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63320369 | Mar 2022 | US | |
63320366 | Mar 2022 | US | |
63317112 | Mar 2022 | US | |
63304833 | Jan 2022 | US | |
63280651 | Nov 2021 | US |