U.S. patent application number 13/005106 was filed with the patent office on 2011-07-14 for method of attaching ties to a medical gown and a medical gown having ties secured in accordance with the method.
This patent application is currently assigned to PRIMED MEDICAL PRODUCTS INC.. Invention is credited to Lucas ETHIER, Christopher LEEUW, Raymond MARUSYK, Nancy WONG.
Application Number | 20110167534 13/005106 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 44257299 |
Filed Date | 2011-07-14 |
United States Patent
Application |
20110167534 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
WONG; Nancy ; et
al. |
July 14, 2011 |
METHOD OF ATTACHING TIES TO A MEDICAL GOWN AND A MEDICAL GOWN
HAVING TIES SECURED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE METHOD
Abstract
A method of securing ties to a medical gown including providing
a medical gown and associated ties made from a material that is
compatible with ultrasonic welding, folding the ties prior to
welding to provide more than one layer of tie material and welding
the ties by ultrasonic welding through the more than one layer of
tie material.
Inventors: |
WONG; Nancy; (Edmonton,
CA) ; LEEUW; Christopher; (Edmonton, CA) ;
MARUSYK; Raymond; (Edmonton, CA) ; ETHIER; Lucas;
(Edmonton, CA) |
Assignee: |
PRIMED MEDICAL PRODUCTS
INC.
Edmonton
CA
|
Family ID: |
44257299 |
Appl. No.: |
13/005106 |
Filed: |
January 12, 2011 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
2/114 |
Current CPC
Class: |
A41D 2300/33 20130101;
B29C 66/729 20130101; B29L 2031/753 20130101; B29C 53/36 20130101;
B29C 66/21 20130101; B29C 66/4722 20130101; B29C 66/1122 20130101;
A41D 13/1236 20130101; B29C 65/08 20130101; B29L 2031/485 20130101;
B29C 66/431 20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
2/114 |
International
Class: |
A41D 13/12 20060101
A41D013/12 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Jan 13, 2010 |
CA |
2 689 953 |
Claims
1. A method of securing ties to a medical gown, comprising:
providing a medical gown and associated ties made from a material
that is compatible with ultrasonic welding; folding the ties prior
to welding to provide more than one layer of tie material; welding
the ties by ultrasonic welding through the more than one layer of
tie material.
2. The method of claim 1, the ties being folded lengthwise and
secured by multiple ultrasonic welds spaced axially along the
ties.
3. A medical gown, comprising: a gown body and associated ties made
from a material that is compatible with ultrasonic welding, the
ties being folded to provide more than one layer of tie material
and then ultrasonically welded to the gown body.
4. The method of claim 3, the ties being folded lengthwise and
secured by multiple ultrasonic welds spaced axially along the ties.
Description
FIELD
[0001] There is described a method of securing ties to a medical
gown and a medical gown having ties secured in accordance with the
method.
BACKGROUND
[0002] Ties are used to secure medical gowns to patients and
medical personnel. The most common manner of attaching the ties to
the medical gowns is through ultrasonic welding. The American
Association for Medical Instrumentation (AAMI) has standards
regarding fluid resistance of medical gowns. The site of the
ultrasonic welds for the ties presently has an unacceptable level
of fluid resistance failure.
SUMMARY
[0003] According to one aspect, there is provided a method of
securing ties to a medical gown. A first step involves providing a
medical gown and associated ties made from a material that is
compatible with ultrasonic welding. A second step involves folding
the ties prior to welding to provide more than one layer of tie
material. A third step involves welding the ties by ultrasonic
welding through the more than one layer of tie material of the
folded ties.
[0004] Investigation as to the cause of fluid leakage at the site
of ultrasonic welds for the ties concluded that the process of
ultrasonic welding frequently perforated the material. Other
technologies were considered for attaching the ties, such as two
sided tape. However, the use of two sided tape was found to be
relatively expensive and relatively slow. Attention was then
focused upon how to make ultrasonic welding viable. It was
determined that by folding the ties to provide more than one layer
of tie material, the perforations were eliminated. It is believed
that the additional material prevents the fabric of the gown from
being perforated. It is preferred that the ties being folded
lengthwise and secured by multiple ultrasonic welds spaced axially
along the ties, or a single elongate weld.
[0005] According to another aspect there is provided a medical gown
which includes a gown body and associated ties made from a material
that is compatible with ultrasonic welding. The ties are folded to
provide more than one layer of tie material and then ultrasonically
welded to the gown body.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0006] These and other features will become more apparent from the
following description in which reference is made to the appended
drawings, the drawings are for the purpose of illustration only and
are not intended to be in any way limiting, wherein:
[0007] FIG. 1 is a front elevation view of a medical gown having
ultrasonically welded secured ties.
[0008] FIG. 2 is a detailed front elevation view of the ultrasonic
welding site of the medical gown of FIG. 1.
[0009] FIG. 3 is a side elevation view, in section, of the
ultrasonic welding site illustrated in FIG. 2.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0010] A method of securing ties to a medical gown will now be
described with reference to FIG. 1 through FIG. 3.
[0011] Referring to FIG. 1, the present method will be described in
relation to a medical gown, generally identified by reference
numeral 10, which is fabricated in accordance with the teachings of
the method a gown body 12 and associated ties 14 are made from a
material that is compatible with ultrasonic welding. Referring to
FIGS. 2 and 3, ties 14 are folded at least once prior to welding.
It is preferred that ties 14 be folded lengthwise, as illustrated.
Ties 14 are then welded to gown body 12 by a series of axially
spaced ultra sonic welds 18 through the more than one layer of tie
material at welding site 16.
[0012] The purpose of folding is to provide additional layers of
tie material to protect gown body 12 from damage during the welding
process. Once these teachings are understood, it will be apparent
to one skilled in the art that there are alternative ways to fold
ties 14 to achieve the desired objective. For example, ties 14
could have been folded using either a transverse fold or a diagonal
fold. A longitudinal fold is preferred, as it more than one
transverse fold or diagonal fold would be required in order to
position ties 14 on opposed sides of gown body 12 in a desired
orientation. The longitudinal fold is also better able to
accommodate multiple ultrasonic welds 18 at welding site 16.
[0013] Referring to FIG. 1, resulting medical gown 10 includes gown
body 12 and associated ties 14, which are made of a fluid
impervious material compatible with ultrasonic welding. Referring
to FIGS. 2 and 3, ties 14 are folded lengthwise at welding site 16
to provide more than one layer of tie material and protect gown
body 12 from damage during the welding process. Multiple ultrasonic
welds 18 are spaced axially along ties 14 at welding site 16, to
securely fasten ties 14 to gown body 12.
[0014] While multiple, round welds 18 are shown in the depicted
embodiment, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that
the number of welds 18 and their size or shape will depend on the
preferences of the manufacturer or user in order to attach ties 14
sufficiently to gown body 12. For example, the same result as
multiple, discrete welds may be achieved by using a single,
rectangular weld.
[0015] In this patent document, the word "comprising" is used in
its non-limiting sense to mean that items following the word are
included, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. A
reference to an element by the indefinite article "a" does not
exclude the possibility that more than one of the element is
present, unless the context clearly requires that there be one and
only one of the elements.
[0016] The following claims are to be understood to include what is
specifically illustrated and described above, what is conceptually
equivalent, and what can be obviously substituted. Those skilled in
the art will appreciate that various adaptations and modifications
of the described embodiments can be configured without departing
from the scope of the claims. The illustrated embodiments have been
set forth only as examples and should not be taken as limiting the
invention. It is to be understood that, within the scope of the
following claims, the invention may be practiced other than as
specifically illustrated and described.
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