GB2084010A - Felt-like mattress - Google Patents

Abstract

A mattress comprises a needle felt covered with a flexible cover, said needle felt being formed by interposing a substrate between two fiber layers, each containing at least 5% by weight of animal fiber, and subjecting the superposed fiber layers to needle-punching. Felt-like mattresses having an apparatus for generating an output potential for an electrotherapeutical apparatus arranged on the above described mattress, or magnets arranged on the upper surface thereof have a very high therapeutical effect in addition to the above described excellent property.

Description

SPECIFICATION Felt-like mattress The present invention relates to a mattress used for increasing health of human body.

Sleep gives rest to brain and body of man, and at the same time serves to activate the formation of hormone and protein, which are indispensable for the growth of human body and for the maintenance and increasing of health of the body. It is commonly known that, when a deep sleep is rapidly obtained after the beginning of sleeping, the growth hormone is secreted in an ampunt of as large as 3~4 timers of ordinary amount This growth hormone promotes not only the growth of child, but also the metabolism of sugar and protein and the synthesis of nucleic acid. Therefore, the growth hormone is effective even in the recovery of an adultfrom his fatigue.

Accordingly, deep sleep promotes the development of growth of human body and increases the health of the body.

Further, it is due to the normal action of his brain, spinal cord and nerve that a man can maintain his health and can think and act Spinal cord is substantially formed of assembled nerve fibers, which transmit information and instruction. Therefore, when spinal cord is bent or pressed, nervous systems in the spinal cord do not act normally, and various diseases are caused. Therefore, it is very importans to maintain normally spinal cord in orderto cure almost all diseases and to increase health.

Mattress is required to have a proper hardness in order that a man can sleep thereon in a correct posture. That is, when mattress is too hard, human body lying on mattress is locally pressed by the mattress due to the weight of the body itself, and the body feels pain and is not smooth in the circulation of blood at the pressed portion, and the man can not sleep soundly. While, when mattress is too soft, a man lying on the mattress is difficult to turn over thereon and further there is a risk of his spinal cord being bent.

In addition to the hardness, mattress is required to have excellent moisture absorbability and permeability, to have excellent heat retaining property without accumulation of sweat, and to give cool feeling in summer and warm feeling in winterto human body.

The object of the present invention is to provide a mattress having an ideal hardness and capable of satisfying the above described conditions.

That is, the first aspect of the present invention is the provision of a felt-like mattress, comprising a needle felt covered with a flexible cover, said needle felt being formed by interposing a substrate between two fiber layers, each containing at least 5% by weight of animal fiber, and subjecting the superposed fiber layers to needle-punching.

The second aspect of the present invention is the provision of a felt-like mattress, comprising the above described felt-like mattress and an apparatus for generating an output potential for an electrotherapeutical apparatus arranged on the upper surface of the mattress.

The third aspect of the present invention is the provision of a felt-like mattress. comprising two plate-shaped needle felts superposed through a flexible sheet interposed betweem them, each of said plate-shaped needle felts being formed by interposing a substrate between two fiber layers, each containing at least 5% by weight of animal fiber, and subjecting the superposed fiber layers to needlepunching, and the upper plate-shaped needle felt being provided with a plurality of holes; magnets inserted into said holes; and a flexible cover which covers the outer side of the superposed needle felts.

For a better understanding of the invention, reference is made to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figs. 1a, 1 b and 1 are diagrammatic views of the states of mattresses having various hardness at the use; Fig. 2 is a plan view, partly in section, of one embodiment of a felt-like mattress of the present invention; Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional view of the mattress illustrated in Fig. 2 taken on a line Ill-Ill in Fig. 2; Fig. 4 is a plan view, partly in section, of another embodiment of a felt-like mattress of the present invention; Fig. 5 is a vertical sectional view of the mattress illustrated in Fig. 4 taken on a line V-V in Fig. 4; Fig. 6 is a plan view, partly in section, of a further embodiment of a felt-like mattress of the present invention;; Fig. 7 is a vertical sectional view of the mattress illustrated in Fig. 6 taken on a line VII-VII in Fig. 6; and Figs. 8a and 8b are front elevational views of permanent magnets used in the mattress illustrated in Figs. 6 and 7, exemplifying the shape of the magnets.

