U.S. patent number 3,892,225 [Application Number 05/401,817] was granted by the patent office on 1975-07-01 for cold weather clothing suit.
Invention is credited to Mike Twose.
United States Patent |
3,892,225 |
Twose |
July 1, 1975 |
Cold weather clothing suit
Abstract
Cold weather clothing suits which are adapted to be worn by a
user are formed from an air tight fabric with air distribution
means therein and air heating and circulating means whereby the
circulation of heated air maintains desired temperature in the
suit.
Inventors: |
Twose; Mike (Westport, CT) |
Family
ID: |
23589348 |
Appl.
No.: |
05/401,817 |
Filed: |
September 28, 1973 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
126/204; 126/208;
2/458; 165/104.31 |
Current CPC
Class: |
A61F
7/02 (20130101); A61F 2007/006 (20130101); A61F
2007/0001 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
A61F
7/00 (20060101); A61f 007/06 () |
Field of
Search: |
;126/204,206,208,210,11E
;165/46,35,36,17X ;2/2.1R,2.1A |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Dority, Jr.; Carroll B.
Assistant Examiner: Ferguson; Peter D.
Claims
Having thus described this invention, what is asserted as new
is:
1. A cold weather clothing suit incorporating air tight fabric
which forms an insulated wall between the body of the user and the
outside, the wall being so shaped as to have small openings at the
hands, feet and chest of the user in addition to a large opening at
the user's face, the suit comprising:
a combined air blowing and heating unit with a first input port and
a second output port, the unit inducting air in the first port,
heating the inducted air, and discharging the heated air through
the second port;
tubing means connected to the second port and secured to the inside
of the suit wall, the tubing means being vented at the hands and
feet openings to direct heated air inside the suit;
a hollow tube with a vent to the outside disposed intermediate its
ends, the tube being connected at one end to the chest opening and
connected to the first port at its other end, thus enabling
previously heated air from the interior of the suit to be withdrawn
through the chest opening and mixed with incoming air from the
outside, the mixture passing through the air blowing and heating
unit for recycling; and
manually operable means extending into the tube through the vent
and adapted to vary the relative proportions of previously heated
air and incoming air in the mixture.
2. The suit of claim 1 wherein the inside surface of the wall is
coated with a metallized reflective plastic, said tubing means
being disposed in the plastic.
3. The suit of claim 2 wherein the plastic coating is covered by an
insulating layer which is itself coated by another coating of
metallized reflective plastic.
4. The suit of claim 3 wherein the unit is characterized by a
heating section that produces waste gases by combustion, and
wherein the unit is further characterized by an air intake louvre
for introducing outside air into the heating section and a chimney
to vent said gases to the outside without allowing said gases to
enter the tubing means.
5. The suit of claim 4 wherein the heating section includes means
to produce a flame, and a thermal to electric transducer heated by
the flame, the electric output energy from the transducer being
used to power the blower section.
Description
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION:
This invention relates to cold weather clothing incorporating a
heating and circulating unit for heating the interior of the
clothing. As will be obvious from the description to follow, the
fabric of which the clothing is constructed may be made air tight,
because of the provision of the heating and circulating unit.
The invention therefore, provides cold weather clothing wherein the
temperature inside the clothing is controllable and is not
dependent on the duration of the user's absence from the last
heated abode, and wherein the reduction of condensation due to the
employment of a heating and circulating unit, allows the use of air
tight instead of porous material for the clothing, whereby greater
insulation is achieved.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS:
In the drawings:
FIG. 1 is a schematic of the costume worn by a user;
FIG. 2 shows a cross-section of the costume at a contact point
showing the lining used to permit air flow;
FIG. 3 shows a cross-section of the lining at a hot air
distributing conduit; and
FIG. 4 shows a cross-section of the heating and circulating
unit.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS:
In the discussion of FIGS. 1 to 3, it will be assumed that the
heating and circulating unit to be described hereafter, includes a
means for heating air (preferably a controlled mixture of return
air from inside the suit and of outside air) to form the atmosphere
of the inside of the suit and means to cause movement of heated air
through output line 12 to various corners of the suit and to
receive air from the inside atmosphere of the suit at input tube
14. Tube 14 is open at one end to the blower, as shown in FIG. 4,
and at the other end to the inside of the suit where it receives
air flowing between the suit and the wearer's body, as hereinafter
described. It will be seen that the output air is supplied along
line 12 through manifold 16 to output lines 18 which are connected
and arranged to convey the heated air produced by the unit to the
extremities of the suit, as shown. The openings 20 are openings
from the ends of conduits 18 to the inside of the suit.
FIG. 3 shows a cross-section of the lining, with tubing 18
incorporated therein. Thus it will be seen that the heated air
produced by the heating and circulating unit is connected directly
to the extremities of the suit, and of course there is no
limitation on the number of conduits which may be used in this
method.
The suit may be worn with the user's face exposed, as indicated
schematically in FIG. 1, or with a respirator mask, if desired or
necessary. However this mask is not shown as it forms no part of
the present invention.
For the purposes of this invention, it will be sufficient to assume
that the air for breathing is obtained exterior to the atmosphere
produced in the suit by the equipment in accord with the invention.
