JPH07178128A - Biological protective material - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve shock absorbing property substantially of the biological protective material to be attached to the living body, by using high molecular blended material for its principal component and substance with three- dimensionally modulated networklike skeleton structure as the high molecular organic material for such blend. CONSTITUTION:At the part attaching an artificial leg or artificial arm, a buffer 3 for connection as the biological protective material is placed between the human body 2 and the artificial leg 1 for the purpose of adaptability to the human body, protection of human body by buffering shocks from outside, etc. For such biological protective material 3, high molecular blended material mainly composed of high molecular organic material and low molecular material, with the containing ratio of the former being less than that of the latter, is used. As the high molecular organic material, a substance with three dimensional connective netlike skeleton structure is used, among others, high molecular thermoplastic material which has both a part easily forming hard block such as crystal structure or cohesive structure, as well as soft block such as amorphous structure is the most suitable.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a living body protecting member, and more particularly to a living body protecting member to be covered by a living body or provided on a living body contact surface, the living body protecting member having significantly improved impact absorption performance. Regarding members.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, materials such as leather, rubber and resin have been used for handle grips of bicycles and motorcycles, handlebars of automobiles, or grips of rock drills and chainsaws.

[0003]

Since the shock and vibration of the motor when the vehicle is traveling are transmitted to the hand through the handle and the grip, the handle of the vehicle and the grip of the rock drill have a comfortable grip. In addition to being good, excellent shock absorption and vibration reduction performance are strongly desired in order to reduce fatigue of crew members and workers and occupational diseases such as waxy sickness.

In addition, in a mounting portion of a prosthetic leg or a prosthetic hand to a human body, a connecting cushioning material is provided between the human body and the prosthetic leg or prosthetic hand for the purpose of compatibility with the human body and protection of the human body by mitigating impact from the outside. , But also for this connection cushioning material,
It is desired to improve the feel and further improve the shock absorbing performance.

Similarly, in bulletproof vests, other clothing, helmets, gloves (for surgery, household use), etc., it is desired to improve the feel as well as the shock absorbing performance.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional circumstances, and provides a shock absorbing material which is remarkably excellent in shock absorbing performance and vibration reducing performance, has a good tactile feel, and can be manufactured at a low cost with high productivity. It is intended to provide a biological protection member used.

[0007]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a biological protection member, which comprises a high molecular weight organic material and a low molecular weight material as main components in the biological protection member which is covered with a living body or provided on a living body contact surface. A polymer blend material having a content of a high molecular weight organic material lower than that of a low molecular weight material, wherein the high molecular weight organic material is composed of a polymer blend material having a three-dimensional continuous network skeleton structure. It is characterized by

That is, the inventors of the present invention have conducted extensive studies on a shock absorbing material having excellent shock absorbing or vibration reducing performance, and as a result, the polymer blend material according to the present invention has various properties such as shock absorbing characteristics and hardness. Regarding the characteristics, it has been found that it has extremely good characteristics as a shock absorber for a biological protection member, and that an extremely excellent biological protection member can be obtained by using this polymer blend material as a shock absorbing material,
The present invention has been completed.

The living body protection member of the present invention is to be put on the living body or provided on the living body contact surface.
Of these, sports-related items are excluded.

The present invention will be described in detail below.

In the present invention, the high molecular weight organic material has a number average molecular weight of 20,000 or more, particularly 30,000.
A thermoplastic high molecular weight organic material of 0 or more, particularly 40,000 or more is preferable, and examples thereof include styrene (butadiene styrene, isoprene styrene, etc.), olefin (butadiene, isoprene, ethylene propylene, etc.), ester -Based, amide-based, urethane-based, and other thermoplastic elastomers, as well as hydrogenated and modified products thereof, styrene-based, ABS-based, olefin-based (ethylene-based, propylene-based, ethylene-propylene-based, ethylene-styrene-based, propylene Styrene series), acrylic ester series (methyl acrylate series), methacrylic acid series (methyl methacrylate series), carbonate series, acetal series, nylon series, halogenated polyether series (chlorinated polyether series, etc.) , Halogenated olefins (tetrafluoroethylene) Thermoplastics such as styrene type, fluorinated-ethylene chloride type, fluorinated ethylene propylene type), cellulose type (acetyl cellulose type, ethyl cellulose type, etc.), vinylidene type, vinyl butyral type, alkylene oxide type (propylene oxide type, etc.) Examples thereof include resins and rubber-modified products of these resins.

