RESPIRATOR MASK

Abstract

The invention provides a respirator mask comprising a filter material piece made of an air-permeable material and at least one securing band, wherein the air-permeable material comprises at least one layer of a non-woven fabric and the layer of a non-woven fabric is creped, and wherein the at least one securing band is designed for securing the respirator mask to the head.

Claims

1. A respirator mask, comprising a filter material piece made of an air-permeable material and at least one securing band, wherein the air-permeable material comprises at least one layer of non-woven fabric and the at least one layer of non-woven fabric is creped, and wherein the at least one securing band is configured to secure the respirator mask to a user's head.

2. The respirator mask according to claim 1, wherein the air-permeable material is creped.

3. The respirator mask according to claim 1, comprising a further filter material piece made of an air-permeable material, wherein the further filter material piece comprises at least one layer of a non-woven fabric which is creped, and wherein the filter material piece and the further filter material piece are partially welded together along their edge.

4. The respirator mask according to claim 1, wherein the air-permeable material is formed in multiple layers with a layer sequence: a support layer, one or two fine filter layers, and a further support layer.

5. The respirator mask according to claim 1, wherein the non-woven fabric comprises fibres formed from one or more recycled plastic materials.

6. The respirator mask according to claim 5, wherein the recycled plastic material is selected from the group consisting of recycled polyesters recycled polyolefins, recycled polyvinyl chloride (rPVC), recycled polyamides, and mixtures and combinations thereof.

7. The respirator mask according to claim 1, wherein the air-permeable material is multi-layered, wherein at least one layer of the multi-layered air-permeable material comprises or is formed from a non-woven fabric, and wherein the non-woven fabric comprises or is formed from fibres comprising or being formed from one or more recycled plastic materials.

8. The respirator mask according to claim 1, wherein the air-permeable material comprises at least one support layer and at least one fine filter layer, and wherein at least one, several or all of the support layers or at least one, several or all of the fine filter layers are non-woven fabrics comprising or formed from one or more recycled plastic materials.

9. The respirator mask according to claim 8, wherein a) each fine filter layer is an extruded non-woven fabric with a grammage of 10 to 80 g/m.sup.2, b) the air-permeable material comprises 1 to 5 fine filter layers, c) when at least two fine filter layers exist, a total grammage of a sum of all fine filter layers is 10 to 80 g/m.sup.2, d) at least one support layer is formed from one or more recycled plastic materials, e) at least one fine filter layer is electrostatically charged.

10. The respirator mask according to claim 1, wherein the air-permeable material comprises a meltblown layer of bicomponent fibres having a core/shell construction, the core being formed of rPP and the shell being formed of virgin PP.

11. The respirator mask according to claim 1, wherein the at least one securing band comprises a recycled plastic material or is formed from one or more recycled plastic materials.

12. The respirator mask according to claim 1, wherein the at least one securing band has a multi-layer construction, the securing band comprising a layer of a film and a layer of a meltblown material.

13. The respirator mask according to claim 1, wherein the securing band comprises or is formed from a thermoplastic material polymer.

14. The respirator mask according to claim 1, wherein a part by weight of all recycled materials relative to a total weight of the respirator mask is at least 60%.

15. (canceled)

16. The respirator mask according to claim 6, wherein the recycled polyesters comprise recycled polyethylene terephthalate (rPET), recycled polybutylene terephthalate (rPBT), recycled polylactic acid (rPLA), recycled polyglycolide, or recycled polycaprolactone.

17. The respirator mask according to claim 6, wherein the recycled polyolefins comprise recycled polypropylene (rPP), recycled polyethylene, or recycled polystyrene (rPS).

18. The respirator mask according to claim 1, comprising a further filter material piece made of an air-permeable material, wherein the further filter material piece comprises at least one layer of a non-woven fabric which is creped.

19. The respirator mask according to claim 1, wherein the air-permeable material is multi-layered, and wherein at least one, more or all of the layers of the multi-layered air-permeable material comprise or are formed from a non-woven fabric.

20. The respirator mask according to claim 1, wherein the air-permeable material comprises at least one support layer and at least one fine filter layer.

21. The respirator mask according to claim 1, wherein the at least one securing band has a multi-layer construction.

Description

[0101] The present invention will be elucidated in more detail by means of the following exemplary embodiments with reference to the figures, without limiting the invention to the specific embodiments shown. In which:

[0102] FIG. 1 schematically shows a respirator mask,

[0103] FIG. 2 shows a schematic cross-sectional view of the structure of a filter material piece of a respirator mask,

[0104] FIG. 3 shows a schematic top view of a respirator mask,

[0105] FIG. 4 shows a schematic side view of the filter part of a respirator mask.

