WO1992003101A1

WO1992003101A1 - Sterile unit for supporting stacks of detachable sheets

Info

Publication number: WO1992003101A1
Application number: PCT/FR1991/000676
Authority: WO
Inventors: Vincent Vincenti
Original assignee: Vincent Vincenti
Priority date: 1990-08-20
Filing date: 1991-08-20
Publication date: 1992-03-05
Also published as: JPH06500030A; EP0544794A1; FR2665832A1

Abstract

Sterile support unit comprising a rigid base (1) on which are stacked a large number of sheets (2, 3, ...) detachably attached to each other. A substance having adhesive properties is provided between each pair of sheets. The invention is designed especially for medical use.

Description

"Sterile support with stacked and detachable sheets and its manufacturing process"

The present invention relates to a sterile support comprising a rigid base on which are stacked a large number of sheets detachably fixed to each other.

The invention also relates to the method of manufacturing this support. The invention relates in particular to a sterile support in the form of a rigid tray intended to receive medical instruments, in particular surgical instruments.

Such a tray has been described in French patent application 2,638,080 of the present applicant. This tray can be sterilized before use to guarantee perfect sterility of the instruments themselves sterilized intended to come into contact.

After a medical or surgical operation on a patient, this same tray receives dirty and contaminated instruments, so that the surface of the tray also becomes contaminated.

It should therefore be disinfected or made sterile again to make it suitable for receiving clean instruments.

To avoid a long and tedious cleaning and disinfection operation, it is enough to make the tray suitable for receiving clean instruments, tear off the dirty and contaminated upper sheet, so as to discover a new clean and disinfected sheet.

However, the perfect sterility of the sheet released on top of the tray cannot be guaranteed in an absolute manner. In fact, the sheets of the stack may in the long run no longer be perfectly sterile and thus becoming unfit to receive pre-sterilized instruments.

The object of the present invention is to provide improvements to the embodiment described in the prior art cited above, in particular by ensuring better sterility of the sheets stacked and fixed on their support.

The invention thus relates to a sterile support comprising a rigid base on which are stacked a large number of sheets detachably fixed to each other.

According to the invention, this support is characterized in that between each pair of sheets is provided a material having antiseptic properties. This antiseptic material keeps the different leaves in a state of perfect sterility for a practically unlimited period.

After each removal of a polluted and contaminated leaf, the underlying underlying leaf is in a state of perfect sterility so that it is not necessary to disinfect it before coming into contact with sterile instruments or objects.

According to an advantageous version of the invention, - said material consists of the adhesive material which binds the sheets together.

Certain adhesive materials or glues indeed contain chemical compounds such as alcohols or phenols having antiseptic processes. The perfect sterility of the different sheets is thus guaranteed as long as they are in contact with the adhesive material.

The perfect sterility of the sheets can be further improved by bonding the sheets together by an adhesive material added with an antiseptic agent. According to an advantageous version of the invention, each sheet has at one of its edges a tongue, free in relation to the neighboring leaves and to the tongues of these neighboring leaves.

This tab facilitates the gripping of each sheet to tear it off. According to a preferred version of the invention, each sheet has two tabs formed on two opposite edges of the sheet.

These two opposite tabs make it possible to remove a sheet by bringing its two opposite edges towards each other, which makes it possible to collect the impurities in the central part of the sheet and to avoid any risk of falling of these impurities on the underlying leaf that was discovered.

The support has, in a preferred application of the invention, the form of a rigid plastic tray having raised edges, the stacking of the sheets being fixed to said tray by heat-bonding or by means of an adhesive.

According to another aspect of the invention, the method for manufacturing a sterile support according to the invention preferably comprises the following steps:

a stack is formed formed of a large number of elongated strips cut from a sheet of plastic material and linked together over their entire surface by an adhesive, with the exception of at least one border left free of adhesive,

a block of superimposed sheets of dimensions corresponding to that of the base of the support is cut from this stack of strips, the cut of the tongue extending into the border left free of adhesive,

- Fixing said cut block on the support by gluing or heat sealing.

