GB2397525A - Improved cotton wool bud or swab - Google Patents

Abstract

An improved cotton wool bud or swab that includes recesses or cavities to improve the removal and retention of liquids or materials. The recesses of which can be any shape or size and can be embossed or moulded into a conventional cotton bud design or is achieved by the addition of a mesh or net tat is placed over the bud thus providing a raised profile or by constricting or pulling lowered areas into the bud or moulded from foam. The recess may be holes and the bud may be made from absorbent material.

Description

Improved Cotton Wool Bud or Swab This invention relates to an improved

version of the commonly known 'Cotton Wool Bud' which usually consists of a paper, wood or plastic stick with a bud of cotton wool The use for the above is primarily for medical or cosmetic cleaning purposes but is commonly used m industry for various cleaning purposes.

Such Swabs are well known but suffer from the disadvantage that when being used to clean or retrieve liquids or materials from an orifice they tend to smear and impact the liquid or material they are trying to remove. The current swabs also have the disadvantage that due to the smooth surface they do no allow the bud to easily latch onto any sticky type substance.

The object of this invention is to provide an improved 'bud' design to facilitate the retention of any liquids or materials being removed.

Accordingly this invention provides an absorbent bud with recesses or cavities that allow any liquids or materials to be retained with ease in the bud of the swab.

Preferably the bud will be made of cotton wool and the recesses or cavities can be embossed into the bud, the bud could also be made from moulded absorbent material thus allowing for a more detailed pattern to be formed into the bud. The raised or lowered areas on the bud could also be achieved by the addition of a mesh or net to the absorbent material thus supplying the raised areas or by pulling the existing absorbent material in to produce the lowered areas. The embossed or moulded pattern can vary.

Figure 1 shows a conventional cotton wool bud that has a pattern of recesses embossed into the bud.

Figure 2 shows a magnified version of the bud in figure 1.

Figures 3+4 show a bud as in figures 1+2 with a different pattern.

Figure 5 shows a swab with a bud with a design that has a number of pimples over the surface of the bud, this design would be more suited to a moulded foam bud.

Figure 6 shows a magnified view of the bud of figure 5.

Figure 7 shows a further design that incorporates raised ribs around the bud, the ribs can run around the radius of the bud or along the length of the bud or a combination of both.

This type design would be suitable for either embossing into a cotton bud or to be a moulded foam type bud. Figure 8 is a magnified view of the bud of figure 7. Figures 9+10 show an alternate pattern where figure 11 is and end on view of figures 9 + 10.

Claims (7)

1. Claims 1, A medical type swab of the type conventionally known as a cotton

   wool bud that Incorporates recesses to improve the removal and retention of liquids or materials into the bud.
2. 2, A swab as in claim 1 where the recesses are lines indented into the cotton bud.
3. 3, A swab as in claim I where the recesses are holes.
4. 4, A swab as in all previous claims where the bud is made from a natural or synthetic absorbent material.
5. 5, A swab as in all previous claims where the bud has a number of raised projectiles in order to leave a lowered area that can retain fluids or materials.
6. 6, A bud as in all previous claims whereas the raised or lowered area(s) is achieved by the addition of a mesh or net that is placed over the bud thus providing a raised profile or by constricting or pulling lowered areas into the bud.
7. 7, A bud as in all previous claims whereas the resultant pattern on the bud is referred to as being ribbed or quilted.