Patent ID: 7900282
Filing Date: 2011-03-08
Classification: A41D

Abstract:
1. An inflatable protective device to be worn by a user as a garment for the protection of a torso of the user against shocks and impacts, the device includes: a first, flexible high-strength PVC sheet having a perimeter edge; a second, flexible high-strength PVC sheet having a perimeter edge; the first and second sheets being thermally bonded together at their perimeter edges to entrap a volume of air and enclose a single air chamber, the device only having the single air chamber and not having more air chambers than the single air chamber, the first and second sheets defining the outer boundary of the single air chamber with each of the first and second sheets having an exterior side facing the external ambient atmosphere and an interior side facing the air chamber; a inflating adaptor end located on one of the first and second sheets for permitting air flow into the single air chamber for entrapment of the volume of air within the single air chamber, the entrapped air can only pass through the inflating adaptor end and cannot otherwise pass through the first and second sheets to effect the entrapment, and the entrapment of the volume of air provides for the chamber to filled with air and not filled with non-air material; and a plurality of walls of flexible high-strength PVC material located completely within the single air chamber bounded by the first and second sheets and exposed only to the air that is entrapped within the single air chamber and not exposed to the external ambient atmosphere, each wall is a separate member from the first and second sheets, each wall having a first portion thermally bonded to the interior side of the first sheet and a second portion thermally bonded to the interior side of the second sheet, each of the walls is sized so has to not extend to bisect the single air chamber into multiple air chambers and to permit flow of the entrapped air within the single air chamber past the respective wall.