For an easy understanding of the felt-like mattress according to the present invention, a relation between the hardness of a mattress and the posture of a human body at the sleeping time will be explained referring to Figs. la-lc. Fig. la illustrates the relation when the mattress is too hard. In this case, a human body is locally pressed by the mattress due to the weight of the body itself, and the human body not only feels pain but also is poor in the circulation of blood at the locally pressed portion. As the results, the man can not sleep soundly.

Fig. 1b illustrates the posture of a human body when a man lies on an excessively soft mattress. In this case, the man is difficult in the turning over on the mattress, and further there is a risk of the spinal cord being bent Fig. 1 c illustrates the posture of a human body when a man lies on a mattress having an ideal hardness. The present invention provides a mattress having such ideal hardness.

In addition to the hardness, mattress is required to have good moisture absorbability and permeability, to have excellent heat retaining property without accumulation of sweat, and to give cool feeling in summer and warm feeling in winterto human body.

The present invention provides a mattress having an ideal hardness and capable of satisfying the above described conditions.

The mattress of the present invention will be explained referring to Figs. 2--8. Figs. 2 to 3 illustrate one embodiment of a mattress according to the pre sent invention. In the mattress illustrated in Figs. 2 and 3, a substrate 2 is interposed between two fiber layers 1 and leach containing at least 5% by weight (hereinafter, "%" means % by weight) of animal fiber of wool, and the superposed fiber layers are needle-punched to form a needle felt, and the needle felt is wholly covered with a flexible cover 3, for example, a cloth or a nonwoven fabric, to form a felt-like mattress. In Figs. 2 and 3, the numeral 4 represents a cloth cover, which covers further the feltlike mattress. The numeral 5 represents a fastener arranged on one of the side portion of the cloth cover.

As the animal fibers to be used in the fiber layer of the mattress of the present invention, wool is generally used. As the other fibers to be used in the fiber layer, cotton wad, nylon wad, polyester wad and the like are used.

Wool has a moisture absorbability as high as about 2 times of that of cotton and as high as about 3.7 times of that of polyester, and further has excellent moisture permeability. Therefore, wool must be contained in the fiber layer in an amount of at least 5%. The use of the larger amount of wool gives the more excellent mattress. When the amount of wool is less than 5%, the effect of wool does not appear.

Therefore, the lower limit of wool content in the fiber layer is limited to 5% in the present invention.

In the present invention, the needle-punching of the superposed fiber players is carried out such that the resulting needle felt has a density of 0.010.266 g/cm3.

The reason why a substrate 2 is interposed between the two fiber layers 1 and 1 before the needlepunching is to increase the strength of the resulting needle felt The thickness of the mattress of the present invention is shown in an exaggeratively large scale in the accompanying drawings, and the proper thickness of the mattress is 15--20 mm for practical use.

The mattress of the present invention has a proper hardness and further has good moisture absorbability and permeability as described above, and therefore the mattress has the following excellent properties.

(1) A man can turn over easily on the mattress.

An aduitturns over 20--30 times in one night, and moves about 100 times in one night when slight movement is taken into account If a man lies on a soft mattress, the human body sinks wholly in the mattress to make the turning over difficult and to disturb sound sleeping. Particularly, sucklings and babies can not turn over bythemselve, and therefore when a suckling or baby is laid down on such a soft mattress that the suckling or baby sinks wholly therein, the suckling or baby can not sleep well, catches various diseases, is disturbed in his normai growth and can not maintain normally his spinal cord. The mattress of the present invention has the best hardness, under which a suckling or baby can turn over thereon easily.

(2) A man can maintain normally his spinal cord during sleeping.

There are a large number of diseases relating to spinal cord. It is very important for a man to maintain normally his spinal cord in order to cure his various diseases and to maintain his health. When a man lies on an excessively soft mattress, his spinal cord bends, and therefore the use of such mattress is not desirable. Particularly, the use of excessive soft mattress has an adverse influence upon the development and growth of suckling and baby. When the mattress of the present invention is used, a man can maintain normally his spinal cord during sleeping.

