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Impact protection glove

Impact protection glove description/claims

People doing various work asks can suffer accidental impacts to their hands, and the hands can be damaged thereby. Some industrial gloves offer protection for the back of the hand. For example, there are knuckle straps. U.S. Pat. No. 4,094,014 to Schroeder discloses a workman's glove that has a knuckle-protecting surface to protect the knuckles on the back of the hand. The knuckle-protecting cushion pads 16 are made of flexible cloth, rubber or the like and adhered to the underlying glove material by glue, stitching and the like and are disposed to prevent a hand in the glove from inadvertently bruising knuckles against a work surface. The glove is provided by material that is a flexible sheath of rubber, cloth, rubberized cloth or the like. The knuckle protecting pad can be provided with a plurality of ventilating holes, and the padding can be about ⅛ inch thick. The glove (FIG. 5) can comprise a sheath of woven open mesh filament.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,051,553 to Howard discloses a hand protector in the form of a hard foam rubber pad that is affixed to the back of a lightweight cotton glove for a football player and extends over the knuckles of a hand that is placed into the glove. The pad is molded so as to force the fingers to naturally curl without conscious effort, but allowing the fingers to be straightened with conscious effort. The back of the hand is protected by the pad from direct injury.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,589,940 to Johnson discloses a glove that is breathable and has moisture absorbing properties and yet includes a foam surface laminated to a substrate with the amount of air in the foam surface depending upon the degree of abrasion resistance required.

U.S. Pat. No. 4,864,660 to Sawyer discloses a flexible hand glove that has a protective package attached to the back portion, the glove being stretchable in multiple dimensions. The protective package is made from one or several layers of foam that can be placed between nylon micromesh forming the body of the glove and a cover formed of cowhide such that the edges of the cowhide can be attached to the nylon micromesh. However, the cowhide is stiff and detracts from the flexibility of the portion of the glove that covers the knuckles.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,537,692 to Dorr discloses a snowboarder's glove that includes an inside layer 240 formed of a soft textile fabric and an outer layer 230. An insulation layer 250 may be made of foam.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,829,061 to Visgil et al discloses a work glove made of sheet foam material having a thickness between one millimeter and five millimeters. Referring to FIG. 4, the glove is composed of a sheet foam material that is elastic, nonabsorbent and acts as an insulator. The sheet material includes a closed cell foam core and is surrounded by thin sheets of fabric. A fleece liner may be provided on the thin sheet of fabric. The foam core is preferably made of neoprene. The fabric preferably is nylon, spandex or other such material. If the sheet foam material is too thick, it prevents the wearer from effectively moving the fingers.

U.S. Pat. No. 6,105,162 issued to Douglas et al discloses a hand protection system for protecting the back of the hand. The underside of a cushioning pad formed of open cellular foam material is releaseably connected by Velcro to the back surface of a glove and releaseably connected by Velcro to a protective plate of rigid plastic material.

U.S. Pat. No. 7,000,259 issued to Matechen discloses a glove having a back padding at the back portion of the glove. The padding comprises an energy dissipating media that is encapsulated in a flexible layer.

The continuing work in this field hints that the ideal balance between adequate protection for the hand, breathability, flexibility and affordability has yet to be attained.

Objects and advantages of the present disclosure will be set forth in part in the following description, or may be obvious from the description, or may be learned through practice of the present disclosure.

In accordance with one embodiment of the present disclosure, a protective glove for working environments can be provided with a protective member that cushions one or more parts of the wearer's hand from impacts. The glove can be formed of a hollow shell defining a cavity that is configured to receive the hand of the wearer. The shell can be formed of one or more materials. However, in the portions of the shell where the impact protection is desired to cover parts of the hand that will stretch the glove to accommodate hand movements, the shell desirably includes flexible, extensible and retractable material in such portions of the shell. Moreover, in such portions of the shell, the flexible, extensible and retractable material desirably is also breathable. Various non-woven materials for example can be used to form these portions of the shell.

The glove can include a protective member that can be configured to cover one or more portions of the glove where the impact protection is desired to cover parts of the hand that will stretch the glove to accommodate hand movements. The protective member desirably can be formed of a layer of perforated foam material that has been rendered perforated by a multiplicity of slits, which are defined completely through the foam layer to form a perforated foam layer. The longer dimension of each of the slits seen from one of the opposite surfaces of the layer of foam typically is oriented in the same direction, and thus all of the slits run parallel to each other. That one direction of the slits typically is determined by the machine that makes the sheet of foam and thus typically is termed the machine direction of the layer of foam.

The slits in the perforated foam layer allow for expansion of the perforated foam layer and thereby impart extensibility to the protective member. Upon donning the glove and movement of the hand within the glove, the slits open into cells to accommodate the expansion of the foam layer. These cells defined by the opposed walls of the slits and are closed at the end that is attached to the shell such that the expanded cells and the underlying portion of the shell define a network of relatively large closed cells in the foam layer. The foam material is, in turn, defined by smaller open cells, closed cells, or a combination of open and closed cells. Thus, it should be appreciated, that the foam material and system of closed expanded cells provide each protective member with an overall total impact protection.

