GB2290959A

GB2290959A - Ventilated mattress

Info

Publication number: GB2290959A
Application number: GB9413747A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Brian Corcoran
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1994-07-07
Filing date: 1994-07-07
Publication date: 1996-01-17
Also published as: GB9413747D0

Abstract

A mattress or pillow has a plurality of air passages (23, 24) connecting the upper face of the mattress with the side faces. Preferably, the mattress is of foam plastics material and comprises upper and lower layers (21, 22), holes (23) in the upper layer communicating with transverse channels (24) formed in the upper surface of the lower layer (22) or the underside of the upper layer (21). Some of the holes may open on the lower side of the mattress only. The mattress may be inflatable and have internal tubing forming the passages. <IMAGE>

Description

Title - Mattress This invention relates to mattresses and the like, and in particular to safety mattresses for use by children, especially infants.

Cots for young children have a base on which a mattress is supported. In order to make it waterproof and washable, the mattress commonly has a covering of impermeable material upon which a sheet is placed. Although it is now advised that children should sleep on their backs, there is a danger that a child may turn over whilst sleeping into a face-down position.

In such a position, particularly where the surface of the mattress is impermeable, there is a danger of suffocation or asphyxiation.

There has now been devised a form of safety mattress which overcomes or substantially mitigates the above mentioned danger.

According to the invention, there is provided a mattress or the like having a plurality of air passages connecting the upper face of the mattress with the underside or side faces.

The mattress according to the invention is advantageous primarily in that it reduces or eliminates the risk of suffocation or asphyxiation of a child lying face down on the mattress. The air passages enable the child effectively to breathe through the mattress.

The air passages are preferably provided throughout the mattress.

The openings of the air passages in the upper face of the mattress are preferably sufficiently close together that the intervening surface of the mattress is too small to represent a significant danger of suffocation.

The mattress according to the invention may be manufactured of any suitable material. For instance, the mattress may be of foam plastics material. Alternatively, the mattress may be inflatable. In such a case, the material used should be sufficiently durable -to prevent puncturing of the mattress.

Alternatively, or in addition, the mattress can be formed with several discrete compartments such that a puncture does not result in complete deflation of the mattress.

The air passages may pass vertically from the upper face of the mattress to the underside. Such a mattress would be suitable for use with, for example, a crib or cot having an open base.

In a preferred embodiment, however, the air passages connect the upper face of the mattress to one or more side faces of the mattress. This prevents obstruction of the air passages by a solid base of a crib or cot on which the mattress is placed.

The same principle described above may be incorporated into a pillow, and the term 'mattress or the like' used above is to be taken to include a pillow. Such a pillow may be used with a mattress according to the invention or with a conventional mattress.

The invention will now be described in greater detail, by way of illustration only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a perspective view of a first embodiment of a mattress according to the invention; Figure 2 is a view similar to Figure 1 of a second embodiment of a mattress according to the invention; and Figure 3 is a schematic perspective view of a portion of air passage formed in the mattress of Figure 2.

Referring first to Figure 1, a first embodiment of safety mattress according to the invention comprises a generally rectangular block 1 of plastics foam of a width and length suitable to fit a child's cot, and a depth of approximately locum.

The block 1 is formed with a regular array of vertical holes 2 passing through the block from top to bottom. In use, the block 1 may be covered by a sheet, eg an elasticated sheet as is conventionally used to cover a mattress.

In an alternative embodiment, the mattress may have the same external appearance as the embodiment of Figure 1, but may be manufactured from plastics sheets welded together at their edges and may be inflatable. In such a case the holes 2 will be tubes of plastics sheet welded at their respective ends to the upper face and underside of the mattress.

The embodiment of Figure 2 comprises upper and lower layers 21,22. The upper layer 21 has vertical holes 23 passing through it, and the lower layer 22 has horizontal channels 24,24a passing across it. The upper and lower layers 21,22 may again comprise blocks of foam, the vertical holes 23 being formed in the upper layer 21 in the same manner as the holes 2 in the embodiment of Figure 1. The horizontal channels 24,24a may be formed as grooves in the upper surface of the lower layer 22 such that, when the upper and lower layers 21,22 are fixed together, the lower ends of the vertical holes 23 are in registration with the grooves. The grooves form channels 24 extending transversely across the lower layer 22 and channels 24a extending longitudinally along the lower layer 22.

In another embodiment, the horizontal channels may be formed as grooves in the underside of the upper layer 21, the lower layer 22 being a plain block of foam.

Again, the embodiment of Figure 2 may be formed from sheet plastic and may be inflatable. In this case, however, a relatively complex network of internal tubing is required, as depicted schematically in Figure 3.

Claims

1. A mattress or the like having a plurality of air passages connecting the upper face of the mattress with the side faces thereof.

2. A mattress as claimed in Claim 1, which is manufactured of foam plastics material.

3. A mattress as claimed in Claim I or Claim 2, wherein at least some of said air passages connect the upper face of the mattress to the underside.

4. A mattress as claimed in Claim 2, which comprises upper and lower layers of foam plastics material, the upper layer having holes passing through it, said holes communicating with transverse channels formed in the upper surface of the lower layer.

5. A mattress as claimed in Claim 2, which comprises upper and lower layers of foam plastics material, the upper layer having holes passing through it, said holes communicating with transverse channels formed in the lower surface of the upper layer.

6. A mattress as claimed in Claim 1, which is inflatable.

7. A mattress as claimed in Claim 6, wherein the air passages comprise tubing formed internally of the mattress.

8. A mattress substantially as hereinbefore described and as illustrated in Figure 2 hereof.