(3) The mattress has a most suitable hardness capable of pressing uniformly whole of a human body due to the weight of the body.

When a man lies on an excessively hard mattress, his body is locally pressed by the mattress due to his own weight and is poor in the circulation of blood at the locally pressed portion, and he can not sleep soundly due to the pain at the pressed portion. Since the mattress of the present invention has a proper hardness, a man lying on the mattress is pressed uniformly over the whole body by the mattress due to his weight and the man cap sleep soundly.

(4) The mattress is free from the accumulation of sweat and has always dry and pleasant feeling.

A man generates one cup of sweat, that is, about 180~200cm of sweat, during sleep in one night.

Therefore, when a man sleeps on a mattress having poor moisture absorbability and permeability, he feels unpleasantly and grows cool, resulting in various diseases. Wool has a moisture absorbability as large as 1.76 times of that of cotton and as large as 3.75 times of that of polyester, and further has a moisture permeability higher than that of any other fibers. Therefore, wool repeats absorption and permeation of moisture and further repels water drops. The mattress of the present invention, which is a felt-like mattress containing thick and long wool fibers, does not cause accumulation of sweat and has dry and pleasant feeling.

(5) The mattress has excellent heat retaining property without oppression of heat and gives cool feeling in summer and warm feeling in winterto a human body.

In general, when water is evaporated, heat is abosrbed. Reversely, when gas is agglomerated and liquified, heat is generated. This heat is called as heat of wetting. A substance, which liberates a large amount of heat due to absorption of moisture, has excellent heat retaining property when it is wet or the humidity in the air is increased. Since wool has a moisture absorption exotherm as high as not less than 2 times of that of cotton, wool is higher than cottom in the heat retaining property.

Moreover, wool fiber has always a coiled state, and air is retained between the fibers and serves to intercept heat. Therefore, wool keeps a human body warm. Further, wool is higherthan other fibers in the permeability of ultraviolet ray, and has a very low thermal conductivity as illustrated in the following Table 1. Accordingly, wool is hardly influenced by the variation of temperature of the open air, and air retained between wool fibers is kept to a tempera to rue near the room temperature throughout the year.

The mattress of the present invention uses wool formed into felt, and therefore even when a man lies on the mattress, substantially constant amount of air is retained between the fibers, and the mattress has excellent heat retaining property without oppression of heat and gives cool feeling in summer and warm feeling in winter to human body.

Table 1 Thermal conductivity of fibers

Thermal conductivity Fieber ficallcmlcm21 C15) Ratio Wool 3.7 x 10-4 1.00 Cotton 7.7 x 10-4 2.08 Nylon (8--12.0)x 10-4 2.70 Polyester 5.8 x 10-4 1.57 (6) The mattress is flame-retardant.

Since the mattress of the present invention is low in the thermal conductivity and hardly conducts heat as illustrated in Table 1. Therefore, the mattress is flame-retardant (7) The mattress is free from the formation of cotton dust, is hard to be soiled, and is sanitary.

The mattress of the present invention is produced by needle-punching wool fibers to entangle the fibers with each other, and forming the needlepunched wool fibers into a felt. Therefore, the mattress is free from the formation of cotton duct, which forms in the mattress made of cotton wad.

Moreover, since wool repels water drops, the mattress of the present invention is hard to be soiled, and is sanitary.

(8) Washing is possible.

The mattress of the present invention can be drycleaned or washed with lukewarm water by hand.

Figs. 4 and 5 illustrate another embodiment of a mattress of the present invention. Among the numerals shown in Figs. 4 and 5, the same numerals as those shown in Figs. 2 and 3 represent the same members as those shown in Figs. 2 and 3.

In the mattress illustrated in Figs. 4 and 5, an electrode plate 6, which forms a part of the apparatus for generating an output potential for an electrotherapeutical apparatus, is arranged on the upper surface of a mattress, which is formed by interposing a substrate 2 between two fiber layers 1 and 1, each containing at least 5% of animal fiber of wool, subjecting the superposed fiber layers to needle punching to form a needle felt, and covering the needle felt with a flexible cover 3.

