WEARABLE PROTECTIVE GEAR

Abstract

This disclosure concerns a protective gear with a hood for a user that protects the user from the environment, while also minimizing exposure of the environment to contagious agents, e.g. biological contaminants, that may be exhaled by the user in case the user is infected.

Claims

1. A personal protective gear comprising: a hood for fitting over an individual's head with a visor portion at its front; a confined space defined by the hood for accommodating the individual's head; a forced filtered air intake configured to supply filtered inflowing breathing gas into said confined space; and one or more filtering portions defined in the hood, said one or more filtering portions being made of a filtering sheet material configured to filtering out contaminants from exhaust gas outflowing therethrough.

2. The gear of claim 1, wherein said hood is made of a protective sheet, and said one or more filtering portions are integral with said protective sheet.

3. The gear of claim 1, wherein said one or more filtering portions constitutes at least 10% of the area of the hood.

4. (canceled)

5. The gear of claim 1, wherein said filtering sheet material is pliable.

6. (canceled)

7. The gear of claim 1, wherein the forced filtered air intake comprises an air propelling assembly for propelling said inflowing breathing gas into said confined space.

8.-10. (canceled)

11. The gear of claim 1, wherein said filtering sheet material comprises at least one layer configured for filtering-out hazardous biological matter.

12. (canceled)

13. The gear of claim 1, wherein the forced filtering air intake is configured for generating a positive pressure within the confined space.

14. The gear of claim 1, comprising a neck collar, said hood and said neck collar defining together, once fitted over the head, said confined space, the neck collar is integral with the hood or with a protective clothing.

15.-17. (canceled)

18. The gear of claim 1, wherein said filtering sheet material comprises at least one layer containing an active filtering component and/or a disinfecting material.

19. (canceled)

20. The gear of claim 1, being disposable or sterilizable.

21. (canceled)

22. The gear of claim 1, integratable with a whole-body protective suit.

23. A wearable personal protective gear comprising: a wearable protective garment, for wearing over at least an upper body portion of an individual; a hood for fitting over an individual's head with a visor portion at its front, integratable with said protective garment, the hood defining a confined space for accommodating the individual's head; a forced filtered air intake configured to supply filtered inflowing breathing gas into said confined space; and one or more filtering portions defined in at least one of the hood and the protective garment, said one or more filtering portions being made of a filtering sheet material configured to filtering out contaminants from exhaust gas outflowing therethrough.

24. The gear of claim 23, wherein said hood is integral with said wearable protective garment.

25. The gear of claim 23, wherein said wearable protective garment comprises a neck collar, said hood being integratable with said neck collar.

26. The gear of claim 23, wherein said wearable protective garment is a whole-body protective suit.

27. The gear of claim 23, wherein said forced filtered air intake is formed at said hood or at the wearable protective garment.

28. (canceled)

29. The gear of claim 23, wherein said one or more filtering portions constitute at least 10% of the area of the hood and/or the protective garment.

30. The gear of claim 23, wherein said filtering sheet material is pliable.

31.-33. (canceled)

34. The gear of claim 23, wherein the forced filtering air intake is configured for generating a positive pressure at least within the confined space.

35. (canceled)

36. The gear of claim 23, wherein said filtering sheet material comprises at least one layer containing an active filtering component and/or a disinfecting material.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0044] In order to better understand the subject matter that is disclosed herein and to exemplify how it may be carried out in practice, embodiments will now be described, by way of non-limiting example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

[0045] FIG. 1 is a schematic side view of a personal protective gear according to an embodiment of this disclosure with a filtering sheet material configured as part of the hood, being worn by a user.

[0046] FIG. 2 shows the gear of FIG. 1 with the hood shown in cross-section.

[0047] FIG. 3 is a close-up view of the hood of FIGS. 1 and 2, illustrating schematically the airflow within the confined space.

