Wristlet glove

[57] ABSTRACT

A disposable plastic film glove is provided with a reduced dimension intermediate the metacarpal and gauntlet portions in order to provide a tight fit around the wearer’s wrist.

Claim, 3 Drawing Figures

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PATENTED ME. 81972

31681.784

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ATTORNEY

3,681,784

WRISTLET GLOVE

The aforementioned abstract is neither intended to define the invention of the application which, of course, is measured by the claims, nor is it intended to be limiting as to the scope of the invention in any way.

This invention relates generally to disposable gloves. More particularly, to a disposable thermoplastic glove having integral means for achieving a tight fit around the wearer’s wrist.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Disposable plastic gloves are well known in the art. Such gloves are inexpensive to manufacture and are widely used by people whose hands may come in contact with substances that are either unpleasant or which may cause some discoloration of the skin. The plastic, disposable gloves presently on the market are, for the most part, ambidexterous, so that a single die and heat sealing apparatus may be used to form gloves that may be worn on either hand. The gloves, of course, are not form fitting but this is generally not a handicap since the material used for the gloves, that is a thermoplastic sheet, is relatively thin and does not hinder in any way the grasping action of the wearer.

However, it has been found that because the gloves are ambidexterous and because generally only one or perhaps two sizes are made and must accommodate a whole range of hand sizes, the loose fit around the wrist of the user is somewhat uncomfortable. In the art generally relating to gloves there are many examples of attempts having been made to rectify this condition. For example, U.S. Pats. Nos. 1,509,060 and 3,119,118 disclose the use of elastic means for reducing the size of 35 the wrist portion of rubber and woven fabric gloves, respectively. U.S. Pats. Nos. 692,703 and 2,378,773 relate to rubber gloves having elastic wrist portions of a special configuration that provide for tight fit around the wearer’s wrist. 40

Thermoplastic gloves having wrist holding portions are described in U.S. Pats. Nos. 2,884,643, 2,970,317 and 3,088,118. In U.S. Pat. No. 2,970,317, an elastic shirring is secured to the top side of the glove. U.S. Pat. No. 2,884,643 also describes the use of a shirred elastic strip added to the glove for the same purpose. U.S. Pat. No. 3,088,118 relates to the method of connecting an elastic band to the wrist portion of a thermoplastic glove in order to provide a tight fit on the user’s hand. Finally, U.S. Pat. No. 2,083,935 discloses a glove having generally the same configuration as the invention that will be described hereinafter. However, it is to be noted that the last mentioned Patent teaches primarily the use of heat retarding elements in a canvas glove. No provisions are made for a tight fit around the wearer’s wrist and, apart from a similarity in the drawing of U.S. Pat. No. 2,083,935 and the present invention, there does not appear to be any appreciation by the patentee of either the need for or the desirability of providing a reduced wrist portion that will result in a tight fit around the wearer’s wrist.

By way of contrast, the present invention provides an ambidexterous glove that may be made from thermoplastic sheet material such as polyethylene or polyvinyl chloride. Conventional forming and heat sealing means are used to provide the finger and thumb stalls as well as the metacarpal portion. Intermediate the gauntlet portion and the metacarpal portion there is an area of reduced size that requires stretching in order for the user to insert his hand. In an alternative embodiment the area of reduced size is achieved by offset recesses on each side edge of the glove.

While the sheet material that is used for the low cost disposable gloves is not primarily elastic, it does have some inherent resiliency and will stretch when a hand is inserted. The limited resiliency of the material allows it to return towards its original position and thereby form a tight fit around the wearer’s wrist. The present invention is particularly distinguished over rubber gloves which are molded with a neck-down portion that projg vide the snug fit about the wearer’s wrist. Such a glove is of the type shown in the E.S. Smith U.S. Pat. No. 2,886,824 mentioned briefly hereinabove. The present invention distinguishes over the Smith Patent in that it is of substantially lower cost, is disposable, is substan20 tially thinner and is not inherently elastic.

Accordingly, it is a primary object of this present invention to provide an improved low cost disposable glove.

