US3384225A - Sterile package wrap for gloves - Google Patents

Description

May 21, 1968 N. H. NYE

STERILE PACKAGE WRAP FOR GLOVES 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed March 29, 1965 v K? 3 6 m F vv J 7 v a ,3

INVENTOR. NORMAN H. NYE

BY am a 02% ATTYS.

United States Patent 3,384,225 STERILE PACKAGE WRAP FOR GLOVES Norman H. Nye, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, assignor to Menypac Corporation, Akron, Ghio, a corporation of Ohio Continuation-impart of application Ser. No. 411,781, Nov. 17, 1964. This application Mar. 29, 1965, Ser. No. 443,565

2 Claims. (Cl. 206-632) ABSTRACT OF THE DICLOSURE A package for surgical gloves and the like which comprises an inner sheet folded to comprise a package enclosing a pair of surgical gloves which has an opening flap on the top surface thereof to enable opening of the folded sheet to expose the gloves without contaminating the gloves, and an outer sheet slightly larger than the inner sheet folded around the inner sheet when it is in packaged form to hold the sheet in position, where the outer sheet has an opening flap substantially aligned with the opening flap of the inner sheet, and where the package can be handled and stored without any danger of contaminating the gloves contained therein once they have been properly sterilized.

The present invention is a continuation in part of my prior application Ser. No. 411,781, filed Nov. 17, 1964, now abandoned.

The present invention relates to packages for surgical gloves and the like.

Heretofore, it has been customary in many instances to provide a pair of rubber latex or other surgical gloves that are sold and distributed in a package, which gloves normally are used only once and then discarded. Obviously with many thousands of these gloves being used daily, it is an appreciable production problem to not only make these surgical gloves, but to package them in a manner for shipment and ultimate use, the gloves usually being sterilized in their packages at some time before they are used.

U.S. Patent No. 3,107,786 shows one type of a surgical glove package that is in relatively wide commercial use at the present time. In this package, an inner wrap is provided by a relatively elongate rectangular sheet that has the ends thereof folded inwardly upon themselves to cover a pair of gloves that are juxtaposed in longitudinally spaced relation on the elongate inner wrap or sheet. Then an outer sheet, which is of generally diamond shape, is manually folded around the inner wrap and the two gloves are superimposed by an ultimate longitudinal fold of the outer wrap and the inner wrap and glove contents.

The general object of the present invention is to provide a novel and improved package for surgical gloves and the like, and to provide novel package forming blanks that can be secured around a pair of gloves, to provide an outer wrap that can be opened without contacting an inner wrap around the packaged articles.

A further object of the invention is to provide a surgical glove package made from sections of longitudinally extending wrapper strips that have been folded to provide some longitudinally extending fold lines therein.

Another object of the invention is to provide an improved glove package that can be formed inexpensively and which is adapted to provide conveniently opened sterile packaged surgical gloves at minimum expense.

The foregoing and other objects and advantages of the invention will be made more apparent as the specification proceeds.

Attention now is particularly directed to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

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FIG. 1 is a plan view of a completed package embodying the principles of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the package of FIG. 1 with the package being partially opened to expose the outer sheet of the package;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged vertical section taken on line 3--3 of FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a plan view of the package of FIG. 2 after the outer wrapping sheet has been opened and the inner package has been folded from a compact closed position to partially open condition for ready access to the contents of the inner wrap;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary enlarged vertical section taken on line 55 of FIG. 4; and

FIG. 6 is a plan view, similar to FIG. 4 of a modification of the invention showing an opened outer sheet and a partly opened inner sheet.

Broadly speaking, the present invention relates to a generally rectangular package means for surgical gloves and the like, which package comprises a rectangular inner sheet that is folded back upon itself at its lateral edges to overlap at the center of the package and form top and bottom layers with gloves received therebetween, which inner sheet has an opening flap on the exposed surface thereof at the overlapped areas thereof, a generally rectangular outer sheet enclosing the inner sheet by transversely extending overlapped sections folded in from its lateral margins with a longitudinally extending opening flap b..- ing accessible and provided on the upper surface thereof, said outer sheet being folded on itself from top to bottom thereof, and adhesive means retaining the outer sheet in a releasable folded position encompassing the inner sheet and the contents thereof.

When referring to corresponding members shown in the drawings and described in the specification, corresponding numerals are used to facilitate comparison therebetween.

