REMOVABLE HANDLE COVER WRAPPABLE AROUND A BAR

Disclosed is a removable handle cover device for wrapping around a bar to prevent a user's hands to be in direct contact with the bar. The handle cover comprises at least one piece of material wrappable around a handle bar, one or more spring steel elements, and a releasing mechanism for quickly removing the handle cover from the bar. The device is operative to be quickly installed and removed from the handle bar by the user with a single action, while physically isolating the user's hands from the bar. The handle cover is able to prevent the user from being exposed to contaminants on or to contaminate the surface of the bar by increasing the efficacy in the implementation and performance of proven healthy practices, reducing the risk of contamination with and spreading of contagious diseases.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present disclosure relates generally to health protection devices. More particularly, the present invention relates to removable protective coverings wrappable around a bar for preventing a user's hands from being in direct contact with the bar.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A number of health protection devices and practices have been disclosed within various industries for preventing a person from touching a potentially contaminated surface or contaminating such surface. In particular, covering a surface or wearing a personal protective equipment, such as gloves, can help in reducing the risk of a person touching a surface. However, in certain situations, surfaces are exposed or the surface covers may be contaminated. In addition, people may not carry personal protective equipment all the time.

The main risk of either contaminating a surface or touching a contaminated surface is related to people touching their faces before or after touching a surface. Notably, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and health organizations worldwide have issued guidelines for people not touching their faces and cleaning their hands frequently, especially after touching potentially contaminated surfaces. Specifically, the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) has clearly established that to help prevent infections, people should keep their hands away from their eyes, nose, and mouth. When people touch contaminated surfaces, or others who are sick, their hands can get contaminated with germs. Despite the issued guidelines for people to avoid touching their face with potentially contaminated hands and those for washing their hands frequently, APIC has noted that it is estimated that people touch their face about 23 times per hour, and the germs on their hands can take up residence in their mucosa membranes, causing infections, including pneumonia, flu, or COVID-19. The reason is that for most people touching their face is an unconscious act, which leads to the risk for people to contaminate themselves or others.

One common instance in which people touches a surface with high risk of contamination is when handling shopping carts. Other instances include people touching the handle of carrying containers or bags, exercise or weightlifting bars, and seat frames. Typically, the handle bar of shopping carts is touched by dozens of different people every day, which exponentially increases the risk of the handles become contaminated. Moreover, despite efforts of cleaning the handle bars of shopping carts, there is still a risk for the handle bar to remain contaminated due to defective cleaning or the use of inadequate cleaners. Specifically, the use of protective coverings associated with the use of a shopping cart handle bar has been addressed in the prior art, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,715,571 to Fasano. However, these efforts have been aimed to provide an apparatus primarily developed for protecting an infant mouth's from a shopping cart handle and for facilitating entertainment for the infant during shopping. In particular, this attempt is made to use a protective cover having an attachment means for attaching overlapped lateral portions of the cover to secure the cover when it is wrapped around the bar. Moreover, the cover comprises apparatuses for both securing toys and supporting bottles for the infant.

Additional efforts have been made to get more comfortable hand grip onto a handle bar, such as a handlebar of a baby stroller, bicycles, weightlifting bars, or golf clubs. However, handlebar grips are generally fixed onto the handlebar and cannot be replaced by the user. In general, most removable handlebar grip assemblies require either access to at least one open end of the handlebar or complex securing mechanisms employing screws and other types of fasteners, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,263,759 to Hollingsworth et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 6,615,687 to Bendetti et al. However an open end of the handle bar is not always possible for applications such as a handlebar of a shopping cart, a baby stroller, or carrying containers or bags. Removable hand grips are known that can be attached around a handle bar without the need for having an open end, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,511,445 to Hildebrandt, but these grips may move to undesired positions over time, resulting ineffective for their intended purpose. Another recent attempt has been made to provide a removable hand grip for a handlebar which does not move and is easier to attach to the handlebar, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 10,532,758 to Barenbrug et al. However, this solution still requires at least two coupling elements comprising one or more protrusions arranged to be inserted into one or more holes or recesses of the bar.

