GB2110984A - Inflatable articles - Google Patents

Abstract

An inflatable article made of air impervious thermoplastic sheet materials comprising one or more inflatable units having one or more inflating valves provided thereon respectively for injecting air into said one or more inflatable units, wherein at least two seals 26, 32, with one of seal 32 being a stabilizing seal and being adjacent or touching one 26 of said other seals, are located at selected inner and/or outer portions with said stabilizing seal providing the selected portions with an essentially flat and unruffled constant length seal whether said article is inflated or deflated thereby making the inflatable units shorten upon inflation and lengthen upon deflation without shortening and lengthening of said inner and/or outer portions. The seal 32 may be formed by a heat sealing die 29. The inflatable article may form part of a lamp shade, Fig. 15, or a swimming aid, Fig. 14 (not shown). <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Inflatable articles The present invention relates to inflatable articles and the method for making same.

Inflatable articles made of air impervious sheet materials usually comprise at least one top sheet and a bottom sheet joined by glue, direct heat or high frequency dielectric induced heat sealing if the sheet material is PVC plastics. The joining of the two sheets is in the shape of parallel lines or otherwise causing the article or parts of the article to shorten upon inflation in a direction perpendicular to the sealing lines. If it is desired that the shortened part be attached to the part of another article having the same length as the length developed by inflating the inflatable article, this can not normally be done since the shortened portion of the two sheets of the inflated article has the same length whether that article is inflated or deflated which causes ruffles upon inflation due to the shortening of the inflated article.

It is therefore the main object of the present invention to provide an inflatable article having flat and unruffled outer and/or inner portion(s) so that further attachment to another article or component of another article can be done at said outer and/or inner portion(s) that are normally distorted or ruffled upon inflation.

For the purpose of understanding the terms used in this application, they are defined as follows: 1. Air impervious thermoplastic sheet materials are those which are in flexible sheet form made of all or in part of plastics, which melt and beform under heat and pressure and hold air or gas when formed into a fully enclosed envelope.

2. Inflatable units are inflatable sections, each having their own inflating valve, which make up the inflatable article.

3. Inner and outer portions are those parts of the inflatable article, which for the inner portions are on the inside of the article which has a cut out section surrounded by an air enclosing seal, and which for the outer portions are on the outside of the article which has an air enclosing seal. These portions include said seals and the area adjacent to and outside of said seals.

4. A stabilizing seal is one made by using heat and pressure on the inner and/or outer portions of said article. This seal causes stabilizing by compressing the rufflings caused by inflation of the article, thereby creating a seal which can not return to its original flat length. This stabilizing seal can also be referred to as a flat and unruffled constant length seal.

5. A stabilized portion may be a stabilized seal and/or the area adjacent to it.

6. Basic inflatable is the term used for the inflatable article which has not yet been stabilized with stabilizing seal(s).

7. A component is a part of any article made of more than one part.

8. For direct and induced heat, direct heat is that heat which passes directly from the hot element to the part being heated. Induced heat is that heat which is caused by electronic forces which is due to the dielectric characteristics of the plastics being heated.

9. Pressure is the force imposed on the material being stabilized by upper and lower dies and a suitable press to create this pressing force.

10. Means for joining is any facility, inherent in the article, or attached to the article, mechanical or otherwise, which enables the article to be attached to another article or component of an article.

11. Various or kinds of materials are those which are made of textiles, wood, metal, paper, glass, and any plastics, hard or soft, etc..

12. Shorten and lengthen when they refer to the inflatable units have the following meaning. Shorten upon inflation means air causes expansion of the space between the sheet materials, reduce the distance between the seals and causes a strainght line condition between the outer most seals. Lenghten upon deflation means the non-inflated sheet material sags and creates a long line of the sheet materials between the outer most seals.

An important feature of the inflatable articles of the present invention is a stabilizing seal being located at selected inner and/or outer portion(s) forming an essentially flat and unruffled constant length seal which remains as such whether said article is inflated or deflated and which permits the inflatable units of said article to shorten or lenghten upon inflation or deflation respectively without causing said selected outer and/or inner portions to shorten or lengthen.

Another feature of the present invention is to make it possible to join the subject inflatable article to various materials including plastics by various means such as heat, direct and induced, thread, glueing, snaps, buttons, eyelettes, rivets, metal and plastic clamps, hole and collar botton combinations, etc.. Said materials may include textiles, wood, metal, paper, glass, other plastics that are not thermoplastics, etc..

Another feature of the present invention is to permit the joining of the inflatable article to other components to form other articles, which may be of the same or different kinds of materials, on a flat plane in-line plane or a parallel plane, at right angles and other angles without distortion being caused by inflating of the inflatable article.

