Hose or tubing provided with at least one colored inner...

Pipes and tubular conduits – Plural duct – Longitudinally extending common wall

Reexamination Certificate

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C138S104000, C138S121000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06450205

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to hose or tubing provided with at least one inner partition dividing such hose or tubing into a plurality of passageways or lumen and where there is a need to know that such inner partition is present in such tubing. More particularly, this invention relates to hose including an at least substantially transparent tubular member or peripheral wall provided with at least one colored inner partition dividing such tubular member or peripheral wall into a plurality of passageways or lumen and where such inner partition is optically perceptible through such tubular member or peripheral wall.
The terms color or colored as used herein and in the appended claims are used in the sense of a phenomenon of light, or visual perception by the eye of the human being, or optical perception by optical apparatus of the type known to the art for recognizing color, that enables the eye of a human being or such optical apparatus to differentiate otherwise identical objects.
The term optically perceptible as used herein and in the appended claims is used to include visual perception by the eye of a human being and perception by optical apparatus of the type known to the art for recognizing color.
The term at least substantially transparent as used herein and in the appended claims with regard to the present invention means that the tubular member or peripheral wall comprising the hose or tubing is sufficiently transparent to permit the at least one colored inner partition dividing the tubular member or peripheral wall into a plurality of lumen to be optically perceptible through the hose or tubing. It will be further understood that the term at least substantially transparent as used herein and in the appended claims with regard to the tubular member or peripheral wall means that the tubular member or peripheral wall also may be colored but if colored will still be sufficiently transparent to permit the colored inner partition to be optically perceptible therethrough. The colored substantially transparent tubular member or peripheral wall may be of a first color and the colored inner partition may be of a second color or the colored substantially transparent tubular member or peripheral wall and inner partition may be of the same color but with the inner partition being of a darker same color such that it is optically perceptible through the colored tubular member or peripheral wall.
Still more particularly, this invention relates to multi-lumen hose, and by way of example and not by way of limitation, dual-lumen hose of the type used to communicate anesthesia gas from an anesthesia machine or breathing gas such as oxygen, or oxygen enriched gas, from a ventilator, to a patient's mask or endotracheal tube, and thereby to the patient, and for communicating exhalation gas from the patient back to the anesthesia machine or ventilator. Flexible multi-lumen dual-lumen hose or tubing, sometimes referred to as dual passageway or dual air passageway, hose, tubing or connector is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,121,74 and 5,996,639.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,121,746 entitled ANESTHETIC AND RESPIRATOR BREATHING CIRCUIT DEVICE, John R. Sikora inventor, patented Jun. 16, 1992, is incorporated herein by reference as if fully reproduced herein. The Sikora patent,
FIG. 3
, discloses a multi-passage or lumen flexible connector pipe (hose)
30
including outer walls
22
and
21
and an inner wall, or inner partition,
25
dividing the pipe into passages or lumen
31
and
32
. As shown in
FIG. 3
, the outer walls of the pipe
30
are corrugated, and the inner wall or partition
25
also is corrugated. The Sikora patent teaches in connection with
FIGS. 1 and 2
that anesthesia gas from the anesthetic machine
8
is communicated to the patient's mask
11
through the passage or lumen
32
provided in the pipe
30
and that exhalation gas from the patient's mask
11
is communicated back to the anesthetic machine through the passageway
31
formed in the pipe
30
. In connection with
FIGS. 2 and 3
, the Sikora patent teaches that breathing gas, such as an enriched gaseous mixture of oxygen, is communicated to the patient's mask
11
through the passage or lumen
32
formed in the connector pipe
30
and that exhalation gas from the patient's mask
11
is communicated back to the respirator
15
through the passage or lumen
31
formed in the connector pipe
30
. This patent also discloses that the dividing wall, dividing wall
25
,
FIG. 3
, can be substantially planar dividing wall as recited in claim 1 of this patent, and which dividing wall as taught in this patent may be a substantially planar chordal dividing wall which divides the cross-section of the flexible tubular member into a larger and a smaller cross-section so as to provide first and second fluid flow paths of different sizes through the pipe (hose).
U.S. Pat. No. 5,996,639 entitled MULTIPLE COMPARTMENT CORRUGATED HOSE, Leo Gans et al., patented Dec. 7, 1999, is incorporated herein by reference as if fully reproduced herein. This patent teaches that it is an improvement over the multi-compartment hose disclosed in the Sikora patent and discloses a flexible multi-lumen hose including a corrugated peripheral wall and a corrugated inner partition. As shown in
FIG. 3
of this patent, the hose
10
includes a corrugated peripheral wall
20
and a corrugated inner partition
70
dividing the hose into two lumen
50
and
60
better seen in FIG.
1
.
Des. Pat. Nos. Des. 405,522 and Des. 424,687, patented Feb. 9, 2000 and May 9, 2000, respectively, disclose multiple embodiments of ornamental designs of breathing tubes for conveying oxygen or anesthesia gas to lungs and conveying exhaled gas away from lungs of a patient, Richard Hoenig inventor of both of these design patents, and these design patents are assigned to the same assignee as the present invention; these design patents are incorporated herein by reference as if fully reproduced herein.
Also known to the prior art are various ways of manufacturing corrugated hoses such as by the well-known continuous blow molding or vacuum assisted blow molding methods. One such manufacturing method, as noted in the incorporated U.S. Pat. No. 5,996,639, is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,286,305 entitled APPARATUS FOR CONTINUOUS MANUFACTURE OF HOLLOW ARTICLES, P. H. Seckel inventor, patented Nov. 22, 1966, and which patent is incorporated herein as if fully reproduced herein.
The peripheral wall and inner partition of the typical multi-lumen prior art flexible corrugated hose are typically extruded together, from the same plastic material, and in a single pass or single extrusion from an extruder. Such multi-lumen prior art flexible hose is shown in FIG.
1
and indicated by general numerical designation
10
. The hose
10
includes a corrugated tubular member or peripheral wall
12
and an inner partition, sometimes referred to in the art as a septum,
14
dividing the tubular member or peripheral wall
12
into a plurality of lumen
15
and
16
; the prior art hose
10
shown in
FIG. 1
includes a substantially planar inner partition
14
and it will be understood that, alternately, such prior art hose may include a corrugated inner partition as taught in the incorporated U.S. Pat. No. 5,996,639. Prior art hose
10
, shown in
FIG. 1
, as taught above with regard to the incorporated U.S. Pat. No. 5,121,746, is useful for communicating breathing gas or anesthesia gas, from a ventilator or anesthesia machine to a patient through one lumen and for communicating exhalation gas from the patient back to the anesthesia or ventilator through the other lumen. The tubular member or peripheral wall
12
and the inner partition
14
of the prior art hose
10
of
FIG. 1
typically are extruded together from a single plastic material, typically the above-noted polyethylene, and hence both the tubular member or outer peripheral wall
12
and the inner partition
14
are transparent, or at least substantially transparent, or even clear.
Also known to th

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