Patent Number: 052992438
Section: summary

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to a glove holder unit for a confinement enclosure, better known under the name glove box. A confinement enclosure is a chamber having tight, rigid walls and generally having a transparent glass plate making it possible to see from the outside into the enclosure. The enclosure is provided with several orifices in each of which is fixed a glove. Technicians using this confinement enclosure make use of these gloves in order to work within the enclosure and for manipulating various toxic or radioactive products. Consequently, it is essential that such enclosures are tight in order to prevent any pollution to the outside. Once the gloves have become worn, they have to be replaced while still maintaining the seal of the enclosure. The conventionally used gloves are in one piece and have a length of approximately 70 to 80 cm covering the hand, forearm and part of the arm of the user. These gloves and in particular the part protecting the hand very rapidly become worn and have a very limited life, because they are used in a nitric and/or a radioactive medium. The replacement of these gloves creates a significant quantity of waste. For illustration only, knowing that a glove has a total weight of approximately 250 g and that on average 500 gloves are used every year in a production unit, there is a waste weight of approximately 125 kg. In addition, it is expensive to replace these gloves, because it is necessary to change the entire glove, whereas only the end part protecting the hand is generally damaged or worn. Moreover, it would be of interest to use gloves in two parts, with a first part protecting the arm and a second part only protecting the hand. The second part could be made from different materials and have a thickness, a strength, a shape and dimensions differing as a function of the applications or users for which it is intended. Thus, the user could work with hand protecting gloves of extreme thinness, like the gloves used by surgeons for precise and difficult handling operations, while using thick gloves for manipulations requiring a special protection, but where no adroitness is required. At present this is difficult to put into practice, because it is often necessary to replace the entire glove. In order to solve the problem of waste and the replacement of worn gloves, U.S. Pat. No. 4,141,609 discloses a glove holder unit comprising a sleeve for protecting the arm and the forearm, which is equipped with bellows and a hand protecting glove, said glove being fitted to the protective sleeve by detachable fixing means. Each detachable glove is fixed to a glove ring or disk cooperating with a ring provided at the end of the bellows-equipped protective sleeve. During the changing of the hand protecting glove, it is necessary to use a special tool for unlocking and separating the glove disk from the end of the bellows-equipped sleeve, in order to introduce a replacement glove also having a glove disk. This device is complex to use and as a result of the need of employing glove disks, the quantity of waste is increased. Moreover, the bellows-equipped sleeve is rigid and limits the movements of the user's arm and forearm. The invention therefore aims at obviating the aforementioned disadvantages. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention therefore relates to a glove holder unit for a confinement enclosure, which has at least one access opening to which is fixed a glove disk, the glove holder unit having a sleeve for protecting the arm and the forearm fixed to said glove disk and a working glove protecting the hand and is equipped with means for assembling with said protective sleeve. According to features of the invention, the protective sleeve is in at least two parts, a first part provided with bellows and a second part made from a flexible material and which can fold or bend within said first part and the glove holder unit according to the invention has means for locking the assembly means of the glove and the protective sleeve, said locking means being mobile between a locked position in which they maintain the assembly means and the glove outside the enclosure and an unlocked position in which they allow the passage of the glove and its assembly means between the interior and exterior of the enclosure. Advantageously, the means for assembling the glove and the protective sleeve incorporates a glove holder bracelet provided at the end of said sleeve is and able to cooperate with an O-ring provided on the glove and the locking means has at least two elements which can be assembled to one another around the enclosure glove disk, each of the said elements having a circular arc-shaped shoulder able to receive at least a part of said glove holder bracelet and lock the same when said elements are assembled in the locked position. Thus, the locking means makes it possible to maintain the glove outside the enclosure without the user having to hold it and without the glove being sucked into the interior of the enclosure as a result of the vacuum prevailing therein. The glove disk is correctly positioned facing the user and the latter can easily fit the second replacement glove around the first. Preferably, the first part provided with the bellows of the protective sleeve ensures the protection of the arm and the second part of said sleeve made from flexible material protects the user's forearm and elbow. Thus, as a result of these characteristics according to the invention, the movements of the user are facilitated, because he can much more easily bend the elbow. Moreover, the glove holder unit according to the invention has means for closing the first part of the sleeve making it possible to insulate said first part from the interior of the enclosure and maintain the second part of the sleeve within the first part. The second flexible material part can be bent within the first bellows-equipped part, which was not the case in U.S. Pat. No. 4,141,609, as a result of the rigidity of the material used for producing the entire protective sleeve. Thus, the sealing means makes it possible when the user takes the protective glove from the hand outside the enclosure, to prevent the flexible part of the sleeve from being sucked into the interior of the enclosure, due to the vacuum prevailing therein. Thus, said flexible part does not accidentally come into contact with a heat source or an aggressive or corrosive product located within the enclosure. Advantageously, the closing or sealing means comprise a ring placed on the protective sleeve, at the junction between the first bellows-equipped part and the second flexible part and a plug equipped with fixing means on the said ring. Advantageously, the fixing means is a tap and the ring is threaded on its outer surface. As a result of this arrangement, the rigid bellows-equipped part remains within the enclosure, while the flexible part can easily bend at the connection to the sealing ring to be brought into the interior of said bellows.