[0106] FIG. 1 shows a schematic view of a respirator mask 1 in the form of a half mask. The description refers to an example of a medical face mask. The respirator mask 1 shown comprises a filter material piece or filter part 2. The cutting shape of the filter material piece is basically rectangular, but may also take on other shapes, in particular polygonal shapes.

[0107] Two securing bands 3 are attached to the filter material piece 2 in the example shown. In the illustrated embodiment, the attachment straps are provided for attachment to the ears of the wearer.

[0108] For a better adaptation to the shape of the face, the respirator mask has a nosepiece 4 which is coupled to the filter material piece in a destructively or non-destructively detachable manner. In particular, the nosepiece may be a wire embedded in a plastic material.

[0109] A destructive connection consists of welding, for example. The welding may either be disposed continuously along the entire length of the nosepiece or at individual discrete points. Alternatively, the nosepiece may be glued to the filter material piece. For example, a hot melt may be used for this purpose, which typically also results in a destructive connection.

[0110] Alternatively, the nosepiece is provided to the user as a separate element. In this case, the nosepiece has a self-adhesive surface that is initially covered with a protective film. After removing the protective film, the user sticks the nosepiece onto the non-woven fabric. Depending on the adhesive material used, such a nosepiece may also be reused for other respiratory protection filter parts.

[0111] In the exemplary embodiment, three folds 5 are disposed in the filter part or the air-permeable material 2.

[0112] The schematic cross-sectional view of FIG. 2 shows the structure of a filter material piece for a respirator mask. A fine filter layer 7 is arranged between two support layers 6. The three layers may in particular be welded together along the edges, i.e. the circumference, of the filter part 2, as illustrated in FIG. 1.

[0113] As an alternative to the structure shown in FIG. 2, the air-permeable material of the respirator mask may also comprise fewer or more layers. For example, only one support layer and one fine filter layer may be provided.

[0114] In one embodiment, the respirator masks have one or more layers made of rPET or rPP filaments or rPET or rPP staple fibres. Regarding the individual filter layers:

[0115] Spunbonded non-woven layers made of rPET or rPP with a weight per unit area of 5 to 50 g/m.sup.2 and a titre of 1 to 15 dtex are particularly suitable as support layers 6. For example, PET waste (e.g. punching waste) and so-called bottle flakes, i.e. pieces of ground beverage bottles, are used as raw materials. To cover the different colouring of the waste, it is possible to dye the recyclate. The HELIX® (Comerio Ercole) process is particularly advantageous as a thermal bonding process for bonding the spunbonded non-woven fabric.

[0116] One or more layers of meltblown non-woven made of rPET or rPP with a weight per unit area of 5 to 30 g/m.sup.2 each are used as fine filter layers 7. In addition, one or more meltblown non-woven fabric layers made of virgin PP may be present. At least this layer/these layers is/are electrostatically charged. The layers of rPET or rPP may also be electrostatically charged. In this case no metallised PET waste may be used for production. Alternatively, the meltblown filaments may also consist of bicomponent fibres in which the core is made of rPET or rPP and the shell is made of a plastic material that may be particularly well electrostatically charged (e.g. virgin PP, PC, PET).

[0117] The filaments or staple fibres may also consist of bicomponent fibres in which the core is made of rPET or rPP and the shell is made of a plastic material that may be particularly well electrostatically charged (e.g. virgin PP, PC, PET).

[0118] Specifically, the filter material piece may consist of a three-layer air-permeable material. A meltblown non-woven fabric layer with a grammage of 20 g/m.sup.2 is arranged between two spun-bonded non-woven fabric layers made of rPET with a grammage of 20 g/m.sup.2. The SMS thus obtained may be ultrasonically welded by a weld seam running along the edges.

[0119] The meltblown non-woven fabric may be electrostatically charged by adding additives and a water jet treatment (hydro charging), as described for example in WO 97/07272.

[0120] Alternatively, the meltblown non-woven fabric may have a grammage of 25 g/m.sup.2 and may have been electrostatically charged by means of a corona treatment.

[0121] The meltblown non-woven fabric may consist of bicomponent fibres that have a core made of rPP and a shell made of virgin PP. For example, the meltblown non-woven fabric may be produced with a meltblown machine from Hills Inc., West Melbourne, Fla., USA. This allows to achieve high recycled content despite electrostatic charging.

[0122] The illustrated SMS was subjected to a Micrex micro-creping process. In other words, the entire laminate is creped. In an alternative embodiment, only individual layers may be creped. For example, the centrally located meltblown layer 7 may be creped, whereas the spunbonded support layers 6 are not creped. In this case, the support layers also serve to stabilise the creping of the meltblown layer, among other things. This is particularly advantageous if the material used for the meltblown layer per se does not readily hold the creping, as is the case for polypropylene, for example.