As the thermoplastic polymer material, it is particularly preferable to use a material in which a portion which easily forms a hard block such as a crystal structure or an agglomerate structure and a soft block such as an amorphous structure are mixed together. Specifically,
The following (i) to (iii) are mentioned.

(I) Block copolymer of polyethylene and ethylene-styrene random copolymer obtained by hydrogenating a block copolymer of polybutadiene and butadiene-styrene random copolymer (ii) Polybutadiene and polystyrene Block copolymer of, or a block copolymer of polyethylene and polystyrene obtained by hydrogenating a block copolymer of polybutadiene or ethylene-butadiene random copolymer and polystyrene (iii) ethylene-propylene rubber Particularly, those having a block copolymer structure of polyethylene and an ethylene-styrene random copolymer are preferable.

These various thermoplastic polymer organic materials are mainly used alone, but two or more kinds may be blended and used.

On the other hand, as the low molecular weight material, the viscosity at 100 ° C. is not more than 5 × 10 ⁵ centipoise, especially 1 × 10 5.
It is preferably ⁵ centipoise or less, and from the viewpoint of molecular weight, the number average molecular weight of the low molecular weight material is 20,0.
00 or less, especially 10,000 or less, especially 5,000
The following is preferable. As such a low molecular weight material, a material that is liquid or liquid at room temperature is usually preferably used. Further, both hydrophilic and hydrophobic low molecular weight materials can be used. The low molecular weight material is not particularly limited, but the following materials are suitable.

Softeners: Mineral oil-based, vegetable oil-based, synthetic-based softeners for various rubbers or resins. Examples of the mineral oil-based oil include process oils such as aromatic oils, naphthene oils, and paraffin oils. As vegetable oils, castor oil, cottonseed oil, linseed oil, rapeseed oil, soybean oil, palm oil,
Examples include coconut oil, peanut oil, wood wax, pine oil, olive oil and the like.

Plasticizers: various ester plasticizers such as phthalic acid esters, mixed phthalic acid esters, aliphatic dibasic acid esters, glycol esters, fatty acid esters, phosphoric acid esters, stearic acid esters, epoxy plasticizers, etc. Plasticizer for plastics or phthalate type,
Adipate-based, sebacate-based, phosphate-based, polyether-based, polyester-based, etc. plasticizers for NBR.

Tackifier: Various tackifiers such as coumarone resin, coumarone-indene resin, phenol terpene resin, petroleum hydrocarbon, rosin derivative and the like.

Oligomer: Crown ether, fluorine-containing oligomer, polyisobutylene, xylene resin, chlorinated rubber, polyethylene wax, petroleum resin, rosin ester rubber, polyalkylene glycol diacrylate,
Liquid rubber (polybutadiene, styrene-butadiene rubber, butadiene-acrylonitrile rubber, polychloroprene, etc.), silicone-based oligomers, various oligomers such as poly-α-olefins.

Lubricants: hydrocarbon lubricants such as paraffin and wax, fatty acid lubricants such as higher fatty acids and oxyfatty acids, fatty acid amide lubricants such as fatty acid amides and alkylenebisfatty acid amides, fatty acid lower alcohol esters, fatty acid polyhydric alcohol esters. , Ester-based lubricants such as fatty acid polyglycol esters, alcohol-based lubricants such as fatty alcohols, polyhydric alcohols, polyglycols and polyglycerols, various lubricants such as metal soaps and mixed lubricants.

These low molecular weight materials may be used alone or in combination of two or more.

In the present invention, in order to obtain a polymer blend material containing a large amount of a low molecular weight material with a large amount of a low molecular weight material and a high molecular weight organic material, the solubility of each of the low molecular weight material and the high molecular weight organic material used Parameter value δ (= ΔE /
V) ^1/2 (ΔE = molar evaporation energy, V = molar volume)
Difference of 3.0 or less, preferably 2.5 or less,
It is preferable to select both materials. If this difference exceeds 3.0, from the viewpoint of compatibility of both materials, it is difficult to retain a large amount of low molecular weight materials, which is an obstacle to lowering the elastic modulus of the obtained polymer blend material. Is likely to occur, which is not preferable.