Those and other features, objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments of the present invention with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein: Figure lisa perspective view of first embodiment of the basic inflatable according to the present invnetion; Figure 2 is perspective view of second embodiment of the basic inflatable according to the present invneiton; Figure 3 is prespective view of third embodiment of the baseic inflatable according to the present invnetion; Figure 4 is a perspective view of fourth embodiment of the basic inflatable according to the present invneiton; Figure 5 is a perspective view of a basic inflatable having two sheets of air impervious thermoplastics heat sealed at and within the outer portions;; Figure 6 is perspective view of the basic inflatable in Figure 5 after inflation; Figure 7 is a perspective view showing the ruffles of the basic inflatable in Figure 7 being flattened and thus stabilized buy a heat sealing die; Figure 8 is a side view of the basic inflatable in Figure 7 after the ruffles thereof have been stabilized; Figure 9 is a perspective view of another embodiment of the basic inflatable having opening and ruffles at the selected inner portion to be stabilized; Figure 70 is a perspective view of the parallel joining of the inflatable article of the present invention; Figures 1 la, 1 ib and 1 ic are perspective views of a series of in-line joinings of the inflatable article of the present invention;; Figure 12 is a sectional view of the tubular joining of the present invention; Figure 13 shows a perspective view of the inflatable article of the present invention having holes provided thereon for joining to another article or component; Figure 14 is a perspective view of a swimming aid formed by using the method and article of the present invention; and Figure 15 is a perspective view of a lamp with a lamp shade embodiment made by using the method and article of the present invention.

Referring to Figures 1 to 4 which show four types of basic inflatables according to the present invention, a basic inflatable 10 of the first type shown in Figure 1 is made of two sheets of air impervious thermoplastic sheet materials heat sealed together with a plurality of vertical bar seals 11 within the outer portions and an inflating valve 12 provided on one of said two sheet materials for injecting air into the basic inflatable 10. Since the bar seals 11 do not touch the seals at the outer portions 14, air contained therein can pass between the inflatable spaces 13 formed bythe bar seals 11.

A second type of the basic inflatables is shown in Figure 2 wherein the bar seals 14 extend to and touch the seals atthe outer portions forming a number of individual inflatable units 15 each having a valve 16.

Figure 3 shows a third type of the basic inflatable which comprises a plurality of individual inflatable units 17 each having an inflating valve 18 provided thereon. Said units 17 are joined by their overlapped outer portions 19 to form a basic inflatable. The outer portions 19 of two adjacent inflatable units may be joined with an edge parallel joining as shown in Figure 3a or a butt parallel joining as shown in Figure 3b.

A fourth type of the basic inflatable is shown Figure 4 which comprises a single sheet of thermoplastic material 20 to which is attached individual sheets of thermoplastic materials forming individual inflatable units 22 each having its own inflating valve 23 thereon.

The purpose of these types of basic inflatables is to provide the opportunity to use materials of different colors, thicknesses, firmness etc. as may be required by the inflatable article.

Referring to Figure 5 which shows a perspective view of a basic inflatable, two sheets of thermoplastic material 24,25 are placed with one on top of the other and have seals 26 at the outer portions 27 and a plurality of parallel flat bar seals 28 within the outer portions 27. The basic inflatable has an inflating valve 29 located on the top sheet 25 for injecting air into the space between said two sheets 24 and 25.

Figure 6 shows the basic inflatable after inflation. It is seen that the outer portions 27 perpendicular to the bar seals 28 become ruffled after inflation.

Referring to Figure 7, the basic inflatable is placed in a press on a heat sealing die 29 which provides the pressure and the means for providing the heat on a selected outer portion 30 of the basic inflatable and flattens said portion 30 to become a flat and unruffled, i.e. stabilized, outer portion. It is understood that there are two or more heat seals on the outer portion 30 with one adjacent to or touching with the other. At lest one or more of said seals form the basic inflatable and one provides the stabilizing seal.

The resultant inflatable article is shown in Figure 8 wherein the outer portion 30 shows a ruffled edge 31 and a flat stabilized seal 32 between said edge 31 and the seal 26 of the basic inflatable. This ruffled outer edge 31 may be eliminated by using a die that is wide enough to cover the edge 31 of the outer portion 30 or by using a die having a cutting edge which cuts away the ruffled edge 31 during stabilizing. The stabilized seal 32 remains a constant length and is unchanged whether there is inflation or deflation of the inflatable article.

Referring to Figure 9 which shows a basic inflatable having an inner opening 33 with edges 34,35 which will ruffle upon inflation at the inner portions 36 of said opening 33, the ruffled portions 36 can be stabilized with an inner stabilized seal by the same process of the outer stabilized seal stated in Figures 5 to 8. The basic inflatable can be stabilized and become an inflatable article of the present invention.

It is to be noted that the basic inflatable shown in Figure 9, having an inner opening, can also be applied to the various types of the basic inflatables shown in Figures 1 to 4. It is a simple operation to provide an inner opening to the basic inflatables shown in Figures 2 to 4.

The process stated hereinabove with reference to Figures 5 to 8 is the basic process to make an inflatable article of the present invention having stabilized portions. The resultant inflatable article can be further attached to another article or components of another article to form another article. In Figure 7 the basic inflatable is stabilized with the same in an inflated condition. However in the actual performance of the stabilizing process, the basic inflatable may be deflated after being clamped into the heat sealing dies so that less stress will be at the portions to be stabilized.

The inflatable article of the present invention can be attached or joined to other articles or components of other articles at the selected outer and/or inner portions, which have been stabilized, by flat parallel attachment, tubular die attachment, in-line attachment, or other kinds of attachment.

