Inflatable products

Beds – Sleeping bag – Including inflatable portion or attachment

Patent

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Details

5450, 5482, 5502, 2DIG3, 428 74, A47G 908, A47C 2708, A47C 2712

Patent

active

050052365

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to inflatable products, and particularly but not exclusively to an inflatable product used as the base of a sleeping bag.
GB No. 1,535,316 describes a sleeping bag having inflatable upper and lower mats containing a heat-insulating material formed of a plurality of strips of metallized plastics film. The bag is said to provide better protection, to be lighter in weight, and to have an improved life expectancy compared with existing sleeping bags, and to have an advantage over conventional inflated air beds by the fact of being filled with material which will reduce heat loss by convenction.
The metallized plastics film is said to have a greater life expectancy than the down traditionally used because it is less susceptible to wetting. However, it is necessary for the strips of plastics material to be resilient so as to provide the insulating filler with sufficient loft properties in order to achieve filling of the interior of the inflatable mat. This imposes a limit on the lifetime of the sleeping bag because the filling material tends to "tire", so that given sufficient time and use the material tends to lose its resiliency and accordingly the lofting properties deteriorate and the thermal insulation and comfort provided by the sleeping bag is impaired. A further disadvantage is that inflating the mat beyond a certain amount will impair the efficiency of the filling material because of the limit to its lofting properties. In either case the inflated air space will only be partially filled with the material and heat loss by convection will arise.
The present invention is directed to an improvement on the proposals in GB No. 1,535,316, and provides an inflatable product which in a preferred form is a sleeping mat, and preferably is one which can form the base of a sleeping bag. However the invention has uses in other areas; for example, the product may be used as a garment, a bed quilt, upholstery, etc.
According to one specific aspect of the invention, an inflatable product, preferably a sleeping mat, comprises an inflatable enclosure containing a fibrous bat attached to opposite sides of the closure so that the bat can be lofted by the movement apart of the opposite sides on inflation of the enclosure.
Another aspect of the invention provides an inflatable product, preferably a sleeping mat, comprising an inflatable enclosure containing and attached to a filling material which can be expanded substantially nonresilently, and which preferably substantially fills the enclosure.
The invention also extends to such a product when inflated. Preferably, the enclosure has an inflation aperture by means of which it can be inflated preferably by air. This is not absolutely necessary: the product could instead be inflated on manufacture and thereafter maintained inflated permanently. This may be useful for products sold as part of, or to be incorporated in, certain types of goods, although this would of course not be the preferred arrangement if the product is to be used as, e.g., a sleeping bag.
By attaching the filling material to the enclosure, the lofting of the material is caused, or at least assisted, by the inflation of the enclosure, so that it is no longer necessary to rely on the resilience of the filling material. This results in a much greater life expectancy, and a greater variety of materials from which the filler can be selected including materials of the highest proven thermal efficiency. Although the filling material as a whole is, preferably, substantially nonresiliently expandable, it may be made of individual components which are themselves resilient.
It is to be noted that an important advantage of the invention results from the ability to form products having an extended life using filler materials which are of excellent thermal efficiency but which at present are too non-resilient to give adequate performance in use.
Preferably, a bat of synthetic fiber is used as the filling.
The filling is preferably bonded to the inner surface of the enclosure, preferably by the appli

REFERENCES:
patent: 1332933 (1920-03-01), Sylvester
patent: 2620493 (1952-12-01), Brelsford
patent: 2997100 (1961-08-01), Morris
patent: 3206776 (1965-09-01), Moore
patent: 4091482 (1978-05-01), Malcolm
patent: 4261776 (1981-04-01), Lea et al.

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