Coating apparatus – Program – cyclic – or time control
Patent
1997-10-09
2000-09-12
Edwards, Laura
Coating apparatus
Program, cyclic, or time control
118 46, 118315, 118325, 156578, B05C 702
Patent
active
061172413
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The invention concerns a process and an apparatus for the production of an electrode for application to the skin, in which a carrier provided with an opening is stuck, on the side remote from the skin, to a tag portion which covers over the opening.
Electrodes for application to the skin (for example ECG-electrodes etc), which have a carrier having a central opening which is covered over on the top side thereof by a cover portion (a so-called tag portion) have already long been known. Usually on the underside the carrier has a skin-compatible adhesive which is self-adhesive and which is covered over by a pull-off film or sheet for the purposes of transportation or storage. After the pull-off film or sheet has been pulled off the carrier can be stuck on to the skin of the patient. The tag portion carries an electrical connection to permit the connection of an electrode cable, wherein that outwardly disposed connection (contact region) is electrically connected to the region of the opening of the carrier, which represents the actual sensor region. For example a liquid electrolyte gel in a sponge or a solid conductive gel is applied in that sensor region in order to transmit the electrical currents between the skin and the actual sensor region. From there the currents then pass through the tag portion or along the tag portion outwardly to the contact region.
It is already known for the tag portion to be stuck fast on the carrier by means of an adhesive which is activatable (which is therefore initially non-adhesive). For example it is possible to use a heat-activatable adhesive. Particularly in the case of electrodes in which the contact region is arranged in laterally displaced relationship with the central sensor region on a free projection of the tag portion, there is the basic problem that on the one hand the tag portion is intended to adhere firmly and sealingly everywhere to the carrier, and that on the other hand a good electrical connection is to be made between the sensor region and the laterally displaced contact region through the tag portion or along same. In that respect it is always to be borne in mind that electrodes of this kind are disposable articles and should therefore be of a simple structure and thus inexpensive in terms of production.
In order to satisfactorily solve those problems, the process according to the invention provides that adhesive is applied to the tag portion and/or the carrier only on a locally delimited portion of their mutually facing surface and then the tag portion and the carrier are stuck together.
There is thus in particular the possibility of applying the adhesive only in the region of overlap between the tag portion and the carrier, missing out that region of the tag portion which later comes to lie at the opening of the carrier. Thus it is possible for example to use an electrically conductive tag portion which in the region of the opening of the carrier forms a sensor region which is electrically connected to a laterally displaced contact region preferably provided on a projection of the tag portion. In contrast to a known procedure which involves applying adhesive over the full surface area involved, the locally delimited application of adhesive can prevent the tag portion also being covered over by adhesive in the region of the opening of the carrier. Rather, the sensor region remains free from adhesive and can thus easily contact the skin of the patient, for example by way of a conductive gel.
In principle it would also be possible for the tag portion to be made from electrically insulating material and for an electrically conductive conductor track in layer form to be applied thereto. In that embodiment the electrically insulating tag portion could already be coated with an activatable adhesive prior to the application of the conductor track, or it could consist in general of an adhesively activatable material (for example a thermoplastic material). Such a tag portion can then be glued on to the carrier by activation of the adhesive (for example by heating
REFERENCES:
patent: 4687137 (1987-08-01), Boger
patent: 4798642 (1989-01-01), Craighead et al.
patent: 5264249 (1993-11-01), Perrault
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