If necessary, the polymer blend material according to the present invention may further contain the following fillers. That is, clay, diatomaceous earth, carbon black, silica, talc, barium sulfate, calcium carbonate, magnesium carbonate, metal oxides, mica, graphite, scale-like inorganic fillers such as aluminum hydroxide, various metal powders,
Wood chips, glass powder, ceramics powder, granular or powder solid filler such as granular or powder polymer, other various natural or artificial short fibers, long fibers (for example, straw, hair, glass fiber, metal fiber, various other Polymer fibers and the like) can be blended.

Further, it is possible to reduce the weight by blending a hollow filler, for example, an inorganic hollow filler such as a glass balloon or a silica balloon, or an organic hollow filler made of polyvinylidene fluoride, a polyvinylidene fluoride copolymer or the like. . Further, in order to improve various physical properties such as weight reduction, it is possible to mix various foaming agents, and it is also possible to mechanically inject gas during mixing or the like.

By the way, it is preferable that the loss tangent of the polymer blend material constituting the impact absorbing material of the biological protection member of the present invention is 0.1 or more, preferably 0.15 or more. When the loss tangent is less than 0.1, it is difficult to obtain sufficient impact absorption performance, which is not preferable as a biological protection member.

The loss tangent is a value measured by a shear dynamic viscoelasticity tester (manufactured by Toyo Seiki Co., Ltd.) under the conditions of 25 ° C. and 5 Hz.

In order to provide such a loss tangent, the three-dimensional continuous reticulated skeleton structure formed of the polymer organic material constituting the polymer blend material has an average skeleton diameter of 5
0 μm or less, preferably 30 μm or less, the average diameter of cells (mesh) is 500 μm or less, preferably 300 μm or less, and the volume fraction of the polymer organic material is [volume of polymer organic material / (volume of polymer organic material + Volume of low molecular weight material)]
When defined as × 100 (%), it is desirable that the volume fraction of the polymer organic material be 30% or less, and particularly 25% or less.

The polymer blend material used in the present invention comprises a predetermined amount of a high molecular weight organic material and a low molecular weight material and, if necessary, other compounding agents to form a three-dimensional continuous network skeleton structure of the high molecular weight organic material. It can be obtained by mixing under possible mixing conditions. In this case, while having a uniform three-dimensional continuous network skeleton structure of a high molecular weight organic material,
In order to obtain a polymer blend material having less bleeding of low molecular weight material and satisfying the above-mentioned loss tangent, it is preferable to use a high shear type mixer as a mixer, and especially, a fixed wall and a rotating rotor Between the fixed wall and the rotating part (rotor), the clearance (clearance) is t (m), and the rotating peripheral speed of the rotor is v (m / sec). , If the shear rate V of the rotor is defined as V = v / t (sec ⁻¹ ), then V ≧ 5.0 × 10 ² (sec ⁻¹ ) and preferably V ≧ 1.0 × 10 ³ (sec ⁻¹ ). More preferably, it is advantageous to use a high shear type special mixer that satisfies V ≧ 2.5 × 10 ³ (sec ⁻¹ ) and most preferably V ≧ 5.0 × 10 ³ (sec ⁻¹ ).

The polymer blend material according to the present invention is not particularly limited, such as ordinary bulk, gel, foam, etc., but is in a gel state, in particular, a three-dimensional continuous uniform network made of a thermoplastic polymer material. Those in a gel state having a skeletal structure are particularly effective for the present invention.

The structure of the biological protection member of the present invention is not particularly limited, and may be composed only of the above-mentioned polymer blend material, or laminated with an existing shock absorbing material such as silicone or polyurethane. You may use it, combining it by setting it as a structure. In addition, iron, aluminum, copper, zinc,
It may be used in combination with a metal material such as stainless steel or various ceramic materials. Further, the surface layer of the polymer blend material may be coated with a urethane-based, polyvinyl acetate-based, silicone-based, or other organic material, cloth, leather, or the like.

Examples of the biological protection member using such a polymer blend material are as follows.

A cushioning material for connecting the artificial leg and the artificial hand to the human body,
Or joint parts of artificial legs and artificial hands Bicycles, tricycles, motorcycles, automobiles (especially vehicles with severe vibration such as tractors and bulldozers), amusement park vehicles, etc. Handles and grips Rock drills, cutting machines, chainsaws, hand mixers Grips of machines with severe motor vibration such as elbow pads, knee pads, gloves, other accessories such as helmets, bulletproof vests, clothing, etc. Human body contact members for OA equipment

[0033]

[Function] Mainly composed of high molecular weight organic materials and low molecular weight materials,
A polymer blend material in which the content of the high molecular weight organic material is lower than that of the low molecular weight material, and the high molecular weight organic material has a three-dimensional continuous network skeleton structure, is soft and appropriate. It exhibits excellent properties as an impact absorbing material for a biological protection member in terms of elasticity, compression characteristics, hardness and the like, and is economically producible with high productivity. In particular, when a thermoplastic polymer organic material is used, a bioprotective member having excellent moldability and recyclability is provided.

