GB2133274A

GB2133274A - Personnel protection garments

Info

Publication number: GB2133274A
Application number: GB08301060A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Brian Alan Beadle
Original assignee: BABCO WELDED PLASTICS Ltd
Current assignee: BABCO WELDED PLASTICS Ltd
Priority date: 1983-01-14
Filing date: 1983-01-14
Publication date: 1984-07-25
Also published as: GB8301060D0; GB2133274B

Abstract

The garment is formed with a hem (1) at the or each aperture comprising an inflatable tube (7), and is provided with means (11, 13) for inflating and deflating the tube. The garment is put on by the wearer with the or each hem in the deflated condition, and, when the garment is positioned in the position in which it should be worn, the or each hem is inflated to whatever pressure is thought appropriate for the garment. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Personnel protection garments The present invention relates to personnel protection garments.

Such garments are used in industry and by people such as firemen and under-sea divers to protect them against the elements in which they are obliged to work. A well known instance of such a garment is the so-called survival suit: and, with such garments, it may be desirable and, indeed, in some instances at least, essential that all the apertures in the garment should be capable of being sealed against the body of the wearer or against some other garment or device being worn by the user, e.g. a protective helment, to prevent ingress into the suit at those apertures of material from the exterior thereof. For instance, with a survival suit, the suit needs to be sealed at those apertures against ingress of water.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a personnel protective garment having a simple but efficacious means of forming the seal at the apertures of the garment.

In accordance with the present invention, the garment is hemmed at the or each aperture by means of an inflatable tube, and the garment provided with means for inflating and deflating the tube.

The garment is put on by the wearer with the or each hem in the deflated condition, and, when the garment is positioned in the position in which it should be worn, the or each hem is inflated to whatever pressure is thought appropriate for the garment concerned. When the garment is to be taken off, the or each hem is deflated and the garment then taken off.

Conveniently, the garment may be hemmed at the or each aperture with the inflatable tube, by turning over a margin at a respective edge of the fabric of the garment to form a hem and locating the inflatable tube within the hem thus formed. In the case where the fabric of the garment consists of a weldable plastics material, the hem is very conveniently formed by turning over the marginal portion and welding the leading edge thereof to a facing portion of the fabric to leave a hem in which the inflatable tube can be positioned.

The garment may take the form of a hood providing an aperture bounded on all sides by the material of the hood and serving as a facial aperture for the wearer. In this case, in accordance with the present invention, the hood will be provided with the tubular hem at the facial aperture. If such a garment also needs to be sealed against the wearer's body whether at the neck or lower down the body, then the garment would also be provided at the respective aperture with the inflatable tubular hem. Such a hood, however, may be for use with a one-piece suit in which means are already provided for sealing the suit at or about the neck of the wearer to the hood.

It may also be, however, that a one-piece suit whether formed with an integrai hood or whether to be sealed against a separate hood, would also need to be sealed at the wrist and ankle apertures of the suit against the wearer's body and thus, in such a case, the garment will be provided with the inflatable tubular hem at each of these apertures.

In other words, when a garment has several apertures, which of the apertures is to be provided with an inflatable hem in accordance with the present invention, will depend on the garment concerned.

The means for inflating and deflating the tube of a hem, is preferably such that it can be manually operated by the wearer of the garment and it may comprise a simple, releasable, one-way valve, for example, housed in a mouth-piece for the user so that, with the valve in an operating condition, the user can blow air through the mouth piece into the tube with the one-way valve preventing back-flow of the air thus introduced.

when the tube is to be inflated, and so that, by releasing the one-way valve, the user can then let the air out of the tube when the tube is to be deflated.

It will be appreciated that the degree of inflation of the tube will be determined by the need, on the one hand, to make the garment reasonably easy to take off and, on the other hand, by the need to make certain that the tube is capable of providing a sufficient pressure against the wearer's body or whatever part it is forming the seal against to maintain an effective seal.

The present invention will now be further described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig. 1 is a cross sectional view of a hem of a garment in accordance with the present invention with the hem in one condition; Fig. 2 is a like figure of the hem in a different condition; Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a fragment of a hem of a garment according to the present invention; Fig. 4 is a perspective view of part of a garment in accordance with the present invention, and Fig. 5 is a perspective view of another garment according to the present invention Referring now to the drawings, Fig. 1 shows a hem 1 of the garment formed by turning over a marginal edge portion 3 and securing the leading edge 5 of the turned over portion to the facing portion of the fabric of the garment.In the case where the garment is made of a weidable plastics material, this is very conveniently done by welding the leading edge 5 to the facing portion of the garment. By this means, the facing walls of the hem can be separated; and in the hem is positioned an inflatable tube 7 to lie between the facing walls of the hem, which are thereby separated from one another by the tube 7. As will be made apparent hereinafter, the tube 7 can be inflated to expand the hem to the condition shown in Fig. 2. It will be evident from this that if the exterior face 9 of the hem, during inflation, is brought into contact with the wearer's body or with some other surface, it will form a seal against the surface.