[0123] Purely by way of example, reference is made to WO 2007/079502 for creping. The resulting increase in surface area leads to a better fit of the respirator mask made from it to the shape of the wearer's head and face. It also results in a softer feel and improved moisture absorption.

[0124] In principle, virgin/primary plastic materials may also be used instead of some or all of the recycled plastic materials mentioned.

[0125] FIG. 3 shows a schematic top view of an air-permeable material 8 corresponding to the filter part 2 of FIG. 1. However, in comparison with FIG. 1, FIG. 3 shows the rear of the filter part, i.e. the side facing a user.

[0126] In the example shown, a securing band 9 is arranged on opposite edges of the air-permeable material 8 and extends along the entire length of the edge. The securing bands may thus run with the air-permeable material during the production of the filter part and be cut together with the material. In the example shown, the securing band and the air-permeable material are joined by means of a welding point 10 at each of the opposite end regions of each securing band 9.

[0127] For the securing band, for example, a TPU laminate consisting of a TPU film with a thickness of 20 to 100 μm and a TPU meltblown non-woven (grammage: 20 to 80 g/m.sup.2) is used, which is welded to the filter material piece. The TPU film used in each case is made of plastic material recyclate. For welding, the process disclosed in European patent applications EP 18213001.3 and EP 19180533.2 in another technical field may be used to achieve high strength.

[0128] The PP material produced according to the Vistamaxx process may have been produced by meltblown or foil casting or blown film processes and—as described for the TPU laminate—may have been laminated.

[0129] In the illustrated example according to FIG. 3, the air-permeable material is again creped as a whole. The crepe direction indicated by the hatching, i.e. the direction of the crepe folds, is vertical when the respirator mask is used as intended. In this example, the creping direction is transverse to the machine direction of the production machine, which runs from left to right in the drawing.

[0130] Preferably, the creping is done during production before the layers of the filter material piece are welded together. In this way, the creping is stabilised.

[0131] (Macroscopic) transverse folds—such as the folds 5 in FIG. 1—may be made in the filter material piece 8 parallel to the securing bands 9, transverse to the crepe folds. These folds are obtained by folding the air-permeable material so that areas of the air-permeable material lie on top of each other in the area of the folds or transverse folds in the finished, unused state of the filter material piece.

[0132] FIG. 4 shows a schematic side view of the filter part of a respirator mask. The filter section comprises two filter material pieces 11; only one of these is illustrated in FIG. 4.

[0133] Both filter material pieces have a hexagonal shape and fit exactly on top of each other. Thus, the filter part formed by the filter material pieces 11 welded together also has a hexagonal shape as such (in finished but unused state).

[0134] The edge on the left is disposed between two right angles, so it is bounded by two parallel edges that are perpendicular to the edge in between.

[0135] The air-permeable material of both filter material pieces is creped. The crepe direction is also indicated here by the hatching; the crepe folds run essentially horizontally, when the respirator mask made from the filter part is used as intended.

[0136] Each of the two filter material pieces 11 has a SMS structure, as explained, for example, in connection with FIG. 2. The three layers of a filter material piece have first been welded together along the edge between the two right angles, on the left side in the figure. The corresponding welding seam 12 of the filter material piece 11 shown runs parallel to the left edge.

[0137] The welding seam 13 along the remaining five edges is a welding of the two filter material pieces together. At these edges, there is no separate welding of the SMS layers of a filter material piece as such. On the side of the welding seam 12, however, the two filter material pieces are not welded together. This forms the open side of the respirator mask, which will face the wearer's face.

[0138] During manufacture thus, the three layers of SMS in the form of non-woven fabric webs are first laid loosely on top of each other and welded along one edge by means of the welding seam 12. The remaining five edges remain open, the layers therefore loose. The machine direction of the production machine is from top to bottom in the arrangement of FIG. 4, parallel to the welding seam 12. The SMS filter material web welded on one side only is then creped as a whole, wherein the creping direction, i.e. the direction of the creping folds, is transverse, i.e. essentially perpendicular to the machine direction or the welding seam 12.

[0139] Thereafter, two such creped SMS filter material webs are guided over each other in machine direction, i.e. in the direction of or parallel to the welding seam 12, so that they come to lie on top of each other. The two SMS filter material webs, i.e. the six layers of two SMS on the whole, are welded together along the welding seam 13, which forms five edges of the two filter material pieces lying on top of each other. The two filter material webs are punched along these edges, so that a filter part 11 is then obtained as shown in FIG. 4.

[0140] The resulting respirator mask is advantageously stretchable, in particular on its open side, i.e. in the area of the welding seam 12, which allows a good facial fit. In addition, due to the creping, the air permeability is high and the breathing resistance is low.