[0034]

EXAMPLES The present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the following examples.

Example 1 As shown in FIG. 1 (cross-sectional view), the polymer blend material according to the present invention was applied to the connection cushioning material 3 to be distributed between the artificial leg 1 and the leg 2 of the living body.

The materials shown in Table 1 were mixed according to the composition shown in Table 1 by using a high shear type special mixer ("TK Auto Homo Mixer" manufactured by Tokushu Kika Kogyo Co., Ltd.). The conditions were mixed to obtain a polymer blend material with a uniform appearance.

After the mixing is completed, the obtained polymer blend material is cast in a predetermined mold and cooled to obtain a cushioning material 3 for artificial leg, and as shown in FIG. I distributed materials in between.

As a result, the fit of the prosthesis to the legs is extremely good, and the impact-reducing effect at the time of walking is remarkably high, so that the legs are sufficiently protected and there is little fatigue even after a long walk. The prosthesis was put on.

The loss tangent of this polymer blend material was 0.35, and when a section of this polymer blend material was cut out and observed with an optical microscope, it was found that a three-dimensional continuous material consisting of a thermoplastic polymer organic material was obtained. It was confirmed that the reticulate structure (average diameter of skeleton: 10 μm, average diameter of cell: 30 μm) was formed.

Embodiment 2 As shown in FIGS. 2 (a) (front view) and (b) (enlarged view of a cross section taken along line BB in FIG. 2 (a)), the inside of the grip 5 of the rock drill 4 is shown. The cushioning material 6 made of the polymer blend material according to the present invention was distributed to the.

First, the same mixer as that used in Example 1 was used to mix the materials shown in Table 1 with the formulations shown in Table 1.

After the mixing was completed, the obtained polymer blend material was extruded to obtain a long sheet having a thickness of 28 mm and a width of 10 cm. This sheet was cut into a length of 40 cm and wound around the grip body 8 of the rock drill 4 as shown in FIG. In FIG. 2B, 7 is a skin material made of polyurethane.

As a result, when the grip portion is gripped, the feeling is very good and it is easy to grip, and the vibration transmitted to the human body such as fingers and hands is remarkably reduced, so that the feeling of fatigue is reduced, and the prevention of scab and the like can be prevented. It was confirmed to be effective.

The loss tangent of this polymer blend material was 0.30. Further, when a section of this polymer blend material was cut out and observed with an optical microscope, it was found that a three-dimensional continuous material consisting of a thermoplastic polymer organic material was obtained. It was confirmed that the reticulated structure (average skeleton diameter 50 μm, average cell diameter 100 μm) was formed.

[0045]

[Table 1]

[0046]

As described above in detail, according to the biological protection member of the present invention, since the shock absorption performance and the vibration reduction performance are remarkably good, the biological protection member which transmits shock and vibration to the human body is extremely small. Will be provided. Moreover, the biological protection member according to the present invention can be manufactured with high productivity and is excellent in economic efficiency.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 is a cross-sectional view of a prosthesis manufactured in Example 1. FIG.

FIG. 2 (a) is a front view of a rock drill manufactured in Example 2, and FIG. 2 (b) is an enlarged view of a cross section taken along line BB of FIG. 2 (a).

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Prosthetic leg 2 Legs 3 Buffer material for connection 4 Rock drill 5 Grip

Front page continuation (72) Inventor Yuichiro Wakana 3-5-5 Ogawahigashi, Kodaira-shi, Tokyo (72) Inventor Mihide Fukahori 2-9-7 Sanada-cho, Hachioji-shi, Tokyo

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A living body protection member to be covered with a living body or provided on a living body contact surface, comprising a high molecular weight organic material and a low molecular weight material as main components, and containing a high molecular weight organic material in a low molecular weight material. A bioprotective member comprising a polymer blend material having a content ratio lower than that of the polymer organic material and comprising a polymer blend material having a three-dimensional continuous network skeleton structure.