Figure 10 shows an example of a flat parallel joining. An inflatable article 37 is stabilized at the selected outer portions 38, 39 first in an inflated condition. Another component 40 or 41 which may be a printed sign is joined to said article 37 whether article 37 is in an inflated or deflated condition. It is easily understood that the component 40 or 41 will have the desired dimension after the section 37 is inflated.

Figures 1 1a to 1 Ic show an examples of in-line joinings. The inflatable article 42 having stabilized outer portion 43 is joined to another component 44 by direct heat. It is to be noted that the component 44 can also be an inflatable article. The joining between article 42 and 44 can be made by indirect high frequency heat sealing or by applying glue. Said joining between article and component of another article can be made by adopting means for joining such as thread, clips or fasteners such as snaps and buttons, glueing, eyelettes, rivets, metals and plastic clamps, hole and collar button combinations etc..

Different ways of joining are shown in Figures 11 b to 11 c wherein thread 45, and snaps 46 are used as the means for joining. It is apparent that the joining shown in the example of Figure 1 1c is a detachable joining.

Figure 12 shows an example of a tubular attachement of the inflatable article as a sectional view. A round bag 47 consists of a round inflatable bootom 48 and a plastic wall 49 and can be made by stabilizing the outer round portion 50 of the bottom 48 and heat sealing the bottom portion 51 of the wall 49 at the same time as they are heat sealed by a tubular die 52. If the outer round portion 50 of the bottom 48 was not stabilized, it would change its dimension upon inflation and therefore the resultant round bag 47 would not have a uniform shape upon inflation.

Figure 13 is another example of the inflatable article of the present invention. The inflatable article 53 has a stabilized seal 54 whereon a plurality of holes 55 are provided for further joining with another article or a component of another article.

The examples shown in Figures 10 to 13 are various embodiments of the present invention. One skilled in the art may make changes or modifications based on the above-described embodiments. Figure 14 shows a perspective view of an inflatable swimming aid by the method of the present invention.

The swimming aid 56 consists of a top section 57 which is a flat sheet, a square tubular sheet 58 and a bottom section 59 which consists of two rectangular sheets made into a inflatable stabilized section and then joined to section 58 and flat sheet section 60.

The said sheet section 60 has a pair of fastening straps 61 and 62 provided thereon. In this effective example of a swimming aid, applications of flat parallel joining and tubular joining are demonstrated. Air inflating valves 63 and 64 are located on sections 58 and 59 respectively.

Figure 15 is a perspective view of a lamp with a lamp shade formed by the inflatable article of the present invention. The lamp shade 65 is formed by an inflatable article of the present invention, as that shown in Figure 8, made into a cylinder wherein the bottom edge is inserted into a clamp 66, fitting within the clamp 68 of the lamp base 69, and the top edge 67 is a stabilized portion too. The inflatable lamp shade 65 can be made from a basic inflatable of the type shown in Figures 3 or 4 by which different coloured inflatable units can be achieved.

Although the present invention has been described hereinbefore by way of preferred embodiments, it should be understood that various changes or modifications are still possible by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

Claims (8)

1. An inflatable article made of air impervious thermoplastic sheet materials comprising one or more inflatable units having one or more inflating valves provided thereon respectively whereon there is located at selected inner and/or outer portions a stabilizing seal that is adjacent to or touching at least one of said other seals to provide an essentially flat and unruffled constant length seal which remains as such whether said article is inflated or deflated and which permits said inflatable units to shorten and lengthen upon inflation and deflation respectively without causing said selected inner and/or outer portions to shorten and lengthen.

2. An inflatable article according to Claim 1 wherein said inflatable unit is comprised of two sheets of thermoplastic materials located with one on top of the other having coinciding inner and outer portions, with seals at and within said outer portions with an inflating valve located on either one of said two sheets, with air being confined within the outer portion and being able to pass between the spaced formed by the seals within the outer portions.

3. An inflatable article according to Claim 2 wherein said seals within said outer portions provide completely enclosed spaces and there being provided on said sheets of thermoplastic materials individual valves for injecting air into said enclosed spaces.

4. An inflatable article according to Claim 1 wherein said inflatable article is comprised of more than one inflatable unit joined together, each one of said units being comprised of two sheets of thermoplastic materials located with one on top of the other having coinciding inner and outer portions with an inflating valve located on one of said two sheets and there being seals at said outer portions to retain air within said inflatable unit.

5. An inflatable artilce according to Claim 1 wherein said inflatable article is comprised of more than one inflatable unit and consisting of a sheet of thermoplastic material having located thereon individual sheets of thermoplastic material having seals around each of said individual sheets and having provided inflating valves for each unit formed by each of said individual sheets.

6. An inflatable article according to Claim 1,2,3, 4, 5 wherein said stabilizing seal(s) or the stabilized portion(s) provided by said stabilizing seal(s) has joining with one or more of other components to form other articles.

7. An inflatable article according to Claim 1, 2,3, 4,5 further comprising means for joining said inflatable article to other articles.

8. An inflatable article substantially as hereinafter described with reference to the accompanying drawings.