Another important object of the present invention is 25 to provide a glove as described above that is ambidexterous and which includes integral means for assuring a snug fit about the wearer’s wrist.

An advantage of the present invention is that it may be manufactured with existing equipment requiring a 30 bare minimum of change thereto.

A feature of this invention is that the heat-sealable thermoplastic film used is lightweight and very thinbeing in the order of0.005 to 0.0025 inches thick.

These and other objects, features and advantages of the invention will, in part, be pointed out with particularity and will, in part, become obvious from the follo wing more detailed description of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing which forms an integral part thereof.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

In the various Figures of the drawing like reference characters designate like parts.

4₅ In the drawing:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of one embodiment of the present invention with a portion partially broken away;

FIG. 2 is a transverse sectional view taken along line 2—2 of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary plan view, similar to FIG. 1, illustrating an alternative embodiment of this invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED 55 EMBODIMENT(S)

One embodiment of the glove 10 comprising the present invention is shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 of the drawing. The glove 10 is comprised of two superimposed layers of thermoplastic sheeting 12 and 14. Conventional means well known in the art are used to heat seal the sheet 12 and 14 to each other along the periphery thereof except along the edge 16 through which the hand is inserted. The present invention con65 ^temP^{lates use of} currently available thermoplastic sheeting such as polyethylene or polyvinyl chloride. However, as other materials become known, they may be used providing they can be sealed to each other

3.681.784 either by heat or other means so as to assure a moisture proof glove. In this connection, while the term “glove” is used to describe the article, it should be clearly noted that it is used only in its generic sense and thus includes the use of the present invention as a mitten.

The present invention is particularly directed to thermoplastic sheeting that is very thin and very flexible. The preferred thickness range for the material used in the present invention is between 0.0005 inches to 0.0025 inches. Further, while different means may be used to join the two opposed layers of thermoplastic sheeting, it is presently preferred to use a heat sealing method that is particularly adapted to high speed production which will assure a low unit cost per glove.

The glove 10 illustrated in FIG. 1 comprises four finger stalls, 18, 20, 22 and 24 and a thumb stall 26. There is also provided a metacarpal portion 28 and a gauntlet portion 30. Intermediate the metacarpal portion 28 and the gauntlet portion 30 there is provided a wrist section 32 of substantially reduced width as compared to either the gauntlet portion 30 or the metacarpal portion 28. The wrist section 32 is defined by recesses 34 and 36 formed at the side edges of the glove 10. That is, the dimension designated 32α is substantially less than either of the dimensions designated 28α or 30α.

It will be appreciated that as the user inserts his hand, the yieldable plastic sheets 12 and 14 will stretch in the wrist section 32. With the user’s hand fully inserted, the plastic material will tend to return to its original size. Since the gloves comprising this invention are intended to be disposable, it is not important if the material takes a set, becomes distorted or is otherwise unusable a second time. However, the characteristics of the material are such that it will return to approximately its original shape at least once and thereby provide a snug fit around the wearer’s wrist.

It has been found that a snug fit can be achieved by offsetting the recesses 34' and 36' as shown in FIG. 3. By spacing the axes X and Y of the recesses 34' and

36', respectively, the tension on the plastic sheet resulting from insertion of the user’s hand is somewhat reduced. In this connection it should be particularly noted that the basic concept of this invention resides in 5 the reduced width wrist portion between metacarpal and gauntlet portions and this may also be achieved by providing a recess along only one side edge of the glove.

There has been described hereinabove and illus10 trated in the drawing a low cost ambidexterous glove that is moisture proof and which provides a tight fit about the wearer’s wrist without resorting to the addition of an elastic material such as used in the prior art. The gloves of this invention provides a snug fit about 15 the wearer’s wrist by providing a reduced portion in the wrist area as compared to either the metacarpal or gauntlet portions of the glove.

There has been disclosed heretofore the best embodiment of the invention presently contemplated. 20 However, it is to be understood that various changes and modifications may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention.