Disposable garment and donning system
View Patent ↗A donning system allows a user to don disposable garments without contaminating the exterior of the garment. The disposable garment is part of a garment package, which also includes a cuff by which the garment is loaded into and dispensed from the donning system. The cuff includes elements whereby multiple garments are simultaneously loaded, but the garments are dispensed and donned one at a time. The donning system can include multiple cartridges allowing the user to don multiple garments simultaneously, such as right and left gloves or shoe covers. The donning system can include multiple chambers allowing the system to dispense garments of different sizes.
1. A donning system comprising:
a screw drive including at least one shaft, each shaft having a threaded portion and a non-threaded portion; and
an advancement gear drive adjacent the one or more shafts;
wherein the screw drive is adapted to receive a plurality of garment packages, each garment package including a respective cuff, each cuff including:
at least one tab,
at least one engagement hole, each of the at least one engagement holes formed through a respective one of the at least one tabs,
at least one tooth, each of the at least one teeth formed on an end of a respective one of the at least one tabs, and
at least one break-off element;
wherein each of the at least one engagement holes meshes with a threaded portion of a respective one of the at least one shafts; and
wherein the advancement gear drive is adapted to mesh with a respective tooth of a respective cuff to thereby dispense one of the plurality of garment packages at a time.
2. The donning system of claim 1 further comprising a motor assembly operatively coupled to the screw drive, the motor assembly adapted to rotate the at least one shaft of the screw drive.
3. The donning system of claim 2 further comprising a touch sensor adapted to sense a touch of a garment package, the touch sensor adapted to cause the motor assembly to stop rotating the at least one shaft of the screw drive when the garment package touches the touch sensor.
4. The donning system of claim 1 further comprising:
a blower adapted to create a stream of pressurized gas; and
a gas nozzle adapted to receive the stream of pressurized gas, the gas nozzle adapted to direct the stream of pressurized gas toward a cuff.
5. The donning system of claim 4 further comprising a proximity sensor adapted to sense a nearness of a user, the proximity sensor causing the blower to create the stream of pressurized gas when the user is near and inhibiting the blower from creating the stream of pressurized gas when the user is not near.
6. The donning system of claim 1 ,
wherein the screw drive includes at least two pairs of shafts;
wherein the first pair of the at least two pairs of shafts is adapted to receive a plurality of garment packages including corresponding garments of a first size; and
wherein the second pair of the at least two pairs of shafts is adapted to receive a plurality of garment packages including corresponding garments of a second size different from the first size.
7. The donning system of claim 6 , wherein a spacing between the first pair of the at least two pairs of shafts is different than a spacing between the second pair of the at least two pairs of shafts.
8. The donning system of claim 1 ,
wherein the screw drive includes at least one pair of shafts; and
wherein a first pair of the at least one pair of shafts is adapted to vary a distance between the first pair of the at least one pair of shafts.
9. The donning system of claim 1 ,
wherein the screw drive includes two pairs of shafts;
wherein the first pair of the two pairs of shafts is adapted to receive a plurality of garment packages including corresponding garments for a right-side body part; and
wherein the second pair of the two pairs of shafts is adapted to receive a plurality of garment packages including corresponding garments for a left-side body part.
10. A method of operating a donning system, wherein the method comprises the steps of:
loading a garment cartridge into the donning system, the garment cartridge including a plurality of garment packages, each garment package including:
a cuff, the cuff including:
at least one tab;
at least one engagement hole, each of the at least one engagement holes formed through a respective one of the at least one tabs,
at least one tooth, each of the at least one teeth formed on an end of a respective one of the at least one tabs, and
at least one break-off element; and
a garment;
advancing, by an advancement gear, a first garment package onto a threaded portion of a screw drive;
moving the first garment package across at least part of the threaded portion of the screw drive;
at least partially inflating with pressurized gas a garment of the first garment package; and
releasing a cuff of the first garment package from the screw drive.