Support for expansible cells

Details Support for expansible cells Support for expansible cells

1997-11-13

2003-04-22

Santos, Robert G. (Department: 3628)

Beds

Support for users body or part thereof

Removable support specially adapted for seating

C005S655300, C005S944000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06550085

ABSTRACT:

INVENTION SUMMARY
The present invention pertains to a support material that can serve as mattress, cushion or padding an is made of small balloon shaped cells filled with a fluid. These cells are interconnected at their base in order to create a single volume of fluid which fills all the cells, the type of fluid being selected according to the application. The cell layout is designed to yield the lowest possible cell density (number of cells per unit of area of the support) while offering a supporting surface as uniform as possible and capable of closely conforming to the contour of the supported body once they are filled.
This support material can be used in the medical field, for mattresses and cushions designed to prevent bed sores or for protective padding, such as those present in dorsolumbar supports or to protect fragile equipment.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
These types of support material are already known in terms of the ability of their bearing surface to conform to the supported body while presenting the same reaction regardless of the degree of compression of the support, due to the pressure equalization among the interconnected cells. This is described by JAY in U.S. Pat. No. 4,726,624, U.S. Pat. No. 5,018,790 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,369,829 relating to cushions, where a sheath made of several oversized sheets assembled in the same plane is filled with gel and placed on a shaped seat of smaller dimensions. This case sheaths contains longitudinal and transverse chambers which are interconnected in such a manner that when someone is sitting, the pressure is equalized among the various chambers. In position, the sheath can be perceived as an array of longitudinal and transverse cylindrical balloons which are elevated above the median plane of the seam of the sheath, the disadvantage being the presence of numerous folds which could constrict the blood circulation in the skin.
We know the bed described by HINSDALE in U.S. 945234, whose mattress is made of a staggered array of small spherical balloons, the top of these being the bearing surface characterized by the most uniform pressure over the entire supporting area. The balloons are inflated with air, circulation of which is possible, and they are all interconnected at their bottom via a network of tubes, thus creating a single air chamber where each balloon sees the same air pressure.
In WO 96/08185, Ouiger describes how a compensation chamber regulates the pressure within an air mattress. In EP 0651 959A1, Tödter describes a bellow type of cellular support. In EP 0651 162A2, Kawasaki describes a cellular support made of non-expansible square cells located on either side (top and bottom) of the seam plane, with cross-braces where the rows intersect. Iskra, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,487,197 describes a controlled support with non-expansible longitudinal inflatable cells. In WO 96/19997, Holdredge describes a support equipped with a turbine, which includes non-expansible inflatable bladders. Caldwell in WO 93/24089, Johnson in WO 94/19998 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,373,595) and Evans in WO 95/15706 describe controlled supports with elongated inflatable bladders. In EP 0566 507A1, Beaud describes a support consisting of inflatable elements made of two sheets, with an internal wall on the seam plane of the two sheets. In JP 07000257, Yamamoto Giichi describes a vibration absorbing cushion designed for vehicle drivers. In JP 04030814 and JP 04030813, Sagami Masaharu describes the behavior of a inflatable cell mattress. In JP 03039105, Hiochi Toshimichi describes the flow regulation (air or water) within a support. Supports which rely on regulation or dynamic assistance have one disadvantage which is their cost. Without objecting to a possible usage of assisted supports, the present invention provides a support which does not need any type assistance to operate, like some previously mentioned supports from HINSDALE, GRAEBE, BENGUIGUI or VIESTURS. In addition, some medical supports have a disadvantage in that they favor the “hammock effect” which contributes to a shearing of the skin and hinders blood circulation. For instance, in the case of the Hinsdale product used to prevent bed sores, this undesirable effect can be avoided by removing the upper fabric layer or by replacing it with a highly extensible fabric such as jersey.
Patent GB 1341325 describes a mattress somewhat similar in principle, which is inflated with a turbine, also described by DOUGLAS in U.S. Pat. No. 4,279,044.
Patent JP 05081423, by Ichida Michiyasu describes a regulation system in a mattress consisting of truncated conical cells.
Such supports can be improved by using small balloons or conical cells described by GRAEBE in U.S. Pat. No. 3,605,145, which are interconnected via small ducts at the bottom of the cells, these ducts appearing automatically when the sheets are assembled together. GRAEBE then goes on to describe cells whose cross-section is in the shape of a star, in which the walls of the inflated balloons can expand beyond the position and volume they occupy when deflated. It is therefore possible to arrange these cells or balloons upright on their bottom in longitudinal or transverse rows while maintaining a uniform bearing surface upon inflation, which would not be the case with the balloons described by HINSDALE in U.S. 945234 if they were arranged in the same configuration. The GRAEBE invention pertaining to the cell expansion led in 1975 and 1977 to the U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,870,450 and 4,005,236, in which he details the mold required to manufacture a support and describes the resulting support identical in nature to the previous one in .S. Pat. No. 3,605,145, and characterized by the expansion and interconnection of the cells via bottom ducts created by the assembly of the two sheets, the upper sheet being shaped, the lower sheet being flat, such as he also describes in the U.S. design patent D35558. The deflated cells can be contained within a virtual sheath having a round, square, rectangular cross section and they can be uniform or not from top to bottom, with or without a foot (US. Pat. No. 3,605,145 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,870,450), as also indicate by EVANS in U.S. Pat. No. 4,864,671, the type of inflating fluid being irrelevant. The interconnecting system between cells filled with a liquid has also been described by VIESTURS in U.S. Pat. No. 4,422,194, for a cellular support presenting a square cross-section and resulting from the assembly of formed sheets located on either side of the seam plane. SEBAG and BENGUIGUI in U.S. Pat. No. 5,553,220 (EP 0721755A1) describe an alternate cellular design with four branches or ribs having parallel sides. The lateral concavities in the contiguous cells facing each other, they basically reproduce the description of the distribution grid in FR 270873.
In De-U-9410601, ROUSCHAL describes some cells but focuses mostly on a cell interconnecting network obtained by gluing the formed top sheet and the flat bottom sheet around the perimeter of the support only.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,541,136, GRAEBE also described a simple cell shape having only four branches, such as half the deflated bladder of a pigskin football, the cross-section of which has the shape of a cross, the four branches of the star or cross of GRAEBE ending at the four corners of a square. In the previous art, the two side walls or faces of the ridges of the mandrel and therefore of the ridges of the cells also are relatively close and parallel: U.S. Pat. No. 4,005,236 (col 3, line 13-radially directed ribs) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,541,136 (claim
2
: pair of closely spaced side walls). In U.S. Pat. No. 4,864,671, EVANS call these ribs “ridges” and the cell side walls “folds” where GRAEBE in U.S. Pat. No. 4,541,136 instead uses “depressed side walls”. Furthermore, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,005,603 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,052,068, Graebe gives a broad description of cells of various cross-sections, which does not detail the various rib shapes except in terms of their radial configuration in U.S. Pat. No. 4,005,236 and their two parallel side walls in U.S. Pat. No. 4,541,136 as

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