Abstract:
A device for conducting away urine and excrera to be used by a person relieving him or herself, consisting of sheet material having a top portion ( 11 ) with an inlet opening ( 12 ) and a bottom portion ( 11   a ) with a discharge opening ( 14 ) and a surface area ( 21 ) having coated theron an adhesive substance ( 19 ) to facilitate the opening of inlet ( 12 ). Further, the device is useful for the disposal of excrements by a being particularly a human having an artificial intestinal or urethral orifice.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to a device can be to be used for conducting away urine and excreta by a person relieving him or herself, said device assembled from a sheets of web material to form funnel shaped hose structure having cop and bottom portions with inlet and discharge openings thereat, respectively. 
     The present invention was devised to serve persons who for whichever reason wish to urinate while standing up or to empty a device such as a stomal collection bag (stoma bag) as discrietly as possible. Due to the free fall height and the dispersion angle, which is difficult to control, the substance to be evacuated often sprays and splashes about in the form of droplets that end up outside the toilet bowl or on the user&#39;s clothes. 
     2. Background Art 
     DE 43 43 789 C2 discloses a urine discharge device comprising a flexible hose member having openings at both ends and made of a material which dissolves in water at least partly and with some delay. This urine discharge device in hose form has a funnel shaped inlet, manual holding means at the top as well as a discharge opening in its bottom portion. 
     DE 44 43 182 C2 discloses a device for accepting and discharging urine from a person particularly a human male relieving himself. This prior device comprises a flexible hose element made of a sheet of a web material such as paper folded to form two superimposed layers and having a manual holding portion, an inlet portion and a discharge portion. A multitude of said layers are integrally connected together in a longitudinal channel at their common front edge in a quasi endless succession, 
     U.S. Pat. 4,608,046 discloses a device for evacuating urine from women which comprises a tube to be introduced in the labia. This tube is flexible in order to con form to the individual user&#39;s physical features. 
     All these above described prior devices present a major problem when the inlet is to be opened. With the device collapsed and flat, the device is space saving and inexpensive to transport and simple to store; in contrast, spreading it to open the inlet is complicated as the user usually has only one free hand to accomplish the task. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     It is an object of the present invention to provide a device for reducing the fall height of and conducting body excreta of which the inlet opening is easy to open. 
     This object is achieved by a coat of an adhesive substance applied to the surface of the web material in the general region of the inlet opening 
     The aforesaid adhesive substance is provided in the top area adjacent the inlet opening. It extends horizontally and circumferentially in an adhesion area on the surface, whereby the user can rub his or her thumb and index finger against each other to exert on the folded together or collapsed device a force sufficient to form an opening in the inlet area. 
     Beings and particularly humans whose ureter or lower intestine is made by surgery to open at an unnatural location on the body surface often experience major problems when they attempt to dispose their excreta in a controlled and discrete manner. These individuals have had sections of their lower intestine removed by surgery to remove an intestinal cancer. In the process, the intestinal or urethral orifice is artificially relocated on the abdomen and provided with a discharge valve to which a catheter may be connected when needed. This arrangement greatly impedes a dosed discharge of the excreta. 
     The problem can be solved by means of a device consisting of a sheet material which dissolves in water at least partly and with some delay, the device forming a flexible hose with a top portion having an inlet therein and a bottom portion having a discharge opening therein and being used for conducting excrera away from a being&#39;s artificial intestinal or urethral orifice. 
     Further scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given hereinbelow and the accompanying drawings which are given by way of illustration only, and thus are not limitative of the present invention, and wherein: 
     Further advantageous measures are described in the dependent claims. The invention is shown and illustrated in the attached drawing and will be described in greater detail hereinbelow. 
     FIG. 1 is a side view showing the inventive urine conducting device as having a top portion with an inlet opening and a bottom portion with a discharge opening, there also being provided an incision and an adhesion area having an adhesive substance applied thereon; 
     FIG. 2 is a top view showing the urine conducting device of FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 3 is a side view showing the urine conducting device of FIG. 1 with an adhesion area above the incision, but without a front scam; 
     FIG. 4 shows an elevation of an excreta conducting device with folded-up inlet structure; and 
     FIG. 5 shows a side view of an excreta conducting device with the inlet opening folded up and the collection bag to be emptied introduced therein. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     As shown in FIG.  1 . urine conducting device  10  comprises downwardly tapered sheets  16 ,  17 , For forming conducting hose structure  13 , sheets  16 ,  17  are placed on top of each other to be coextensive and are joined along their edges by sections of seam  15 ,  15   a.    
     FIG. 3 shows an embodiment of inventive urine conducting device  10  in which sheets  16 ,  17  are joined along a single seam  15  only at the front This embodiment is very simple and inexpensive to fabricate as joining is needed along one seam only. 
     In its top portion  11 , urin conducting device  10  has an inlet opening  12  therein. Inlet opening  12  is arranged to be angled upwards towards the vertically extending connecting seam  15 , whereby urine conducting device  10  will be oriented away from the user&#39;s body after he has introduced his penis in the device. 