The air issuing from the outlet ports 20 of the tubing, finds its
way back inside the suit (between the suit and the wearer) to an
inlet port for the inlet tube 4. In those locations where the suit
fits loosely, the air path will be available and will maintain,
with varying degrees of thickness and temporary interruptions due
to contact, a flow path which insulates the wearer from the outer
insulation.
At areas such as the knees and shoulders which are in almost
constant contact and where such return flow paths might not be
available, there is preferably provided, a fibrous underlining
spacer 60 (see FIG. 2) between the insulating layer and the wearer,
providing an entangled fibrous matte, between whose fibres, may
flow the air. Such matte is illustrated schematically in FIG.
2.
Due to the internal heating method and the air circulation paths
the suit may now be made air tight instead of porous, with much
greater insulating effect.
One of the preferred forms for construction of the suit material
however (see FIG. 3) would be having an outer layer 62 of tough
cloth made air tight with silicone or other plastic material.
Inside of this is an insulating layer 64 and inside this again
would be metallized reflective plastic 66. If desired, the sequence
of insulation and reflective plastic could be repeated as many
times as necessary.
FIG. 4 shows the heating and circulating unit for the device. The
heating and insulating unit is provided in a fire proof container
30 having an air intake louvre 32 to allows inflow of the necessary
air for combustion. The heater shown schematically in FIG. 4 may be
an open flame such as an alcohol lamp 36, as shown, or a catalytic
oxidization unit or other compact, suitable source of heat. It will
be noted here, that the combustion products of this operation are
not circulated to the suit in the preferred embodiment nor do they
form the atmosphere for breathing, since they exit via chimney 37
and hence the concern about the composition of the combustion
products need not be as great.
Located to be directly heated by the heater is a thermal to
electric transducer of any desired form such as the "Seebeck"
module. Such a module may, inter alia, be purchased from General
Instruments, Thermo-electric Division, 65 Gouverneur Street,
Newark, N.J., U.S.A. The heating is applied to one side of this
module 40 and the other side of the module is cooled by a heat sink
or heat exchanger 42 and, as is well known, the electricity
produced, is proportional to the temperature difference across the
module. The heat sink comprises, a heat exchanger of any desired
design, wherein the heat input is provided by the air in the
combustion chamber and the heat output side is provided to the
output gases of a blower 38. As schematically shown in the
preferred embodiment, the preferred heat exchanger comprises copper
vanes located to radiate into the air path of air driven by the
blower from conduit 14 to conduit 12. The vanes are located in heat
conducting relationship to the remainder of the heat sink to draw
their heat therefrom. Thus the air heated by the burner is used,
through the heat exchanger, to heat the air from the blower which
is conducted to the extremities of the suit while the air from the
blower, at the same time, cools the heat exchanger and the flame
remote side of the module. It will be noted that there is no
interchange permitted between the air forming the suit atmosphere
and the combustion gases for the burner.
The electrical output from the module is applied to drive an
electric motor 74 which in turn is used to drive the blower. The
blower provides its output to the heated air conduits as
illustrated in FIG. 1 between conduits 14 and 12 and receives its
air from an intake inside the costume and preferably just at the
lower portion of the chest. The heating is provided by the heat
exchanger to provide a warm atmosphere inside the suit.
The motor used is a small low voltage direct current motor
operating on the voltage supplied by the electrical output from the
thermo-electric module.
At the input to the blower, a controllable aperture 44 is provided
to the tube 14 to allow interchange of outside air with the air
being circulated in the suit. This interchange is achieved in
controllable amounts in the preferred form of the invention,
comprising a vane 48 rotatably mounted on a threaded control member
50 at a junction 52 which allows free rotation of the joined parts.
The movement of the threaded member 50 and the vane 48 transversely
of the conduit is controlled by a knob 54 located exterior of the
casing. The vane 48 is shaped to completely close the conduit 14
when wholly retained therein. Guides maintain the vane 48 against
rotation and in an orientation perpendicular to the longitudinal
axis of the conduit. The shape of the vane is such as to
substantially close the conduit 14 through air flow, when the vane
is completely contained in the conduit. On the other hand, the
thickness of the threaded member is such that air may flow freely
therearound along the conduit over such part of the threaded member
as is contained within the conduit. The aperture 44 is dimensioned
to allow the movement of the vane into and out of the casing. The
knob-remote end 54 of the rotary junction 52 is designed to
partially close the aperture 44. At one extreme position, with the
control knob rotated so that the vane is completely outside the
conduit 14 and end 54 is partially closing aperture 44, maximum
flow takes place through conduit 14 and minimum air exchange takes
place with the outside. At the other extreme position, with the
vane effectively closing conduit 14, substantially all air received
travelling down conduit 14 toward the vane, is expelled to
atmsophere above the vane, through aperture 44, and all air
required by the blower is obtained from the atmosphere beneath the
vane through aperture 44. The proper adjustment is a compromise
between the need to retain as much of the warm air as possible, and
the need to exchange enough air to avoid condensation.
In practice the best setting for the control knob is that which
achieves 2--3 percent per cycle.
While I have described my invention with particular reference to
the drawings, such is not to be considered as limiting its actual
scope.
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