GB2255707A - Thermal protective aid garment - Google Patents

Abstract

In a garment 10 having arms 12, a body portion 14, and a leg portion 16 or a pair of individual leg portions (30, Fig. 2), the leg portion(s) has drainage openings 22 (36). The garment 10 can be made from a spun bonded olefin, eg TYVEK (RTM), coated on one side with polyethylene, and on the other side with aluminium. The garment may be coated or laminated with fluorescent material. The garment parts may be secured to one another by sewing, adhesive tape, gluing or heat or electronic fusing. <IMAGE>

Description

Protective Garment This invention relates to protective garments. In particular the invention is concerned with protective garments known as thermal protection aids or TPA for short.

Types of such protective aids are in use by personnel for example oil rig workers who can face the risk of being ditched in a cold sea, and require temporary protection against the cold before being rescued.

The known types of TPA comprise a bag or a bag with arms, both having a hood and a zip to enable the user to don the TPA. These TPA's are manufactured from a plastics or laminated material such as a lamination of polypropylene and polyethylene material and tend to be coloured orange.

However such TPA's have a number of disadvantages. It is relatively difficult to manoeuvre in the water when wearing such a garment. Also it has been found necessary for the TPA to have to be removed from the wearer before the wearer can be winched to safety or climb aboard a rescue vessel. It will be appreciated that this operation increases the rescue time and expose the user to greater risk of hypothermia from either helicopter downdraft or the cold sea air.

The main reason that the TPA has to be removed before rescue is to improve mobility of the victim as retention of the TPA adversely affects rescue attempts.

The present invention seeks to provide a thermal protective aid giving improved mobility.

Accordingly, the present invention provides a garment including arms, body and leg portions, the leg portions being provided with drainage opening. This arrangement affords the wearer complete mobility both in and out of the water. The TPA can be worn throughout the entire rescue operation, be it by ship or helicopter. This capability reduces the risk of hypothermia.

In another arrangement the leg portion can be bag shaped having drainage openings adjacent the lower end of the bag.

The garment can be provided with a hood and a zip to enable the garment to be put on.

The garment can be formed from a spun bonded olefin, such as manufactured by the Du Pont company and sold under the trademaElc TYVEK.

Preferably the material is coated with a high visibility material on one side which itself is coated with polyethylene, and the reverse side of the material can be aluminised using a vacuum metallising process.

The colour of the high visibility material can be yellow or pale green.

The present invention will now be more particulary described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which; Figure 1 shows diagrammatically one form of thermal protection aid according to the present invention; and Figure 2 shows a diagrammatic representation of an alternative form of thermal protection aid according to the present invention.

Referring to figure 1 a thermal protection aid (10) comprises two arms (12), a body portion (14) and a bag-shaped leg portion (16), together with a hood (18). The front of the garment is provided with a zip (20) to enable the garment to be put on and taken off.

Adjacent the lower end of the leg portion (16), drainage holes (22) are provided which allows any ingress of water to drain from the garment when the wearer and garment are lifted from the water. The holes (22) can be located as shown or at the corners of the bag-shaped leg portion.

Also when the garment is in use and the wearer is floating in the sea the water can enter the garment and it has been found that the water will only fill the lower part of the leg portion since the remainder of the garment and the wearer will be floating above the surface of the water.

Referring to figure 2 there is shown a thermal protection aid (24) comprising arms (26), a body portion (28) and legs (30), together with a hood (32) and a zip (34).

The lower ends of each of the legs (30) are provided with drainage holes (36) which function in the same manner as the drainage holes illustrated in the thermal protection aid described with reference to figure 1. The holes (36) can be located as shown, or at the corners of the legs (30).

The provision of separate legs in the thermal protection aid provide greater manoeuvrability for the wearer though in both cases the provision of drainage holes allows water to be drained from the garment whilst only allowing a limited amount of water to enter the garment whilst it is being worn in the sea.

