Apparel – Body garments – Shirts
Reexamination Certificate
2001-01-22
2002-09-03
Hale, Gloria M. (Department: 3765)
Apparel
Body garments
Shirts
C002S069000, C002SDIG001
Reexamination Certificate
active
06442760
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a ventilated item of clothing such as a coat, jacket, overcoat or the like.
It is known that man wears clothing and shoes to protect his body from atmospheric agents such as snow, rain, wind and in particular from the cold.
The human body is protected mainly by resorting to various layers of clothing; the first one, underwear, is in direct contact with the body and is in turn covered by successive layers according to the outside temperature and to the environmental conditions.
Accordingly, it is sufficient to add or remove one or more layers of clothing to achieve comfort and find oneself at an optimum temperature.
The human body is inherently provided with “mechanisms” which help it to adapt thermally to the environment in which it is placed.
In the presence of overheating, for example, the body reacts by increasing perspiration which, by evaporating, allows a natural reduction in body temperature.
The heat generated by the human body, in addition to producing perspiration, is also dissipated externally by radiation.
This heat, which is always present, warms the air contained between the body and the item of clothing; the air, by rising, causes further overheating and discomfort, for example at the shoulders, which constitute regions of accumulation.
If water vapor is unable to escape from the protective enclosure that surrounds the human body (clothing), humidity increases until the vapor condenses and returns to the liquid state of perspiration, soaking the clothing starting from the underwear that constitutes the first inner layer.
This unpleasant drawback can currently be remedied by removing the wet item of clothing to replace it with a dry one, for example immediately after the end of a challenging mountain climb, but this causes a sudden cooling of the body and the danger of pneumonia and other chill-related diseases.
While on the one hand protection of the human body against the most adverse cold conditions is very effective by way of the use of highly insulating materials, on the other hand one cannot avoid noting the inability to allow the body to perspire naturally, ensuring the escape of the water vapor produced by perspiration.
Evidently, during the warm season the problem is more significant and forces many people to take several showers and change clothing continuously through the day.
An attempt has been made to solve these drawbacks by using clothing which has special vapor-permeability characteristics, for example by resorting to a material known commercially by the trademark “Gore-Tex” owned by the company W. L. Gore Ass. Inc.; however, such clothing is able to expel only a fraction, often a small fraction, of the vapor produced by sweating and generated by the human body, especially at the regions that are richer in sweat glands, and in any case is unable to ensure an effective changing of the air inside the item of clothing.
Vapor permeation in fact occurs to a limited extent, because a partial pressure of vapor sufficient to expel the sweat (in the vapor phase) outward does not form inside the layer of the item being worn.
In other cases, a remedy has been attempted by forming in the items of clothing openings which can be closed to varying extents at the regions where sweat concentrates most, for example under the armpits, but even this does not ensure particular effects, since actual air changing is not produced.
It should also be noted that the attempt to increase effectiveness by providing a larger number of openings also has not yielded satisfactory results.
In practice, in fact, some portions of the items of clothing always cling directly to the body, particularly the shoulders and chest, and therefore the water vapor generated by the evaporation of body sweat remains trapped between the body and the regions of the clothing that do not cling directly to the body (generally the abdominal region, the lumbar region of the back and most of all the region under the armpits), thus preventing its escape.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The aim of the present invention is to provide an item of clothing which solves the drawbacks noted above of conventional ones.
Within this aim, an important object of the present invention is to provide an item of clothing which ensures adequate air changing inside the protective enclosure that surrounds the body.
Another object of the invention is to allow, for all practical purposes, the natural thermoregulation of the human body.
This aim and these and other objects which will become better apparent hereinafter are achieved by an item of clothing, such as a coat, jacket, overcoat or the like, comprising:
spacer means which are arranged at least in an internal part of the shoulders of the item of clothing so as to generate an interspace between the shoulders of the user and the fabric which the item of clothing is made of;
elements for venting warm air, produced by the body of the user, that has risen in said interspace.
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Hale Gloria M.
Hoey Alissa L.
Nottington Holding B.V.
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