Winding – tensioning – or guiding – Convolute winding of material – Of discrete sheets or articles
Reexamination Certificate
2000-02-01
2002-08-27
Rivera, William A. (Department: 3653)
Winding, tensioning, or guiding
Convolute winding of material
Of discrete sheets or articles
C100S049000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06439500
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to devices and techniques for vending or dispensing and receiving articles, and is especially directed to a returns cabinet in which hospital garments, i.e., scrubs can be received and held until they can be taken to a laundry facility. The invention is more specifically concerned with a belt-type returns unit, in which hospital scrub tops and bottoms are accepted and stored in a system of belts or webs, and which can be unloaded for laundering by reversing the direction of the belts.
Surgical scrubs are a type of hospital or surgical garment, most typically, the green shirts and pants that are worn in hospital operating rooms. These garments are issued to hospital personnel and serve to prevent contamination between patients and health workers. When the hospital personnel doff the garments, or when the scrubs become soiled or contaminated, they are expected to return them. Often this involves simply tossing the garments into a laundry basket, or else onto the floor, and with no control over who has or has not returned their scrub suits. Recently, there has been an effort to use a scrub return facility to account for these garments. Dispensers and return units may be tied to a network in the hospital laundry facility to keep track of the numbers and sizes of scrub tops and bottoms checked out to each of the hospital personnel, and to alert laundry personnel when a dispenser is running out of garments, if the returns unit is full, or if a machine becomes jammed or inoperative for some reason.
Hospitals and clinics usually provide scrubs to surgeons, nurses and attendants at no cost to them. For purposes of this discussion, the surgeons, physicians, nurses, visitors, and others who obtain scrubs can be considered “customers.” Each customer is permitted to have some limited number of scrubs outstanding at any one time, and is expected to return the scrubs to the return facility when they have been worn or if they become soiled. Traditionally, hospitals would leave a stack of clean scrubs in the changing rooms for the physicians, nurses and staff. These would have a tendency to disappear during the day, and would not be available later in the day or in the evening. This led physicians to hoard scrubs in their locker so they would not be caught without scrubs in the evening. This hoarding has led to shortages, which led to greater hoarding. Another method was to assign a hospital attendant with the task of issuing scrubs to customers, but with no real control or accounting for how many scrubs were dispensed. Soiled scrubs were returned by leaving them in laundry carts in the changing rooms, or simply leaving them lying on the floor of the changing room. However, even with this limited level of control, because the hospital must be open at all times, and because fresh scrubs may be needed in any and all the various surgery facilities within the hospital, staffing the laundry attendant position has become a burden on the hospital. For these reasons, there has been much interest recently in automating the issuance and return of hospital garments. In addition, there remains the need to account for the numbers of scrub tops and bottoms issued to each customer, as well as the need to maintain data concerning scrub usage for purposes of re-stocking.
One example of a vending or dispensing device for hospital garments of this type is described in Fitzgerald et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,638,985, and an associated scrubs return cabinet is described in U.S. Pats. Nos. 5,713,270 and 5,829,349. This return cabinet can be connected to a computer server in the laundry for accounting for the scrubs and crediting the customers for returned scrubs. Here, access to the unit is obtained by inputting customer identification, either on a bar code reader or a keypad. This then permits the bin door to be opened, and credits the customer for the return of the scrub suit. There is a video camera and video cassette recorder or VCR in the unit which videotapes images of the scrubs as they are being returned, and may also videotape an image of the customer's face. In order to compact the garments that fall into the bin, the scrubs return cabinet has an arm assembly that swings down to compress the returned scrubs. To remove the scrubs from the unit, the laundry attendant has to open the doors on the front of the unit and reach down into the bin to retrieve the soiled scrubs.
It was desired to create a scrubs return cabinet with additional advantages, such as receiving the scrubs at a convenient level so that the customer does not have to bend down, and which can accurately credit the customer for the garments returned. It was also desired to make it possible for the laundry attendant to retrieve the returned scrubs in an automated or mechanized fashion by discharging them into a laundry bin.
It is also desired to create a returns system and technique that can be used with articles other than hospital garments, such as towels which may be issued to guests at a hotel swim pool or fitness facility.
OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a garment returns cabinet or station that avoids the drawbacks of the prior art.
It is another object to provide a returns cabinet that facilitates customers' return of soiled hospital scrubs and which facilitates retrieval of the scrubs for laundering.
An improved scrubs dispensing or vending facility is the subject of a separate patent application by the same inventor.
In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, a returns cabinet receives hospital garments to be picked up and laundered, and credits the customer with the return. In a rather compact cabinet housing there is a return port or loading door for the customer to place the hospital garment(s) to be returned. The customer inputs a keypad and/or a badge or card reader to allow the loading door to be opened. This enters the customer's ID, as well as an identification of the scrubs being returned. Within the cabinet housing is a system of belts and reels that capture the scrubs and compress them until they can be discharged to the laundry attendant. A back reel within the cabinet housing supplies a first web belt that is wound on it and a front reel housing supplies a second web belt that is wound it. A lower reel or drum, i.e., a take-up reel in the cabinet housing takes up both said first and second web belts together, as well as any returned scrubs that are captured between the belts. Drive motors with or without clutches turn these reels. A system of idlers and rollers defines a path for the belts from their respective front and back reels to the lower reel. This belt path is configured such that a portion of one of the first and second belts defines a landing spot or zone where the returned garment falls after it is placed in the return or load port, which can be a drawer or door. The cabinet may contain a controller board that is coupled to customer input (keypad or badge reader) and to the motor drive. This controls the rotation of the reels such that garments received on said landing spot travel on the belt(s) toward the take-up reel. The soiled scrubs are captured between the first and second belts, and compressed between the belts onto the lower reel. The compression of the soiled scrubs between the two belts on the lower drum is extremely effective in increasing the storage capacity of the return unit.
A digital camera within the upper part of the cabinet housing records images of garments placed into the cabinet before they are wound onto the belts. The digital camera can also record the associated customer ID information, either from an LED display or recorded electronically. The digital images can be recorded on a computer-type magnetic disk drive, either within the cabinet or in the laundry facility. If foreign material (i.e., items other than scrubs) is found in the unit, the digital pictures can be quickly and easily retrieved by the laundry personnel, and the user or customer
Molldrem, Jr. Bernhard P.
Rivera William A.
S&S X-ray Products, Inc.
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