The electrotherapeutical apparatus means a therapeutical apparatus, wherein electric current is subjected to a half-wave rectification to generate anions, and the anions are acted on a human body to cure the disease of the body. The electrode plate 6 of an apparatus for generating an output potential for the electrotherapeutical apparatus is made of, for example, a flexible synthetic resin plate, whose surfaces are coated with carbon film used for electrode.

The electrode plate 6, after covered with a cover cloth 7, is arranged on the above described mattress.

The numeral 4 represents a cloth cover, which wraps the assembly of the mattress and electrode plate.

The numeral 5 represents a fastener arranged on one side of the cloth cover 4. The numeral 8 represents a cord connecting the above described electrode plate 6 with a terminal 10. The numeral 9 represents a ring fixed to the cover4 at a portion, through which the cord 8 is penetrated the cover 4.

It has been found from experiments that, when the electrode plate of an electrotherapeutical apparatus is arranged on a mattress, the output potential acting upon a human body is highly influenced by the property of core material of the mattress and the amount of voids in the core material.

In the present invention, a fiber layer containing animal fibers, such as wool and the like, is used as a core material for mattress, and moreover the fiber layers are superposed and the superposed fiber layers are needle-punched to form a needle felt having a proper hardness and a proper void volume.

Therefore, when the needle felt is provided with an electrotherapeutical apparatus and used as a mattress, the electrotherapeutical apparatus is smaller in the variation of output potential and further is generally remarkably higher in the output potential than an electrotherapeutical apparatus arranged on a conventional mattress. This fact is clear from the result of the following experiment.

(1) Specification of an electrotherapeutical apparatus used: Electric source: AC 100 V, 50 Hz Consumption of electric power: 0.4 W Dimension of electrode plate: 400 mm = 600 mm (2) Dimension of sample mattress: 850 mm x 1,900 mm, thickness: 15 mm (3) Measuring method: One sheet of commonly used cotton wad mattress is arranged on a tatami (Japanese straw mat) and a sample mattress provided with the above described electrode plate is arranged on the above described cotton wad mattress and left to stand for 2 hours under an environment of an air temperature of 24-26"C and a humidity of 8385%, after which the output potential on the electrode plate is measured.

The following Table 2 shows the results of the measurement.

Table2

Raw material for Ratio ofsample mattress sample mattress Output to cotton wad sample Sample I poten- mattress in the output No. Wool Nylon tial potential (Olo) (O/o) {V) o) Sample 1 5 95 305 133.8 mattress 2 25 75 341 149.6 ofthe 3 50 50 378 165.8 present 4 75 25 392 171.9 invention 5 95 5 398 174.6 Comparative 6 Cotton wad 228 100 sample 7 Polyester wad 221 99.9 mattress 8 Polyurethane 204 89.5 It can be seen from Table 2 that the electroapeutical apparatus arranged on the felt-like mattress of the present invention, which mattress is a needle felt containing at least 5% of wool and having a proper hardness, has an output potential of more than about 1.3 times of that of the electrotherapeutical apparatus arranged on a cqmmonly used cotton wad mattress. The reason is probably as follows.

Wool has a moisture absorbability as high as about 2 times of that of cotton and as high as about 3.7 times of that of polyester and further has an excellent moisture permeability. Therefore, when an electotherapeutical apparatus is used together with the felt-like mattress of the present invention, the elec trotherapeuticai apparatus generates a high output potential. That is, the felt-like mattress of the present invention, on which a potential-generating apparatus for an electrotherapeutical apparatus is arranged, not only has the above described effect on the mattress itself, but also has a remarkably improved therapeutical effect of the electrotherapeutical apparatus.

Figs.6~8 illustrate a further embodiment of a mattress of the present invention. Among the numerals shown in Figs. 68, the same numerals as those shown in Figs.2~5 represent the same members as those shown in Figs.2~5.