Other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent in the description below. In the appended drawings, given by way of nonlimiting examples:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a sterile tray according to the invention, FIG. 2 is a partial section view, on an enlarged scale along the plane II-II of FIG. 1,

FIG. 3 is an enlarged view of detail A in FIG. 2,

- Figure 4 is a partial sectional view, on an enlarged scale, along the plane IV-IV of Figure 1.

In the embodiment shown in Figure 1, the sterile tray includes a rigid base 1 whose edges are raised, on which are stacked a large number of sheets 2, 3, 4, 5, ... (see Figure 3) fixed d 'detachable from each other.

According to the invention, between each pair of sheets such as 2, 3; 4, 5, there is provided a material 6 (see FIG. 3) having antiseptic properties. This material 6 can be constituted by the adhesive material which binds the sheets 2, 3, 4, 5, ... to each other.

These sheets 2, 3, 4, 5, ... can also be bonded together by an adhesive material added with an antiseptic agent such as alcohol, phenol or other disinfectant or bactericide.

The sheets 2, 3, 4, 5, ... are preferably made of transparent plastic material adhering to each other over substantially their entire surface. Preferably, the transparent plastic material consists of a film of low density polyethylene which may contain an acrylate compound. Such polyethylene-based sheets can be bonded together by an adhesive in the form of an acrylic resin-based emulsion. Such an adhesive makes it possible to obtain perfect and lasting adhesion between the leaves, while allowing to detach the leaves without risk of tearing them and without leaving traces of glue on the uncovered leaf. The sheets 2, 3, 4, 5 ... and the adhesive used may for example be those constituting the adhesive film sold by the company Alphatec under the reference 158 or 208 (in this case, the antiseptic product must first be incorporated into adhesive material).

Preferably, the plastic sheets each have a thickness of between 50 and 80 microns, which makes it possible to stack more than ten sheets or even more than thirty sheets without excessively increasing the thickness of the tray 1.

The sheets 2, 3, 4, 5 having the above thickness and made of low density polyethylene have a breaking strength of the order of lN / mm ² .

We see on the other hand in Figure 1, that each sheet 2, 3, 4, 5 has two tabs 7, 8 formed on two opposite edges of the sheet.

More specifically, the two tongues 7, 8 are formed on two corners 9, 10 of the sheet (2, 3, 4, 5) opposite along a diagonal thereof.

The tray 1 can be made of rigid plastic such as polypropylene, the stacking of the sheets 2, 3, 4, 5 being fixed on this tray 1 by heat sealing or by means of an adhesive.

The tray for medical use that has just been described has the following advantages in particular: After each use, the top sheet such as 2 polluted and contaminated can be easily removed. For this purpose, it suffices to pull on the tabs 7, 8 of this sheet, bringing them one towards the other, as indicated in FIG. 1. This operation makes it possible to take off and simultaneously lift two opposite corners of the leaf and to collect towards the center of the latter the impurities which thus do not risk falling on the clean and sterile underlying sheet 3.

The state of sterility of the sheet 3 thus discovered, as well as of the following sheets 4, 5, ... is maintained practically indefinitely because each sheet is in permanent contact over its entire surface with an adhesive 6 having antiseptic properties. To manufacture the sterile support or tray that has just been described, the procedure is advantageously carried out according to the following steps (see FIG. 5):

- A stack is formed formed of a large number of elongated strips 11 cut from a sheet of plastic material and linked together over their entire surface by an adhesive, with the exception of at least one border 12 left free of adhesive ;

- Then cut from this stack 11 of strips, for example by means of a punch tool, a block of superimposed sheets 13 of dimensions corresponding to that of the tray, the cut of the tongue 14 extending in the border 12 left free of adhesive.

It then suffices to fix the cut block 13 on the plate 1 by gluing or heat-bonding. In the example shown in FIG. 5, two opposite edges 12, 12a, of the stack of strips 11 were left free of adhesive and a tongue 14, 15 was cut in each of the two edges 12, 12a below. above.

