Beds – Mattress – Having confined gas
Reexamination Certificate
1998-11-10
2001-04-03
Melius, Terry Lee (Department: 3628)
Beds
Mattress
Having confined gas
C005S706000, C005S655300
Reexamination Certificate
active
06209160
ABSTRACT:
Inflated mattresses (and similar support members for supporting limb portions of a body) are often provided in hospitals. A particular situation where an inflatable mattress is of value is for the easing of bed sores. Such mattresses generally require a bulky pump (possible powered from the electrical mains) and there may be associated control equipment to adjust the pressure within the whole or a part of the mattress due to changing circumstances. Such overall assemblies necessarily are not readily transportable and this limits the potential use of such assemblies in the home when a patient is discharged from hospital but may still benefit from the use of an inflated mattress or the like.
According to the present invention there is provided an inflation assembly comprising an inflatable support member for supporting the body or a limb portion of a person, the support member having an inflation inlet provided with a one way inlet valve, together with a container for housing the support member in its deflated state, the container comprising two sleeves each open at one end and closed at the other end and nesting within one another to define a pump having a one way inflation valve in one end adopted for connection to said inflation inlet, the inflation valve also incorporating a pressure limiting relief member for ensuring that the support member cannot be inflated by the pump to greater than a predetermined pressure.
Such an assembly is readily transportable when the support member is in its deflated state and rolled up and stored within the housing. It will then occupy a relatively small space and will be lightweight (it is envisaged that the housing will be constructed from robust but lightweight cardboard material). The housing is ideally of cylindrical form and of circular cross-section but it would be possible, for example, to make the housing with a square cross-section or some other desired shape.
Ideally the pressure relief valve incorporates an outlet passageway from the pump with a valve body within said outlet passageway and releasably biased towards the interior of the pump into a closing position on a valve seat. The one way inflation valve can advantageously incorporate first and second flexible membranes which act respectively to close off a first opening from the exterior to the interior of the pump and a second opening from the pump interior to the inflation valve outlet, depending upon whether there are positive or negative pressure conditions respectively within the pump. In this arrangement it is preferred that said first flexible membrane carries peripheral ears which will be pressed down by the inner sleeve when the two sleeves are moved fully together to deflect that membrane off the first opening to enable excess pressure within the pump to be relieved.
In the preferred arrangement the connection of the inflation valve to the inflation inlet is effective to open the inlet valve. It may be desirable to provide a separate connection member for linking the inflation valve to the inflation inlet.
It is particularly advantageous to provide a releasable carrying cord which is connected between the two ends of the container, the length of the cord being such as to limit the degree of allowable extension of the pump to a desired extent. The cord then ensures that the two parts of the housing cannot become detached whilst the housing is being used as a pump, which could cause damage to the housing. The cord also provides a very convenient carrying member which additionally acts to hold the two parts of the housing together during transportation.
A pressure relief cap can be provided for insertion into the inlet valve to open the inlet valve to allow deflation of the support member. After deflation the support member can be rolled up and stored away again within the housing.
REFERENCES:
patent: 2573375 (1951-10-01), Winstead
patent: 2686006 (1954-08-01), Hasselquist
patent: 4521166 (1985-06-01), Phillips
patent: 4862533 (1989-09-01), Adams, III
patent: 4977633 (1990-12-01), Chaffee
patent: 5318568 (1994-06-01), Kaufmann et al.
patent: 5406661 (1995-04-01), Pekar
patent: 5507626 (1996-04-01), Yang
patent: 5518376 (1996-05-01), Haroaka
patent: 3137921A1 (1983-04-01), None
Conley Frederick
Frontier Plastics Limited
King and Schickli PLLC
Melius Terry Lee
LandOfFree
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