In this mattress, a substrate 2 is interposed between two fibers layers 1 and 1, each containing at least 5% of animal fiber of wool, the superposed fiber layers are subjected to needle-punching to form two plate-shaped needle felts, the two plate shaped needle felts are superposed together with a flexible sheet 11 interposed between them, a large number holes 12 are formed in the upper plateshaped needle felt so as to be distributed at the necessary portion of the felt, a permanent magnet 13 having a spherically formed upper surface 13a as illustrated in Figs. 8a or 8b is inserted into each of the holes 12, the bottom surface 13b of the magnet 13 is adhered to the above described flexible sheet 11, and the outer side of the superposed needle-felts is covered with a flexible cover 3.

Since the mattress of the present invention has a large number of permanent magnets distributed on the upper surface thereof, the mattress has the following merits in addition to the merits of the mattress illustrated in Figs. 2 and 3.

It is necessary that a human body lying on a mattress is uniformly pressed over the whole body by the mattress due to the weight of the body as described above. However, even when a human body is uniformly pressed by a mattress, the circulation of blood in the human body is poor in some portion due to the pressure.

The physiological action of magnetism promotes circulation of blood in human body at the portion of a mattress, on which portion magnets are arranged.

Therefore, when a mattress of the present invention provided with magnets is used, the circulation of blood is good and sound sleep can be obtained, and moreover therapeutical effect due to the magnet can be attained during sleeping. It is commonly known that, when magnetism is acted upon a living body, electromotive force is induced in blood and body fluid. Moreover, it is commonly known that, when the electromotive force is small, electric impulse acting upon the neutron does not reach the stimulus threshold.

However, it is generally known that, even when an electric impulse applied to neutron is as low as less than the stimulus threshold, if the electric pulse is continuously applied to the neutron for a long period of time, an effective stimulus can be applied to the neutron. For example, an impulse of a permanent magnet having a small magnetic field is continuously applied to a human body for a long period of time, the sensory nerve in the human body is finally stimulated by the impulse by the aid of a delicate function in the living body. As the result, the strained state of nerves distributed in the stiffed portion of human body is relaxed.

Therefore, the stiffness of shoulder caused by the strained state, due excessive stimulus, of motor nerves distributed in the muscle of shoulder can be gradually eliminated by suppressing the stimulus in motor nerves caused by the transmission of electric impulse through the above described passage.

According to the mattress of the present invention provided with magnets, not only the circulation of blood during sleeping can be made into smooth, but also the strain of nerves can be relaxed during sleeping by the action of magnetic lines as described above, and the health of human body can be increased.

Moreover, a human body is pressed at the skin by his own weight during sleeping, and further turns over 20--30 times and moves his hand and legs more than 30 times in one night Therefore, when magnets give stimulus to effective spots for manual therapeutics and nerves connecting the spots and internal organs, the same effect as that of the manual therapentics can be attained.

It can be found from the result of clinical experiments that the mattress of the present invention provided with magnets has a very high therapeutical effect. That is, the mattress exhibited a therapeutical effect in a confidence coefficient of 99% and in a confidence interval of 97.52-99.870/0, and further exhibited a therapeutical effect within 3 days after the beginning of the experiments in a confidence coefficient of 99% and in a confidence interval of 92.4898.27%.

As described above, the mattress of the present invention is remarkably effective for sound sleeping and for increasing health of human body, and has a high therapeutical effect.

Claims (4)

1. A felt-like mattress, comprising a needle felt covered with a flexible cover, said needle felt being formed by interposing a substrate between two fiber layers, each containing at least 5% by weight of animal fiber, and subjecting the superposed fiber layers to needle-punching.

2. Afelt-like mattress according to claim 1, wherein said mattress is further provided on its upper surface with an apparatus for generating an output potential for an electrotherapeutical apparatus.

3. A felt-like mattress, comprising two plateshaped needle felts superposed through a flexible sheet interposed between them, each of said plateshaped needle felts being formed by interposing a substrate between two fiber layers, each containing at least 5% by weight of animal fiber, and subjecting the superposed fiber layers to a needle-punching, and the upper plate-shaped needle felt being provided with a plurality of holes; magnets inserted into said holes; and a flexible cover which covers the outer side of the superposed needle felts.

4. A felt-like mattress substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figures 2 and 3, Figures 4 and 5 or Figures 6 and 7 as modified or not by.

Figures 8a or 8b of the accompanying drawings.