Thus, there still remains a need in the art for practical, effective, and quickly and easily installable and removable protective devices capable of preventing a person to physically touch potentially contaminated surfaces, such as a the surface of a handlebar that avoid the problems of prior art devices.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A removable handle cover device for wrapping around a bar to prevent a user's hands to be in direct contact with the bar is disclosed herein. One or more aspects of exemplary embodiments provide advantages while avoiding disadvantages of the prior art. The handle cover comprises at least one piece of material wrappable around a handle bar, one or more spring steel elements, and a releasing mechanism for quickly removing the handle cover from the bar. The device is operative to be quickly installed and removed from the handle bar by the user with a single action, while physically isolating the user's hands from the bar. The handle cover is able to prevent the user from being exposed to contaminants on or to contaminate the surface of the bar by increasing the efficacy in the implementation and performance of proven healthy practices, reducing the risk of contamination with and spreading of contagious diseases. Moreover, the removable handle cover device is able to provide a firm hand grip for a bar, while being compact, lightweight, reliable, and customizable with multiple looks and patterns. In addition, the device is susceptible of low cost to consumers.

In particular, the removable handle cover device comprises a flexible material, which may include a fabric, cloth, foam, plastic, padding, or the like, that is wrappable around a handle bar. The device further comprises a spring-steel element attached to the flexible material. The spring-steel element can be quickly and easily activated by the user into a grasping state for wrapping around the bar. Furthermore, the user can quickly and easily release the tension in the spring-steel element by pulling a string element, such that the spring-steel element returns to a deactivated state and the device can be removed from the bar. The string element may be a strip, loop, string, thread, cord, lace, line, cable, wire, chain, and the like, or a combination thereof. The device subject of the present invention, preferably comprises multiple spring-steel elements properly spaced to effectively wrap around a bar of different lengths.

Once installed around a handle bar, such as a shopping cart handle bar, a carrying handle, exercise or weightlifting bars, golf clubs, or a seat frame, the device offers protection to the user by providing a layer of physical isolation between a user's hands and the handle bar. Accordingly, the user is prevented from touching the bar, reducing the user's risk to be exposed to a potentially contaminated surface or to contaminate such surface.

By physically isolating the user's hands from the handle bar, the user is prevented from touching the bar. This prevention ultimately helps the user to comply with proven healthy and safety practices to reduce the risk of contamination with and spreading of contagious diseases. Thus, the apparatus and method allow the user a more effective performance of activities, while contributing to control the spreading of contagious diseases, by reducing the user's exposure and risk to get contaminated or contaminate others.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The following description is of particular embodiments of the invention, set out to enable one to practice an implementation of the invention, and is not intended to limit the preferred embodiment, but to serve as a particular example thereof. Those skilled in the art should appreciate that they may readily use the conception and specific embodiments disclosed as a basis for modifying or designing other methods and systems for carrying out the same purposes of the present invention. Those skilled in the art should also realize that such equivalent assemblies do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention in its broadest form.

FIG. 1shows a top view of a single-spring-steel element handle cover10for wrapping around a bar, in an unwrapped condition, in accordance with a first embodiment, wherein the single-spring-steel element is unassembled. Particularly, handle cover10comprises a piece of an elongated covering element12, having a longer side and a shorter side; a pocket14disposed approximately at the middle section of covering element12along the shorter side of covering element12and having a longer side and a shorter side; a grasping mechanism further comprising a spring-steel element, such as a strip16, that at least partly inserts into pocket14and may be capable to activate a grasp of covering element12for wrapping around the bar; and a releasing mechanism further comprising a pullable string element18capable to deactivate the grasp of spring-steel element16. Preferably, spring-steel element strip16fully inserts into pocket14.

