Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture – Surface bonding means and/or assembly means therefor – With testing – measuring – and/or indicating means
Reexamination Certificate
1997-07-03
2001-06-05
Ball, Michael W. (Department: 1733)
Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture
Surface bonding means and/or assembly means therefor
With testing, measuring, and/or indicating means
C156S379000, C156S500000, C156S522000, C156S566000, C156S245000, C156S308200, C425S388000, C264S553000, C604S330000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06241846
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to a method and system for manufacturing elastomeric articles and more specifically to a method and system for manufacturing a device having a plurality of elastomeric portions, one of which is a relatively thin nonplanar portion and the other of which is a relatively thick portion, such as the devices of the types described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,295,984 for collecting vaginal discharge and/or vaginal delivery of substances such as medication, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
The system may be used, for example, to produce a particular product whose relatively thick portion may be an elastomeric rim and whose relatively thin portion may be a nonplanar thin elastomeric reservoir. In manufacturing methods of the prior art, devices of this type may be injection molded in one piece. For some devices, however, injection molding is inappropriate because the reservoir component must be a very thin film. In order to achieve this thinness, the reservoir may be vacuum-formed from a sheet of elastomeric material. A common method of producing a device whose reservoir is a very thin film is simply to attach a pre-formed reservoir to a separately formed rim. However, the pre-formed reservoir is difficult to manage because the very thin elastomeric film is fragile, sticks to itself and fails to retain its shape after it has been vacuum-formed.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In one aspect of the invention, a plurality of first elastomeric portions is heat sealed to a second elastomeric portion having a planar form to create intermediate components that are subsequently placed in a vacuum mold in which the planar second elastomeric portion is formed to create a nonplanar thin portion.
In one application of the present invention, a sheet of elastomeric film is heat sealed to a batch of elastomeric rims to create drumheads that are subsequently placed in a vacuum mold in which the film portion is vacuum formed from the drumheads to form reservoirs.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method of manufacturing a device having an elastomeric rim and a thin, flexible film reservoir attached to the rim.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method of manufacturing a vaginal device.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method of manufacturing a device that is capable of delivering substances or other agents within the vagina.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a method of manufacturing a vaginal discharge collector.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method of mass producing a device having an elastomeric rim and a thin, vacuum-formed, film reservoir attached to the rim.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a method of manufacturing a device having an elastomeric rim and a thin, vacuum-formed, film reservoir attached to the rim in which a film is first heat sealed to the rim before the vacuum-forming occurs.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method of manufacturing a device having an elastomeric rim and a thin, vacuum-formed, film reservoir attached to the rim that monitors whether an appropriate vacuum was formed during the vacuum-forming step and applies this information to separate rejected devices from acceptable ones.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for orienting the rims from the molding process such that each molded rim is identically positioned prior to the heat sealing and vacuum molding processes.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method for automatically testing the devices to determine the presence of manufacturing or material defects within the finished device.
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Contente Audrey
Guthrie Wendell W.
Wills Randy S.
Ball Michael W.
Dickstein , Shapiro, Morin & Oshinsky, LLP
Tolin Michael A
Ultrafem, Inc.
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