Patent Document

RELATED APPLICATION 
     This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Application Ser. No. 09/478,654 now abandoned. 
    
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to a disposable glove system including a stacked unit of easily donned disposable gloves mounted on a specially configured glove rack. The glove rack permits the quick and safe donning of the top glove mounted thereon. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Disposable gloves are mandatory equipment in many industries that require clean and/or sterile environments, e.g., the foodservice industry. The use of disposable gloves reduces the spread of viruses and other contaminants among individuals. In the foodservice industry, such contaminants are less likely to be transmitted from employees to food when employees regularly wear gloves, when employees frequently and regularly replace used gloves with new ones, and when gloves require little handling to be donned. 
     Many types of disposable gloves are known to and used by the foodservice industry. One type comprises two superimposed layers of thermoplastic film sealed together along their peripheries, leaving an opening for a hand to be inserted between the two layers. A two-layered disposable mitt is shown in Grinberg U.S. Pat. No. 5,806,099, and a method of forming such a mitt is shown in Bradfield U.S. Pat. No. 4,928,322. (It is intended that the word ‘glove’ include both multi-finger mitts and five-finger gloves.) 
     Disposable gloves are generally sold in stacked units containing a supply of gloves layered one on top of the other. Gloves may be sold in a dispenser, such as a paperboard box, which encloses the stack and from which gloves may be removed one at a time. (A glove is typically removed in the manner that a paper tissue is removed from a tissue dispenser.) A box dispenser thus provides a simple and economical means for protecting the stored gloves from contamination and for dispensing the gloves. Variations of box dispensers for disposable gloves are shown in McLaughlin U.S. Pat. No. 4,844,293 and Hoffrichter U.S. Pat. No. 5,655,682. 
     Box dispensers also have several drawbacks. For example, a disposable glove is often difficult to don after removing it from a box dispenser. Upon being dispensed, the glove may have creases and/or be folded, requiring a user to straighten it out before donning it. A user may have difficulty first finding and then separating the glove opening into which the hand is inserted. Therefore additional dispensing configurations have also been developed. One such configuration comprises a stack (or ‘saddle’) of disposable gloves held together by a heat-fused detachable portion of the gloves, which portion may be covered by a flap as shown in Klecena U.S. Pat. No. 5,966,741. The gloves advantageously remain flat as they are removed from the detachable portion, in order to facilitate the process of donning them after they are removed. However, as is the case with the box dispensers, a glove must first be removed from the stack before it is donned. 
     It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved configuration for a disposable glove system whereby a disposable glove may be donned more easily and quickly than heretofore. The new and improved system of the present invention is especially valuable in the foodservice industry, where efficiencies in the nature of time-saving and in the ease and simplicity of donning the gloves result in significantly increased productivity and enhanced hygiene. It is a further object of the invention to provide a disposable glove rack from which a glove can be removed and donned more easily, more quickly, and more safely, in order to encourage the frequent and regular replacement of used gloves with new ones. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention is an improved disposable glove system in which a stacked unit of easily donned gloves is mounted on a glove rack specially configured to permit donning of the gloves safely, quickly, and easily. In accordance with an important objective of the invention, a glove of the present system may be safely donned and removed from the glove rack by a single, swift motion of the hand. The gloves and glove rack may be manufactured easily and economically. 
     The improved glove of the present invention may be easily donned and removed with a single hand. Making this possible is that the glove opening through which the entire hand enters the glove spreads apart easily when a hand is slid into the glove body. The glove is held in place by the rack until the hand is completely inserted; thus the glove rack provides the function of the other hand, namely to assist in donning the glove. 
     The disposable glove system of the present invention includes a glove rack on which fasteners for mounting the gloves are advantageously positioned along a front surface of the rack rather than on the rack&#39;s top mounting surface. The front surface of the rack is advantageously displaced by an angle of preferably 90 degrees or higher from the top mounting surface. Because the fasteners are positioned away from the top mounting surface, they do not interfere with one&#39;s hand as a glove is removed and donned, hence reducing the risk that a user might otherwise sustain an injury while removing and/or donning a glove. The edge between the front and top surfaces causes the gloves to crease proximate their respective lines of weakness, thus facilitating the removal of gloves from the glove rack. The crease also causes the glove opening of the top glove to spread apart slightly, thus increasing the ease of donning the gloves and eliminating the need to handle the gloves when donning them. The fasteners may be J-shaped arms to hold the gloves more securely, and the fasteners preferably point downward and have rubber or plastic covers to reduce the risk of injury even further. The top mounting surface of the rack may advantageously tilt downward to provide a more ergonomic design whereby a glove is donned by a more comfortable and more natural downward motion of the hand. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a top plan view of a glove of the present invention. 
     FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the glove of FIG. 1, taken along line  2 — 2  of FIG.  1 . 
     FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective view of an embodiment of a disposable glove system having a stacked unit of gloves and a first embodiment of a glove rack. 
     FIG. 4 is an exploded perspective view of a preferred embodiment of the disposable glove system of the present invention having a stacked unit of gloves and a second embodiment of a glove rack. 
     FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the embodiment of FIG. 4, showing the path of a glove being donned and removed from the glove rack. 
     FIG. 6 is a perspective view of an alternate preferred embodiment of the glove rack of the present invention. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a glove  10  of the present invention has a top thermoplastic layer  12  and a bottom thermoplastic layer  14 . The top layer  12  is advantageously shorter than the bottom layer  14  to provide a bare inner surface  15  of the bottom layer  14  along which a hand may be slid easily into a glove opening  20 . The two layers are superimposed and are preferably fabricated from tear-resistant plastic film, such as polyethylene film. The top and bottom layers  12 ,  14  are joined together along their peripheries  16 ,  17  (respectively) to form an abutted portion  18 , and the layers in the wrist region of the glove are not joined together in order to provide a glove opening  20  where the fingers of a hand are inserted between the layers  12 ,  14 . The top and bottom layers may be joined by heat welding or a similar process. 
     The glove opening  20  is designed to allow the entire hand to be inserted quickly and easily between the two layers of plastic film. In particular, an extended region  19  of the bottom layer  14  is not overlayed by the top layer  12 , providing the bare inner surface  15  of the bottom layer  14  for permitting the easy donning of a glove. Moreover, each plastic layer is preferably fabricated from a material having little elasticity, such as polyethylene, causing the glove opening  20  to open immediately with little effort by a user upon donning the glove. The top  12  and bottom  14  layers of the glove are preferably shaped to form a separate pocket for each finger, where each pocket is sufficiently large to permit a finger to be slid easily thereinto. Alternately, the glove may be shaped to form a mitt having a thumb region and a separate pocket for covering all other fingers. 
     The bottom layer  14  of the glove has a mounting section  28  attached to its extended region  19  by a transversely oriented line of weakness  33 , i.e., a perforated line in the plastic film substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal axis  29  of the glove. The mounting section  28  is preferably integrally formed with the bottom layer  14 . The mounting section  28  includes at least one hole  32  (or “key-hole 32”) for receiving an arm or other type of fastener of a glove rack. The mounting section  28  preferably has two key-holes  32 , wherein each keyhole is positioned approximately 1 inch from the rearmost edge  21  of the mounting section and approximately 1 inch from the respective side edge  22 ,  23  of the mounting section. 
     An embodiment of a disposable glove system, including a stacked unit of gloves  30  and a flat glove rack that rests on top of a substantially horizontal surface, is shown in FIG.  3 . The stacked unit of gloves may comprise an integral stack of individual gloves heat welded together in one or more regions of their mounting sections  28 , e.g., by hot-punches which create small holes  26  through the mounting sections  28 . Alternately, the individual gloves may be fastened to each other by tie straps extending through their mounting holes, which tie straps may also be fastened to a flat section of paperboard immediately beneath the stacked unit of gloves in order to hold the gloves securely thereto. The tie straps may be removed, and the gloves separated from the paperboard, before mounting the gloves to a glove rack. Any number of gloves, between roughly ten and two-hundred, may be included in a stacked unit. A stacked unit generally has a narrow region  45  proximate the mounting sections  28  of the gloves  10  because the mounting section of each glove comprises a single layer of plastic film, in contrast to the dual layers of the hand portion. 
     The glove rack  37  in FIG. 3 comprises a support structure  38  with at least one fastener  40  mounted thereto (two fasteners shown). The fasteners  40  may be in the form of straight wicket posts  44 , or arms, affixed to a flat surface  39  of the support structure  38 , which surface also provides the mounting surface  42  for the gloves. It is intended that other types of fasteners can also be used. The gloves  10  are mounted to the glove rack  37  by directing the fasteners  40  through the key-holes  32  of the mounting section  28  of the stacked unit of gloves  30  and then laying the gloves on top of the mounting surface  42  of the rack. 
     The mounting section of a glove may have longitudinal lines of weakness  34  extending from each mounting hole  32  to the rearmost edge  21  of the mounting section  28 . Such lines of weakness, substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the glove  10 , provide an alternate means for removing a glove from the glove rack. Longitudinal lines of weakness  34  replace the single transverse line of weakness (reference numeral  33  in FIG.  1 ), thus eliminating any residual mounting portion that might otherwise remain on the glove rack after a glove is removed. 