Covering element12may be able to wrap around a handle bar disposed along the side substantially perpendicular to spring-steel element strip16. In this particular configuration, covering element12wraps along its shorter dimension to be able to grasp a bar having a periphery of a length in which spring-steel element strip16is capable to attach to the bar. Preferably, the length of the periphery of the bar is smaller than the length of the shorter side of elongated covering element12. More preferably, the length of the periphery of the bar is equal to the length of the shorter side of elongated covering element12. However, for bar periphery lengths larger than the length of the shorter side of elongated covering element12, handle cover may still grasp the bar, especially if the spring-steel element strip16length is at least one half of the periphery length of the bar. In general, spring-steel element16has two states, a first deactivated state in which spring-element16is in a resting position, and a second activated state in which spring-steel element16is exerting a force, while bending at its middle section such that its ends get closer to each other.

Furthermore covering element12comprises at least one layer of a flexible component, which may include a fabric, cloth, foam, plastic, padding, or the like. Preferably, covering element12has a rectangular shape and comprises a padded component for providing a comfortable grasp of the bar to a user. More preferably the padded component is embedded in between two layers of another flexible component, such as cloth, to provide a good grip of handle cover10to the bar and by the user. Most preferably, pocket14is disposed approximately at the middle section of covering element12along the shorter side of covering element12, and configured such that spring-steel element strip16can be inserted in pocket14and remains in place during use of handle cover10. Preferably pocket14has dimensions slightly larger than the dimensions of spring-steel element strip16and has an opening for having access to spring-steel element strip16after being inserted into pocket14.

Moreover, a pullable string element18is attached to covering element12on the top side of handle cover10. Preferably, string element18is sewed to covering element12forming a loop approximately at the middle section of pocket14along the shortest side of pocket14. More preferably, string element18forms a closed loop dimensioned such that a finger of a user can be inserted into the loop to pull string element18for deactivating the grasp of spring-steel element16. Deactivation of spring-steel element16occurs by the pulling action of the loop forming string element18, which forces spring-steel element16to change from an activated state to a deactivated state. In addition, string element18can be used as a handle to remove handle cover10, without touching any potentially contaminated surface of the bar, using just a finger.

Those skilled in the art will realize that alternatively spring-steel element strip16may be attached to material layer12, such that a single layer of covering element12may be used and there is no need of having pocket14to implement handle cover10. Likewise, those versed in the art will recognize that string element18may be alternatively secured by gluing, stitching, fastening, embroidering, or inserting it through an opening in pocket14or in covering element12. Likewise, a hook-and-loop fastener, such as a Velcro type can be used to attach string element18to covering element12or to secure any component of handle cover10or an external component, such as a sensor, a device, a pocket, or a holder, to handle cover10.

During normal use, handle cover10can be quickly installed by placing covering element12along its longest dimension over a bar. Then a user slightly can bend spring-steel element strip16by pushing the ends of spring-steel element strip16towards the bar, using only two fingers, in order to activate the grasping state of spring-steel element strip16and wrap handle cover10around the bar. As a result, the user is able to grasp the bar, while handle cover10physically isolates the user's hand from the bar. This prevents the user's hand from touching the bar and reduces the risk of contamination with and spreading of contagious diseases. Likewise, the user can quickly remove handle cover10from the bar by inserting a finger in and pulling the loop formed by string element18, which releases the tension in spring-steel element strip16, such that spring-steel element strip16returns to the deactivated state.

Those skilled in the art will realize that alternatively designs, decorations, or themes may be incorporated into at least part of covering element12, using transparent or non-transparent materials. In addition, covering element12may have various shapes other than rectangular, including squared, circular, elliptical, triangular, and irregular shapes. Moreover, handle cover10may further comprise one or more sections of a foldable lip along a part of at least one edge of handle cover10to allow an extension of the dimensions of handle cover10to cover a longer or wider handle bar.

