Winding – tensioning – or guiding – Convolute winding of material – With particular material connection to take-up
Reexamination Certificate
1999-08-19
2001-09-11
Jillions, John M. (Department: 3653)
Winding, tensioning, or guiding
Convolute winding of material
With particular material connection to take-up
C242S390800, C242S546000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06286779
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to an apparatus and a method for rewinding reusable bandages such as gauze, elastic compression bandages and cotton bandages, which are commonly found in the medical and sports professions.
Hospital and medical personnel typically wind and rewind great numbers of reusable bandages. Particular individuals, with certain medical conditions such as lymphedema, have a great need for an easy way to rewind the bandages that must be wound and unwound many times every day in accordance with the treatment of their disease. Various devices have been developed to wind and rewind bandages into rolls; however, each of these devices has shortcomings which challenge people who are lacking dexterity due to illness. One problem with previously known bandage winding devices is that they are too large in size and too heavy for a typical patient to conveniently use. Such large devices are not capable of being hand-held, which is an important feature and object of the present invention. Thus, light weight is also an important feature of the present invention.
Previously known devices tend to be more expensive to manufacture than the present invention, which uses a minimum of costly parts. Therefore, most any patient who desired to own the present invention could easily do so.
Another important object of the present invention is that it eliminates the need to thread the starting end of a bandage onto a shaft prior to winding of the bandage. In the art, a threading structure on a shaft is usually required, such as a hole, to thread the leading edge of the bandage into prior to winding. In contrast, the present invention uses two alternative embodiments. In the first embodiment, a spool weakly binds the leading edge of the bandage to the shaft, allowing the bandage to be wrapped upon itself as the shaft rotates, while also permitting the rolled bandage to be removed from the shaft upon completion of wrapping. Such a spool is made of material which has a coefficient of static friction which is sufficient to weakly bind the leading edge of the bandage to the spool to initiate wrapping without permanently binding the bandage to the spool. Alternatively, the spool may be made of material which has negligible binding properties, and the user will manually tuck the leading edge of the bandage around the spool to form a first wrap, whereupon the bandage winding device may be energized.
Additional objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description that follows, and in part will become apparent from the description regarding what can be learned by the practice of the invention. The advantages of the present invention can be realized and obtained by the device particularly pointed out in the claims.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a portable, lightweight, hand-held bandage winding machine that is simple to use, and simple to start winding a bandage upon. The invention has a shaft that rotates to wind the bandage by utilizing a spool to wrap the bandage as the shaft rotates. A means for rotating the shaft may comprise an electric motor such as a portable, battery powered motor. The invention saves the typical user a great amount of time in comparison to the traditional method of hand-winding bandages because the device wraps bandages at two-to-three times the rate of manually winding. Typical users are patients who use large numbers of bandages, for example, lymphedema patients. The present invention provides a portable, lightweight bandage machine which is hand-held, and simple to begin wrapping the bandages upon because no threading of the leading edge of the bandage is required making it far easier to use than any presently available bandage winding machine. The machine is easily used by people who may not have the dexterity to use more complicated machines due to their illness. The present invention is also inexpensive to manufacture.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3516618 (1970-06-01), Reinke
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patent: 4161298 (1979-07-01), Davis
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patent: 4915320 (1990-04-01), Neal
patent: 4951890 (1990-08-01), Sossamon
patent: 5190237 (1993-03-01), Fagan
patent: 5265818 (1993-11-01), Nakasone
patent: 5376035 (1994-12-01), Forrest
patent: 5524843 (1996-06-01), McCauley
patent: 5533689 (1996-07-01), Chalfant
Jillions John M.
Ware Fressola Van der Sluys & Adolphson LLP
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