Surgery – Respiratory method or device – Including body or head supported means covering user's scalp
Patent
1994-05-23
1997-08-05
Lewis, Aaron J.
Surgery
Respiratory method or device
Including body or head supported means covering user's scalp
12820122, 12820123, 12820125, 12820621, 12820623, A62B 1700
Patent
active
056532253
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to individual protective equipment for an environment that might be subject to nuclear, biological, or chemical contamination, such equipment being said to provide NBC protection.
The invention relates more particularly to individual protective and breathing equipment comprising a helmet having a rigid shell and internal padding, a balaclava-like hood for separating the head from the environment and advantageously provided with ventilation air feed means, the hood being designed to be worn directly on the skin, and a mouth-and-nose face-mask for breathing provided with a duct for connection to an external source of breathable gas and with means for fastening to the helmet.
Various individual equipment sets as defined above are already in existence. In particular, such sets of equipment have been made for the crew members of aircraft that are capable of operating at high altitude, requiring the wearing of a breathing mask capable of being fed from an external source with a mixture that is enriched in oxygen or even with pure oxygen.
For reasons of comfort and of reducing fatigue, people should be required to wear a balaclava-like NBC protection hood only when performing missions where that might become necessary. Proposals have been made to use an inseparable assembly of such a hood fitted with a combined transparent visor and breathing mask (U.S. Pat. No. 4,404,969 and FR-A-2 350 851). It suffers from the severe drawback of requiring two distinct complete sets of equipment to be provided for each crew member.
One of the sources of discomfort in existing hoods that come directly into contact with the skin results from the fact that they are completely closed so that in order to wear a hood it is necessary also to wear a mask. The present invention seeks in particular to provide breathing equipment of the above type that eliminates or at least attenuates the discomfort.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To this end, the invention provides, in particular, equipment in which the hood comprises a web in which at least one opening is provided for placing over the eyes of the wearer, and removable transparent goggles provided with fastening means for fastening to the hood and/or to the helmet in a position where its edges bear in airtight manner against the web around the opening.
When the goggles are placed outside the web, as will most frequently be the case, they may be provided with means for fastening to the rigid shell of the helmet that may be similar in structure to the means for fastening the breathing mask to the helmet, except insofar as it is not necessary for them to have such a wide range of adjustment. These means may be pierced by a channel for feeding ventilation air and/or for extracting air so as to enable the inside surface of the goggles to be swept with de-misting air.
In another particular embodiment, that makes it easier to achieve sealing, the goggles are designed to be placed inside the web. Under such circumstances, inserting the visor through the opening and installing it properly are then more difficult than in the preceding case.
The use of a visor that is detachable already substantially improves the comfort of the wearer of the hood. Nevertheless, it is particularly advantageous also to provide an opening through the web for the purpose of enabling a breathing mask to be inserted from the outside and to enable the mask to be applied in airtight manner against the face, without thereby compromising the sealing of the hood. This result can be achieved without major difficulty by using a hood web that is made of an elastic material such as neoprene, and that is provided around the mask-receiving opening with sealing means for pressing against the rigid shell that generally covers the front portion of the face-mask or that constitutes the face-mask.
The joint between the web and the mask may be made airtight, in particular by providing the web of the hood around the mask-receiving opening with sealing means such as a bead, a lip seal, or an
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Intertechnique
Lewis Aaron J.
Srivastava V.
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