In accordance with a second embodiment,FIG. 2shows a top view of a multiple-spring-steel elements handle cover20for wrapping around a bar, in an unwrapped condition, wherein the multiple-spring-steel elements are unassembled. In particular, handle cover20comprises an elongated covering element22, having a longer side and a shorter side; a plurality of pockets24a,24b,24c,and24ddisposed along the shorter side of covering element22; a plurality of spring-steel strips26a,26b,26c,and26dthat at least partly insert into pockets24a,24b,24c,and24d,respectively, and are capable to activate a grasp of covering element22for wrapping around the bar; and a set of pullable string elements28aand28bcapable to deactivate the grasp of spring-steel element16. Covering element22has a middle section and two end sections at opposite ends of the middle section. Preferably, pocket24aand spring-steel strip26aand pocket24dand spring-steel strip26dare disposed approximately at each of the two end sections of covering element22. Likewise, pockets24b,24cand spring-steel strips26b,26care disposed at the middle section of covering element22. More preferably, pockets24a,24b,24c,24dand spring-steel strips26a,26b,26c,26dare disposed evenly distributed along the shorter side of covering element22.

Covering element22may be able to wrap around a handle bar disposed along the side substantially perpendicular to spring-steel element strips26a,26b,26c,26d.In this particular configuration, covering element22wraps along its shorter dimension to be able to grasp a bar having a periphery of a length in which spring-steel element strip26a,26b,26c,26dmay be capable to attach to the bar. Moreover, a user may be able to grasp handle cover20with both hands.

Furthermore, covering element22comprises at least one layer of a flexible component, which may include a fabric, cloth, foam, plastic, padding, or the like, or a combination thereof. Preferably, covering element22comprises a padded component for providing a comfortable grasp of the bar to a user. More preferably the padded component is embedded in between two layers of another flexible component, such as cloth, to provide a good grip of handle cover20to the bar and to the user. Most preferably, pockets24a,24b,24c,24dare configured such that spring-steel element strips26a,26b,26c,26dcan be inserted in pockets24a,24b,24c,24d, respectively, and remain in place during use of handle cover20. Preferably pockets24a,24b,24c,24dhave dimensions slightly larger than the dimensions of spring-steel element strips26a,26b,26c,26d,and each has an opening for having access to spring-steel element strips26a,26b,26c,26dafter being inserted into pockets24a,24b,24c,24d.

Moreover, pullable string elements28a,28bare attached to covering element22on the top side of handle cover20. Preferably, string elements28a,28bare sewed to covering element22forming a loop approximately at the middle section of and along the shortest side of pockets24a,24d,respectively. More preferably, string elements28a,28bform a closed loop dimensioned such that a finger of a user can be inserted into the loop to pull string elements28a,28bfor deactivating the grasp of spring-steel elements26a,26b,26c,26d.In this particular configuration, handle cover20may be quickly installed around a bar by slightly bending spring-steel elements26a,26b,26c,26dtowards the bar using two fingers. However, the user can quickly remove handle cover20from the bar by inserting a finger in and slightly pulling either loop formed by string element28aor string element28b,without touching any potential contaminated surface.

Those skilled in the art will realize that handle cover20may be split into two separate parts at its middle section along the shortest side, such that each part can be installed around a bar at a variable distance from each other. This will allow handle cover20to be installed in a bar having a smaller section available. Specifically for installing handle cover20in a shopping cart handle bar in which the handle bar is connected to another structure and has not an open end, resulting in the inability of installing handle cover20as a single unit as described in reference toFIG. 2. Additionally, these two parts may be connected or not by a string or the like. Moreover, these two parts might be detachable such that handle cover may be used as a single unit or as two separate units. Moreover, handle cover20may comprise multiple detachable sections, wherein each of these sections is individually capable of wrapping around a bar and attachable to at least another of these sections.