The cutting of successive blocks of sheets provided with their tongues 14, 15 can be carried out continuously, by moving the stack of strips 11 in the direction of these (see arrow F in FIG. 5) after each cutting operation.

- 'Once the block 13 of stacked sheets has been fixed on the tray 1, as shown in the figures 2, 3 and 4, it suffices to sterilize the assembly for example by exposure to gamma radiation.

Of course, the invention is not limited to the exemplary embodiments which have just been described and numerous modifications can be made to it without departing from the scope of the invention.

Thus, the nature of the sheets, of the adhesives, of the antiseptics may be different from that described, the main thing being that the sheets withstand the tearing effort enough to avoid tearing and that the adhesive provides a sufficient seal between the sheets to prevent any penetration of microbes between the sheets, this adhesive being on the other hand such that it allows easy detachment of the sheets. Of course, the invention can also be applied in a form other than a tray for medical use or in a field other than medicine.

Thus, the support can be constituted by the seat of a dental office intended to receive the patients.

The tray can also be applied in the food sector and for pedicure and manicure treatments.

Claims

CLAIMS '

1. Sterile support comprising a rigid base (1) on which are stacked a large number of sheets (2, 3, 4, 5, ...) detachably fixed to each other, characterized in that between each pair of sheets (2, 3, 4, 5) is provided with a material (6) having antiseptic properties.

2. Support according to claim 1, characterized in that said material consists of the adhesive material which binds the sheets (2, 3, 4, 5) together.

3. Support according to claim 1, characterized in that said sheets (2, 3, 4, 5, ...) are bonded together by an adhesive material added with an antiseptic agent.

4. Support according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the sheets (2, 3, 4, 5,

...) are made of transparent plastic adhering to each other over substantially their entire surface.

5. Support according to claim 4, characterized in that the transparent plastic material consists of low density polyethylene.

6. Support according to claim 5, characterized in that the sheets (2, 3, 4, 5, ...) are bonded together by an adhesive in the form of an emulsion based on acrylic resin.

7. Support according to one of claims 4 to 6, characterized in that the plastic sheets each have a thickness between 50 and 80 microns.

8. Support according to one of claims

1 to 7, characterized in that the number of sheets is at least equal to 10.

9. Support according to one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that each sheet has at one of its edges _t a tongue (7, 8), free relative to to the neighboring leaves and to the tongues of these neighboring leaves.

10. Support according to claim 9, characterized in that each sheet has two tongues (7, 8) formed on two opposite edges of the sheet.

11. Support according to claim 10, characterized in that the two tongues (7, 8) are formed on two corners (9, 10) of the opposite sheet along a diagonal thereof.

12. Support according to one of claims 1 to 11, characterized in that the base has the form of a tray (1) of rigid plastic material having raised edges, stacking the sheets (2, 3, 4 , 5, ...) being fixed on said plate (1) by heat sealing or by means of an adhesive.

13. A method of manufacturing a sterile support according to one of claims 1 to 12, characterized by the following steps: - a stack is formed formed of a large number of elongated strips (11) cut from a sheet of material plastic and bonded together over their entire surface by an adhesive, with the exception of at least one border (12) left free of adhesive, - a block (13) of superimposed sheets of dimensions corresponding to that of the base (1) of the support, the cutout of the tongue (14) extending in the border (12) left free of adhesive, - said block (13) is cut out on the support (1) by gluing or heat sealing.

14. Method according to claim 13, characterized in that two opposing edges (12, 12a) of the stack of strips (11) are left free of adhesive and a tongue (14, 15) is cut in each of the two borders above.

15. Method according to one of claims 13 Or 14, characterized in that the cutting of the blocks of sheets (13, 13a, 13b) provided with their tongues (14, 15) is carried out continuously, by moving the stack strips (11) in the direction thereof after each cutting operation.