Reference now is particularly directed to the details of this structure shown in the accompanying drawings, and a novel surgical glove package of the invention is indicated as a whole by the numeral 1. This package receives a pair of conventional rubber latex or other gloves 2 and 3 therein. FIGURE 4 of the drawings shows that a rectangular inner sheet 4 is provided in the package and that the gloves 2 and 3 are positioned to extend longitudinally of this inner sheet 4 at the center thereof. Side portions 5 and 6, respectively, of the inner sheet 4 are folded in over the gloves 2 and 3 to overlap at the center of the package. The inner sheet 4 is approximately four times the height of the individual gloves as laid out in flat positions on the inner sheet 4 whereby the inner sheet will cover the gloves 2 and 3 and can be folded transversely thereover. It should be noted that the edge 5a of the portion 5 of this inner sheet is folded outwardly back upon itself to provide the flap 5a to facilitate opening the inner sheet without touching the contents thereof. The inner sheet 4 and the gloves therein are usually manually folded into a complete package 4a when operatively placed on an outer sheet for final wrapping.

An outer rectangular sheet 7 is provided in the package 1 and, as a feature of the invention, this outer sheet 7 has transversely extending marginal portions 8 and 9 folded back upon the center portion of the sheet 7. An edge' 8a of the portion 8 is folded out and back on the portion 8 to form an opening flap or section to facilitate access to the contents of the package 1 while retaining the contents thereof completely sterile.

FIG. 4 of the drawings shows that the inner sheet and associated gloves are positioned substantially centrally of the outer sheet 7 and with the longitudinal axis of the inner sheet 4 being parallel to and preferably coinciding with the longitudinal axis of the outer sheet 7 and with the transverse axes of these sheets being parallel and preferably being superimposed. The unit formed from the inner sheet is positioned in one of the fold sections to be provided in the outer sheet.

Usually the inner sheet 4 and its contents will be manually or automatically folded or prepared to form the side portions 5 and 6 and the flap 5a thereon, and the prepared, completely folded unit can either be manually or automatically positioned upon the outer sheet in the central area thereof, as indicated. As a part of the inner wrap, side portions 5 and 6 are folded in over the gloves 2 and 3 at the fold or score lines 13 and 14. Then the gloves are brought into superimposed relation by folding a lower section 15 of the sheet up over a lower center section 16 of the sheet. A completely enclosed inner package is provided by suitably folding an upper center section 17 and an upper edge section 18 over and around the lower center section 16 and the lower section 15.

The outer sheet 7 as shown in FIG. 4, is substantially twice as wide as the package prepared of the inner sheet 4 and gloves 2 and 3 so that when its side portions 8 and 9 are folded inwardly on the fold lines 19 and 20 upon the inner sheet 4 and its contents, the gloves are completely enclosed.

To complete the package 1 of the invention, the partial ly formed package, as shown in FIG. 2, then has its bottom section 21 folded up over the adjacent lower center section 22, after which the outer sheet 7 and the assembly so formed is folded over an upper center section 23 and an upper section 24 to completely enclose the inner sheet 4 and the package in. Thereafter, the package 1 can be completed and the section 24 can be retained in its folded position by some conventional member, such as a strip or tab 25 that has a conventional pressure sensitive adhesive provided thereon whereby the package 1 of the invention is formed but with the contents thereof being readily available and being presented for use by merely opening the package 1 by pulling the adhesive tape 25 free, and then unfolding the sections 8 and 9 of the outer sheet. FIG. 3 best shows that the section 9 overlaps and is on top of the section 8 so that the inner edge of the section 9 can be grasped and lifted so that the edge or flap 8a is exposed and both sections 8 and 9 of the outer sheet can be folded outwardly with no contact with the inner package. Next, another person, such as a sterile nurse, can unfold the inner package 1a and open it first by the top edge section 6 and next by the edge or flap 5:: with no contact with the gloves 2 and 3 that are presented in sterile form for use by a doctor or other person.

In the embodiment of the invention shown in FIG. 6, the top and bottom edges of both an inner sheet 4a and an outer sheet 7a are of zigzag shape. Otherwise, the sheets 4a and 7a are similar to the sheets 4 and 7 and have similar opening flaps 5a and 8a therein. A subassembly provided by the inner sheet in and the gloves received therein has a generally diamond shaped upper portion 18a in the partially formed assembly, and an indented V-shaped lower section 15:: at the opposite longitudinal margin of the partially folded inner sheet. Then by merely folding this inner sheet one more time longitudinally upon itself, an inner enclosure is provided. The final package assembly can be produced by then folding the outer sheet 7a around the inner package.