According to a third embodiment,FIG. 3shows a cross-sectional side view of a handle cover30along its longest dimension, comprising a layer of an inner covering element32disposed in between two layers of an outer material33aand33bdisposed at opposite sides of inner covering element32. Additionally, handle cover30further comprises a plurality of pockets34a,34b,34c,and34d,disposed along the shorter side of handle cover30; a plurality of spring-steel strips36a,36b,36c,and36dthat at least partly insert into pockets34a,34b,34c,and34d, respectively, and are capable to activate a grasp of handle cover30for wrapping around the bar; and a set of pullable string elements38aand38b,attached to outer material33a,for deactivating the grasp of spring-steel strips36a,36b,36c,36d.

In this particular configuration, inner covering element32comprises a flexible component, which may include a fabric, stuff, cloth, foam, plastic, padding, or the like, or a combination thereof. Preferably, inner covering element32comprises a padded component for providing a comfortable grasp of the bar to a user. More preferably, the padded component of covering element32is embedded in between two layers of outer material33a,33b,which comprises a flexible component, such as cloth, to provide an improved grip of handle cover30to the bar and to the user. Most preferably, pockets34a,34b,34c,34dare configured such that spring-steel element strips36a,36b,36c,36dcan be inserted in pockets34a,34b,34c,34d, respectively, and remain in place during use of handle cover30. Preferably pockets34a,34b,34c,34dhave dimensions slightly larger than the dimensions of spring-steel element strips36a,36b,36c,36d,and each has an opening for having access to spring-steel element strips36a,36b,36c,36dafter being inserted into pockets34a,34b,34c,34d.

Moreover, pullable string elements38a,38bare attached to outer material33aon the top side of handle cover30. Preferably, string elements38a,38bare sewed to outer material33aforming a loop approximately at the middle section of and along the shortest side of pockets34a,34d,respectively. More preferably, string elements38a,38bform a closed loop dimensioned such that a finger of a user can be inserted into the loop to pull string elements38a,38bfor deactivating the grasp of spring-steel elements36a,36b,36c,36d.In this particular configuration, handle cover30may be quickly installed around a bar by slightly bending spring-steel elements36a,36b,36c,36dtowards the bar using two fingers. However, the user can quickly remove handle cover30from the bar by inserting a finger in and slightly pulling either loop formed by string element38aor string element38b,without touching the potentially contaminated bar.

FIG. 4shows a perspective view of a handle cover40in a wrapped condition, corresponding to spring-steel elements (not shown) being in an activated state. Handle cover40comprises an covering element42, which wraps around forming a cylindrical or tubular section with no caps. In this wrapped condition, handle cover40defines a circumference44, corresponding to a circular cross-section of a cylinder, corresponding to a handle bar. Preferably, the length of circumference44is larger than a periphery of a cross-section of a handle bar (not shown) around which handle cover40would be wrapping. More preferably, the length of circumference44is equal to the length of the periphery of the cross-section of the handle bar (not shown) around which handle cover40would be wrapping. However, for a length of circumference44smaller than the periphery of the cross-section of the handle bar (not shown) around which handle cover40would be wrapping, handle cover40may grasp the handle bar (not shown), as described in reference toFIG. 1. Those versed in the art will realize that the cross-section of a handle bar may have other shapes than circular, including elliptical, rectangular, or irregular. Accordingly, handle cover40may be able to at least partly wrap around such handle bars to provide physical isolation between a user's hand and the bar.

In this particular configuration, handle cover40further comprises two pull string elements46aand46bfor quickly releasing handle cover40from a wrapped condition or activated state to an unwrapped condition or deactivated state and allowing the removal of handle cover40from the handle bar without touching any potentially contaminated surface.

The removable handle cover wrappable around a bar for physically isolating a user's hands from such bar has been disclosed herein in an illustrative manner, and it is to be understood that the terminology which has been used is intended to be in a descriptive rather than in a limiting nature. Any embodiment herein disclosed may include one or more aspects of the other embodiments. Those skilled in the art will recognize that many modifications and variations of the invention are possible in light of the above teachings.