Mattress cover

Details Mattress cover Mattress cover

1996-09-11

1999-10-19

Melius, Terry Lee

Beds

Bedclothing

Adapted to contact mattress

5497, 5699, A47G 900

Patent

active

059667591

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
THE INVENTION RELATES TO A MATTRESS COVER IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE PREAMBLE
OF CLAIM.


BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Mattress covers made of a uniform permeable cover material, of cotton for example, have long been known for general use for the purpose of completely enveloping a mattress in a form that can be closed by snap fasteners, buttons or slide fasteners, or for covering the top and margins of the mattress and covering only part of its bottom. What is involved is a covering which can be removed and laundered for cleanliness and hygienic purposes.
Additional requirements for a mattress cover have arisen from the knowledge that even in a clean and hygienically maintained household, house mites normally infest mattresses in large numbers in order to take advantage of sleeping humans on the one hand by using the heat and moisture they provide, and on the other hand to obtain nourishment from the tiny skin flakes shed by humans. Especially the excrement of these house mites has been identified as one of the worst allergens, so that protection against such allergens is important not only for the great and increasing number of people suffering from "house dust" allergy, but also for the great numbers of people whose sensitivity has not yet led to physical reactions as serious as illness.
For protection against such allergens, there have been developments which are aimed at sealing a mattress hermetically. That still allows for comfortably lying on a mattress since it is still soft, but it is not comfortable climatically, since normally about one-third of the water vapor transpired from a body passes through the mattress. A completely sealed mattress thus results in a blockage of air and vapor, wetting the body, the nightclothes and the bed covering. This leads to an unhealthy and intolerable sweating, as well as to wet conditions in the surrounding textiles.
Mattress covers made of cotton fabric treated with heat and pressure, especially quilt fabrics, are being offered as bedding permeable to air and water vapor. For since it had been found by studies that the quilt fabric is not woven tightly enough to block out house mites with a body size of about 20 .mu.m, it was hoped to create by such treatment a block against the allergens, i.e., the mite excrement with a size of less than 1 .mu.m. Certainly no satisfactory solution can be seen in this because such heat and pressure treated fabric as novel goods can have barrier qualities, but with wear and especially laundering they are lost.
According to another proposal (DE 40 27 798 C2) the use of a polyurethane layer reinforced by a textile material, such as a polyester knit goods, can be provided as a vapor-permeable but water-tight mattress cover. But such a coating would very quickly become useless because absorbed water vapor condenses in the water-tight coating and then cannot escape. It also lacks sufficient permeability to air.


SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The invention is addressed to the problem of creating a mattress cover which will be permeable to air and vapor in the conventional manner and will be washable for cleanliness and hygiene, but nevertheless will create an effective and lasting barrier against allergens from the mattress.
According to the invention, there is provided a mattress cover comprising a cover top and a cover bottom. The cover top includes an upper textile material layer overlying an allergen-proof and water vapor permeable layer, and the cover bottom is formed of a material which is only mite-proof.
It has proven to be important for the practical use of such a mattress cover that it is differently configured on the top and the bottom and presents an allergen-proof configuration on the upper side. This limits the special allergen-proof make-up to the critical area of the surface for the user's body to lie upon and which is dangerous regarding the upward penetration of allergens. At the same time the allergen-proof layer is provided inside (on the back) of the upper-side material, so that the body-side surface is to be made of a c

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