For the purpose of inflating the tube and also of deflating it, the hem, in this instance, provides access to the interior thereof for a conduit connection 11 connecting in an air-type manner with the interior of the tube 7 and through which air can be passed into or from the tube 7. The conduit connection connects in an air tight manner at its end remote from the tube 7 with a mouth piece 1 3 through which the user can blow air through the conduit connection 11 into the tube 7. The mouth piece, in this instance, comprises a one-way valve (not shown) normally to prevent escape of air from the tube 7. The valve, however, may be such that it can be disabled by a control externally of the mouth piece 13 or the mouth piece may be made detachable from the conduit 11 to permit the inflation of the tube 7.In either case, the one-way valve can be regarded as being released from its operative position.

The garment may be one providing full length arms and legs and, in this case, it may need to have the wrist and ankle apertures sealed. Fig. 4 shows an arm or leg portion 1 5 of a garment formed at the ankle or wrist end thereof with an aperture 1 5 for the wrist or ankle as the case may be of the wearer and the aperture is formed with an inflatable hem 19 of the kind illustrated in Figs.

1 to 3.

The garment may, however, simpiy be a hood such as indicated by hood 21 in Fig. 5, the hood being formed with a face aperture 23 bounded on all sides by material of the hood and with a depending portion 25 which, in use, is sealed to a one-piece suit the hood is intended to be used with. In the hood as shown in Fig. 5 a facial aperture is formed with a hem 27, again of the kind illustrated in Figs. 1 to 3 so that the facial aperture can be firmly sealed against the head of the wearer.

It will be evident to a skilled person that many modifications could be made in the illustrated embodiments of the invention. Thus, the positioning of the means for inflating and deflating the tube 7 need not be positioned as illustrated but could be positioned on the opposite face of the hem. Further, it could be arranged to permit inflation of the tube by gas from a pressure cylinder so that the tube can be inflated to a predetermined pressure rather than some arbitrary pressure as would be the case by manual inflation.

Again, the means for inflating and deflating a hem need not be positioned so that it is accessible to the wearer when he is wearing the garment concerned since it may be that in some instances it would be better to have an attendant to effect the inflation and deflation of the tube. It will also be appreciated that the hem provided with a tube in accordance with the present invention need not lie at an edge of the garment. For instance, the hem shown in Fig. 4 could be disposed inwardly of the open end of the portion surrounding the wrist or ankle as the case may be. It may also be mentioned that, although in connection with Fig. 5 reference has been made to inflating the hem to contact the head of the wearer, it may be that a hood such as the one illustrated will be worn with a face protector such as a visor and that, in this case, the hem could make contact and seal against such a device.

Claims

1. A personnel protective garment, wherein the garment is hemmed at the or each aperture by means of an inflatable tube, and the garment is provided for means for inflating and deflating the tube.

2. A garment according to Claim 1, wherein the garment is hemmed at the or each aperture with the inflatable tube, by turning over a margin at a respective edge of the fabric of the garment to form a hem and locating the inflatable tube within the hem thus formed.

3. A garment according to Claim 2, wherein the fabric of the garment consists of a weldable plastics material, and the hem is formed by turning over the marginal portion and welding the leading edge thereof to a facing portion of the fabric to leave a hem in which the inflatable tube can be positioned.

4. A garment according to any of the preceding Claims, wherein the garment is in the form of a hood providing an aperture bounded on all sides by the material of the hood and serving as a facial aperture for the wearer; the hood being provided with the tubular hem at the facial aperture.

5. A garment according to Claim 4, wherein, in the case where the garment needs to be sealed against the wearer's body whether at the neck or lower down the body, the garment is also provided at the respective aperture with the inflatable tubular hem.

6. A garment according to Claim 4 or 5, wherein the garment is a one-piece suit formed with an integral or separate hood, and with the inflatable tubular hem at each of the wrist and ankle apertures.

7. A garment according to any of the preceding Claims, wherein the means for inflating and deflating the tube of a hem, is such that it can be manually operated by the wearer of the garment.

8. A garment according to Claim 7, wherein said means comprises a releasable, one-way valve.

9. A garment according to Claim 8, wherein said valve is housed in a mouth-piece for the user so that, with the valve in an operating condition, the user can blow air through the mouth piece into the tube with the one-way valve preventing backflow of the air thus introduced, when the tube is to be inflated, and so that, by releasing the one-way valve, the user can then let the air out of the tube when the tube is to be deflated.

10. A garment substantially as hereinbefore described, with reference to the accompanying drawings.