In the case of both of the garments illustrated in Figures 1 and 2 the garments are manufactured from spun bonded oleo in for example as manufactured by the Du Pont company and sold under the trade mark TYVEK and coated both sides. The coating on one side comprises a high visibility material which itself is coated with polyethylene which can be extruded, and the reverse side of the material is aluminised using a vacuum metallising process.

Preferably the colour of the high visibility material is yellow or pale green.

The polyethylene coating on the outside of the material provides the material with a low thermal conductivity. The aluminised coating is on the inside surface of the garment in order to increase the heat retention of the garment and the external surface of the garment displays the high visibility coating which enables the wearer to be more easily seen.

The garments according to the present invention can be produced in a range of sizes, and have been designed to fit both over normal clothing, and over normal clothing and a life jacket.

The material can be any non woven but preferably spun bonded polypropylene or polyethylene and ideally 39g per sq metre in weight, although such a material can have a basic weight of between 25 to liog per sq. metre.

Such a material is coated or laminated with a fluorescent material or alternatively a high visibility coating or lamination on one side, which itself is coated or laminated with a polythene or similar water impervious barrier.

The reverse side of the material is metallised to improve heat re-flectivity. This takes the total combined weight of the finished material to 84g per sq metre although such a material could have a finished weight of between 40 - 150g per sq metre Preferably this treatment will be an aluminised coating using a vacuum metallising process.

Alternatively a coating or lamination using a metallised material displaying similar properties can be used.

The production process is composed of these three functions; 1) cutting; 2) sewing and 3) packing.

The basic description of this process is as follows: A lay diagram is drawn using full size patterns and a permanent master retained, of which copies are reproduced by coper machine as required.

The rolls of material are mounted upon and "laid up" on either a semi automatic cloth spreader, a manual spreader or a drum The number of plies laid up are normally 200 but can vary.

A copy of the lay diagram is then obtained and laid upon the length of laid material. Clamps are used to secure all.

using a hand held straight blade cutter, the various shapes are cut out, the correct components bundled together and set aside in readiness for sewing.

The bundles of cut work are taken to the machine room and laid out in the desired arrangements on tables adjacent to the sewing machine. The various component parts are then sewn together to create the finished product.

The main class of machines used are "single needle backstitch" and "five thread safety stich overlook". Accordingly to production needs or customer requirements the types of seaming can be modified by the use of single needle chainstich, twin needle lock or chainstich, three or four thread overlook, twin needle coverstich or any other version of multi needle machinery.

As an alternative to sewing the seams can be secured by the use of adhesive tape, glue compounds or fused together heat or electronics.

On completion the product is trimmed, examined, folded and packed, in accordance with the standard specification or an alternative as requested by the customer.

If the standard method of individual poly bagging is used, the bag top is closed by heat sealing, taping or such means as "grip strip" closure. Vacuum packaging is alternatively used where the smallest obtainable pack size is required.

Finished packed products are then boxed with various permutations according to customer requirements.

Claims (10)

Claims

1. A protective garment including arms, body and leg portions, characterised in that the leg portions (16, 30) are provided with drainage openings (22, 36).

2. A garment as claimed in claim 1 characterised in that the leg portions are in the form of a bag (16).

3. A garment as claimed in claim 1 characterised in that the leg portions are in the form of separate individual legs (30).

4. A garment as claimed in any one of the preceding claims in which the garment includes a hood (18, 32).

5. A garment as claimed in any one of the preceding claims in which the garment has a front opening and a closure zip fastener (20, 34).

6. A garment as claimed in any one of the preceding claims characterised that the arms (12), and leg portions (16, 30) terminate in elasticated openings.

7. A garment as claimed in any one of the preceding claims characterised in that the garment is fabricated from a material coated with a waterproofing coating on one side, and a heat insulating material on the opposite side.

8. A garment as claimed in claim 7 in which the waterproofing material comprises polyethylene and the heat insulating material comprises aluminium.

9. A garment as claimed in claim 9 in which the aluminium coating is applied by a vacuum metallising process.

10. A garment as claimed in any one of claims 7 to 9 in which the material comprises a spun bonded olef in.