The layer of foam material of the protective member is of sufficient thickness and rigidity such that the protected part of the hand would still be breathable, and the glove would not lose any desired extensibility that attends the breathable and extensible material that forms the corresponding portion of the shell. Desirably, the perforated foam layer of the protective member can have a basis weight of, for example, in a range of about 100 grams per square meter (gsm) to about 300 gsm. Other basis weights for the perforated foam layer of the protective member also are contemplated within the scope of the disclosure.

The layer of perforated foam material that is included as part of the protective member desirably is permanently attached to a portion of the shell formed of extensible and retractable material where the impact protection is desired to cover parts of the hand that will stretch the glove to accommodate hand movements. The attachment of the layer of perforated foam to the shell can be effected in any of a number of conventional ways, including adhesives, heat sealing, pin point bonding, and ultrasonic bonding. Desirably, the layer of perforated foam material can be laminated to a portion of the shell formed of extensible and retractable material. For example, the perforated layer of foam could be ultrasonically attached to a suitable nonwoven material forming a portion of the glove's shell or heat sealed thereto.

The perforated foam layer of the protective member is characterized by being extensible to its maximum extent in a preferred direction. The longer dimension of each of the slits defines a directional parameter (often referred to as the machine direction because of the way that the material is produced) to the perforated foam because substantially all of the slits are defined parallel to this directional parameter. The direction in which the foam is extensible to the greatest extent is perpendicular to the direction in which the slit's longer dimension extends. When the protective member is attached to the shell of the glove, the direction of alignment of the slits in the perforated foam layer should be oriented so that this alignment direction (i.e., the machine direction) is perpendicular to the direction in which the hand movements will stretch the glove.

Desirably, in one embodiment, the protective member can be attached to the back portion of the glove to provide protection against impacts to the back of the wearer's hand, while rendering the back of the glove breathable through the protective member and extensible and retractable when the glove is worn. When the hand moves from the open palm configuration to the closed first configuration, the back of the hand stretches in the direction in which the fingers of the hand extend outwardly away from the palm of the hand. In order to more efficiently accommodate stretching movement of the back of the hand when the hand flexes between the open palm configuration and the closed first configuration, the protective member desirably can be disposed on the back of the glove so that a substantial proportion of the slits in the foam layer are aligned generally perpendicular to the direction in which the fingers point outwardly away from the palm when the hand assumes the open palm configuration.

In another embodiment, the protective member can be attached to the back portion of the glove over one of the knuckles of one of the finger portions of the shell to provide protection against impacts to that finger's knuckle, while rendering that portion of the glove breathable and extensible and retractable when the glove is worn. In order to more efficiently accommodate stretching movement of the finger when the finger flexes that knuckle between the open palm configuration and the closed first configuration, the protective member desirably can be disposed on that portion of the glove's shell so that a substantial proportion of the slits in the foam layer are aligned generally perpendicular to the direction in which that finger points away from the palm when the hand assumes the open palm configuration. In still other embodiments, the protective member can be attached to the back portion(s) of the glove over more than one of the knuckles of one of the finger portions of the shell and/or more than one of the fingers of the glove to provide protection against impacts to the knuckles of those fingers, while rendering those portions of the glove breathable and extensible and retractable when the glove is worn.

At least a back portion of the shell can be formed by a first layer of breathable and extensible material that is configured to cover the back of the glove's wearer. The back portion of the shell can define an inner surface facing the back of the wearer's hand and an outer surface opposite the inner surface. The back portion of the shell can be configured to cover the knuckles of the glove's wearer. The glove also can include a protective member that can be formed as described above and that is configured to cover the back portion of the shell and that is connected permanently to the back portion of the shell.

At least one skin layer, which desirably can be formed by a thin layer of spunbond material, can be attached to the outer surface of the layer of perforated foam. In a further embodiment of the present disclosure, a separate skin layer can be applied to each of the inner and outer surfaces of the foam layer such that the foam layer is sandwiched between the two skin layers. The layer of perforated foam material that is included as part of the protective member can be laminated between two skin layers, one on each opposite surface of the layer of perforated foam material. The inner and outer skin layers can be formed of an extensible material to accommodate expansion of the foam layer, and in a particular embodiment may comprise liquid permeable nonwoven materials. In such an embodiment, the protective member is attached permanently to at least one portion of the glove by adhering one of the skin layers to that at least one portion of the glove that is formed of flexible, extensible and retractable material and configured to cover a part of the hand that is to be shielded from the effects of impacts. Each of the skin layers is extensible to at least a degree necessary to also accommodate the expansion of the perforated foam layer. In one embodiment, each skin layer may comprise a liquid permeable elastomeric nonwoven material. In one configuration, the outer skin layer may be a hydrophobic nonwoven material.

Each of the skin layers laminated to the perforated foam layer of the protective member may be, for example, a nonwoven material, particularly a hydrophobic nonwoven web such as a spunbond material. Each of the skin layers desirably can have a basis weight of, for example, in a range of about 10 grams per square meter (gsm) to about 50 gsm. The laminate of two skin layers sandwiching the perforated foam layer to form the protective member desirably can comprise a total basis weight of less than about 600 gsm.

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• Utility Patent

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