It should be noted that the packaging materials of the invention can be associated with a pair of rubber gloves, or the like, at any desired time. Thus, if the rubber gloves are of the type that can be reused, then the packaging material would be provided to the hospital or other using organization, at which place the gloves would be packaged in the manner disclosed. Then the packaged gloves would be subjected to suitable sterilization action so that the gloves could be presented to a surgeon or other sterile person in completely sterile, untouched form and with no possible contamination of the gloves by any person opening the package of the invention.

In my other application Ser. No. 411,781, it is a feature of the invention that the inner and/or outer sheets of the packaging material are each provided with an outwardly folded edge section similar'to the flaps or edge sections 5a and 8a disclosed herein, at each margin of the sheets. Such outwardly open flaps on the sheets are available for grasping action to open the outer and/or inner sheet without any possible contact with the contents of the package, or of any contact with the inner sheet and its contents when the outer sheet is being opened. Hence, in practice of the present invention, it is preferred to use the overlapped sheet construction as shown herein, but if desired, the overlapped edge portions of the outer and inner sheets as shown could be replaced by bending or folding the overlapping edge of the sheet outwardly back upon itself to provide a package opening means like that shown in my prior application. However, the sheets may be of such size that the folded over edges may abut or overlap each other when the side or end portions of the sheet are folded in to overlap the packaged article or the inner sheet.

The inwardly folded edge sections of the sheets may overlap at any central area of the sheets.

An end portion of the tab 25 can be folded back on itself at 26 to form a suitable member to grasp to facilitate opening the package 1.

It will be realized that any suitable porous papers can be used to form the inner sheet 4 and outer sheet 7. These porous papers are of the type that can be exposed to sterilization conditions without damage. Hence, after the package 1 has been formed, the complete package can be subjected at any suitable time to conventional sterilization procedures, such as being sterilized by heat, or by being exposed to suitable oxidation or sterilization gases.

In view of the foregoing, it is believed that the objects of the invention have been achieved by the provision of a new and improved method of forming a surgical glove package, or the like and to the new package produced.

While two complete embodiments of the invention have been disclosed herein, it will be appreciated that modification of these particular embodiments of the invention may be resorted to without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A rectangular surgical glove package comprising a pair of superimposed gloves,

a generally rectangular inner sheet having transverse and longitudinal axes, said sheet having top and bottom layers with gloves received therebetween substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis, said inner sheet being overlapped on the top layer by edge portions folded in from the sides of the sheet, said inner sheet having an opening flap bent back on itself at the overlapped edge portions, generally rectangular outer sheet larger than said inner sheet enclosing said inner sheet by lateral marginal portions folded in on said inner sheet and by top and bottom portions of such folded sheet being folded in and around said inner sheet, said outer sheet being overlapped on a top layer formed therein by edge portions folded in from the sides of the sheet, said outer sheet having an opening flap pro vided in its top layer, said sheets being positioned with the longitudinal axes thereof substantially superimposed and folded at least twice from top to bottom to form a package about the width of the superimposed gloves, and means retaining said outer sheet in a releasable folded position whereby said outer sheet can be opened without any contact with said inner sheet, which inner sheet can be opened without any contact with said gloves.

2. A rectangular surgical glove package comprising a pair of gloves,

a generally elongated rectangular inner sheet which has top and bottom layers with gloves received therebetween substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the sheet, said inner sheet being overlapped on the top layer by the edge portions folded in from the short sides of the sheet, said inner sheet having an opening flap bent uniformly back on itself adjacent the edge of one of the short sides so overlapping of the edge portions extends substantially only the width of the opening flap, and being folded at least two times from top to bottom to enclose said gloves completely,

a generally elongated rectangular outer sheet which has top and bottom layers with the folded inner sheet received therebetween substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of its sheet, said outer sheet being overlapped on the top layer by edge portions folded in from the short sides of the sheet, said outer sheet having an opening flap bent uniformly back on itself adjacent the edge of one of the short sides so overlapping of the edge portions extends substantially only the width of the opening flap, and being folded at least two times from top to bottom to enclose said inner sheet completely, and means retaining said outer sheet in a releasable folded position whereby said outer sheet can be opened without any contact with said inner sheet, which inner sheet can be opened without any contact with said gloves.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,062,371 11/ 1962 Patience 206-632 3,072,249 1/ 1963 Tritsch 20663.2 3,107,786 10/ 1963 Adelman 206-632 3,225,920 12/1965 Reilly 206--63.2

FOREIGN PATENTS 15,724 1910 Great Britain.

MARTHA L. RICE, Primary Examiner.

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