[0048] FIG. 4 is a schematic side view of a personal protective gear according to an embodiment of this disclosure, configured for supply of pressurized air from an external source.

[0049] FIG. 5 is a schematic view of a protective gear of an embodiment of this disclosure, in the form of a whole-body wearable gear with the filtering sheet material being configured as a portion of the chest cover of the gear.

[0050] FIG. 6 shows, schematically, the airflow pathways.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS

[0051] Reference is first made to FIGS. 1 and 2 showing a schematic illustration of a personal protective gear 100 according to an embodiment of this disclosure. It comprises a hood 102, made of a flexible, liquid-impermeable material and has a forced, filtered air intake 104 that is in communication with the hood through a pipe 106. Intake 104 includes a pump and a filter (nor shown). The hood 102 is configured for fitting over the head of an individual user 108 and has an integral visor portion 110 at its front, made of a flexible, transparent gas-impermeable material, positioned in front of the eyes of the user.

[0052] The gear 100 has a skirt 112, extending downward from the hood 102, that fits over the shoulder of the user 108 and is fitted with collar 114 made of an elastic material such as silicone, polyurethane, latex rubber, etc., allowing easy donning and requiring no latches, straps, ties, or the like. The collar 114 is not limited to such made of an elastic material and may be made of a non-elastic or an elastic material configured for tightening over the neck or another body portion. Once collar element 114 is attached to the hood, a confined space 116 is defined, into which filtered air inflow can be introduced.

[0053] Comprised in the hood 102 and integral therewith is a filtering portion 118 made of a filtering sheet material of the kind described herein, capable of filtering-out particulate matter from gas exhausted therethrough from the confined space 116. The filtering sheet material 118, as noted above, provides protection to the wearer from harmful agents, particularly viruses or bacteria, and at the same time permits the outflowing gas to egress without carrying harmful agents that may be exhaled by the hooded individual. The filtering sheet material may be made of a non-woven fabric capable of filtering particles larger than 0.1 ?m carried by the outflowing gas, thus filtering out bacteria, pathogen-carrying aerosol, and others, by the exhaust gas. The filtering sheet material may also comprise one or more substances for capturing of hazardous biological material or a substance with a disinfecting activity. The filtering sheet material may be of a single layer material or may be multi-layered. In the case of multi-layered material, all layers may have the same functionality, thus intensifying the activity; or each layer may have a different filtering functionality (e.g. one layer with a coarser mesh, another with finer one, etc.; or one passive filtering layer and another that comprises an absorbent or disinfecting material; etc.).

[0054] As represented schematically by arrow 120 in FIG. 3, breathing gas enters pipe 106, e.g. being forced by a pump or fed from a pressurized gas source. The breathing gas is typically air, although other breathable gas may be contemplated such as oxygen, air enriched with oxygen, etc. The forced breathing gas enters into and spread through the confined space 116, as represented by arrows 122, and the outflowing gas exists through the filter portion 118, as represented by arrows 124.

[0055] In another embodiment, illustrated schematically in FIG. 4, pipe 130 is configured for coupling, via coupling element 132, to a pressurized breathing gas feeding line 134.

[0056] Another exemplary embodiment is shown in FIGS. 5 and 6. In this embodiment, protective gear 140 has a full body wearable suit 142 integral with a hood 144, having an integral visor element 146 and defining a confined space 148 beneath the hood. Defined on the chest portion 150 of suit 142 are a plurality of filtering portions, in this example four such portions 152A-152D, which may be of the kind described above.

[0057] Breathable gas that is forced through pipe 154, as represented by arrow 160 in FIG. 6, enters into the suit and spreads in it as represented by arrows 162, including into the confined space 148 beneath the hood, as represented by arrows 164 for breathing by the wearing individual 166. Exhaust gas outflows through filtering portions 152A-152D, as represented by arrows 168.

[0058] The gear of this disclosure may at times also be made integral with the other wearable gear, e.g. integral with a whole-body protective suit.