     In its bottom portion  11   a , urine conducting device  10  has a discharge opening  14  from which urine can be directed into a collecting fixture such as a toiler bowl (not shown). 
     In top portion  11  and in the general area of inlet opening  12 , there is provided a horizontal adhesion area  20  coated with an adhesive material  19 . As shown in FIG. 2, adhesion area  20  extends circumferential of surface  21  of device  10 . Adhesion area  20  preferably has the form of a stripe of material. The bonding power of adhesive substance  19  is rather low and merely increases the surface friction in adhesion area  20  relative to the remaining surface  21 . 
     The adhesive material or agent  19  preferably is provided within adhesion area  20 . For use by the end consumer, a great number of urine conducting devices  10  are wound up to form a coil, as is toilet paper, for example, or packed in a box. 
     To keep the individual urine conducting devices from sticking to each other in the package, the adhesive substance should have have dried less than one minute after having been applied and the devices having been packaged. One exemplary adhesive agent  19  having the afore said properties is gumming or a coat of molasses. Coatings of this nature impart resistance to moisture for a certain period of time before finally dissolving without leaving residues. This enables a simple disposal of the inventive devices to be obtained by simply flushing them down a toilet. 
     Another possibility of facilitating the opening of the device at the inlet is to mechanically or chemically roughen surface  21  of sheets  16 ,  17  in the bonding area. This may be accomplished by start grinding these surface portions or by applying a grip imparting liquid to them. 
     A substantially horizontally extending slit or incision  18  is provided to keep moisture and particularly urine from rising in sheets  16 ,  17  as these get to be moist in use. Incision  18  delimits a manual holding portion  22  extending downwardly from the top edge of device  10 . 
     The substantially hoirzontally extending incision  18  interrupts the capillaries existing within the body of sheets  16 ,  17 , whereby rising moisture is kept away from manual holding portion  22  and the user&#39;s angers. 
     Adhesion area  20  is provided to lie above incision  18  so that bonding agent  19  can be used not only for opening inlet  12  but also for safely holding device  10  by one&#39;s fingers. 
     FIGS. 4 &amp; 5 show a device useful for the disposal of feces collected by means of a stomal collection bag  23 . To this end, top portion  11  of disposal device  10   a  is provided with an inlet opening  12   a  expanded to form a funnel 
     For disposal, and as shown in FIG. 5, front sheet  17  is withdrawn in a direction away from the user&#39;s body (not shown) and rear sheet  16  pulled up under collection bag  23 . Thereafter, opening  24  of collection bag  23  is introduced between the two sheets and front sheer  17  then turned up again. This way, opening  24  of stoma bag  23  comes to lie directly above the inlet of hose device  13 , whereby the contents of the stoma bag can be disposed of cleanly and without splashing To facilitate the downward conduction and egress of solid or pasty components from stoma bag  23 , hose device  13  is expanded in the bottom portion  11   a  and at the discharge opening  14  thereof. To prevent sheets  16 ,  17  from prematurely absorbing major amounts of moisture, the internal surfaces thereof are coated preferably with molasses, a natural residue from the processing of sugar beers. This coating retards the absorption of moisture by the sheet material and will dissolve completely and virtually without residues, thus meeting environmental requirements. 
     The invention being thus described, it will be obvious that the same may be varied in many ways. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the invention, and all such modifications as would be obvious to one skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope of the following claims. 
     
       
         
               
             
               
               
               
             
           
               
                   
               
               
                 List of Reference Numerals 
               
               
                   
               
             
             
               
                   
               
             
          
           
               
                   
                 10 
                 urine conducting device 
               
               
                   
                 10a 
                 excreta conducting device 
               
               
                   
                 11 
                 top portion 
               
               
                   
                 11a 
                 bottom portion 
               
               
                   
                 12 
                 inlet opening 
               
               
                   
                 12a 
                 folding inlet opening 
               
               
                   
                 13 
                 discharge hose 
               
               
                   
                 14 
                 discharge opening 
               
               
                   
                 15, 15a 
                 connecting seam 
               
               
                   
                 16, 17 
                 sheet 
               
               
                   
                 18 
                 incision 
               
               
                   
                 19 
                 adhesive substance 
               
               
                   
                 20 
                 adhesive-coated area 
               
               
                   
                 21 
                 surface 
               
               
                   
                 22 
                 manual holding area 
               
               
                   
                 23 
                 stoma bag 
               
               
                   
                 24 
                 opening of a stomal bag