     As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the preferred dispensing system of the present invention includes a stacked unit of gloves  30  mounted on a glove rack  50  specially configured for dispensing the gloves quickly, safely, and easily. The glove rack has a top mounting surface  52 , a bottom surface  54 , a front surface  56 , and a rear surface  58 . The front surface  56  has two fasteners  60  protruding therefrom. The fasteners  60  preferably comprise J-shaped arms  62  which point toward the bottom surface  54  of the glove rack. The two fasteners shown may be joined to each other by an intermediate member  57  (shown in phantom) to provide a single C-shaped structure that may be easily mounted to the front surface  56 , e.g., by an adhesive. The gloves  10  are mounted to the glove rack  50  by directing the fasteners  60  through the mounting holes  32  of the mounting sections  28  of the gloves  10 . The gloves are then draped over the top surface  54  of the glove rack. 
     As an important aspect of the preferred embodiment of a glove rack of the present invention, the J-shaped fasteners  62  are positioned on the front surface  56  of the glove rack  50 , instead of on the glove mounting surface  52 , to allow the safe and easy donning of a glove. To don a glove, a user inserts a hand into the opening  20  of the top glove—advantageously while the glove is attached to the glove rack—and urges the glove forward toward the abutted (finger) portion  18  of the glove. Fasteners mounted on the top mounting surface of a glove rack may otherwise interfere with and/or injure the hand or the wrist while donning a glove. In contrast, the front-mounted fasteners  62  point forward and downward in order to avoid the hand or wrist entirely as the top glove is donned. Therefore, in the preferred glove rack, there are no encumbrances that interfere with the hand or wrist of a user, as there are in the embodiment of FIG.  3 . Once a hand is safely inside the glove, the sliding motion by the hand causes the transverse line of weakness  33  to separate, releasing the glove from the glove rack. 
     As shown in FIG. 6, an alternate preferred embodiment  80  of the glove rack has additional advantageous features. The top surface  54  is between 1 and 3 inches above the bottom surface, and the width  59  of the front surface  56  is preferably greater than that of the rear surface  58 . Thus the top mounting surface is angularly displaced from the front surface of the rack by an obtuse angle, providing a more ergonomic design whereby the path of donning the glove points downward to permit a hand to slide more easily into the glove. Because the top surface is elevated, one&#39;s fingers do not hit the surface on top which the glove rack rests as a glove is donned. The glove rack is preferably composed of a material that is portable yet sufficiently heavy to prevent the rack from moving as a glove is donned and removed, such as a metal or a rigid plastic. The glove rack may also have rubber feet (not shown) mounted on its bottom surface in order to grip a surface more securely, and may have permanent securing means for securing the glove rack permanently to a horizontal or vertical surface. Plastic and/or rubber covers  65  may be attached to the fasteners for further reducing any possibility that a user might be injured by the glove rack. The glove rack advantageously has no side walls to permit simple and economical construction thereof. 
     The stacked unit of gloves also has several advantageous features. As shown in FIG. 5, the bend  70  in the gloves is preferably positioned above the edge  72  where the top mounting surface  52  and the front surface  56  of the glove rack intersect, causing the gloves to separate more easily from the rack because their tear lines (lines of weakness) are creased above the edge  72 . The bend  70  also causes the glove opening of the top glove to spread apart slightly, thus increasing the ease of donning the gloves and eliminating the need to handle the gloves when donning them. The angular displacement between the front and top surfaces of the rack also relieves the region  75  of plastic film immediately surrounding the key-holes of each glove of magnified stress as the glove is removed, thus causing the glove to tear along its tear line and preventing the region  75  proximate the keyholes from otherwise ripping. The stacked unit of gloves may be sold either together with the glove rack or separately as a replacement saddle of gloves. 
     Although the glove in FIG. 5 may be worn on either the right or left hand, it is more easily donned by the right hand. (The glove may also be donned by the left hand by rotating turning one&#39;s left hand palm-up while donning the glove.) A stacked unit of left-handed gloves that are the mirror image of the glove of FIG. 5, but otherwise identical, may also be manufactured to allow a user to don gloves onto both hands in the more ergonomic palm-down manner. 
     It will be appreciated that, when longitudinal lines of weakness are used instead of a single transverse line of weakness, the entire glove  10  is released from the glove rack and no portion of the gloves  10  remains behind. Also, it will be appreciated that the strength of the material forming the mounting section  28  and the reduction in such strength caused by the lines of weakness  34  can be adjusted to create an optimal design. 
     It should be understood, of course, that the specific forms of the invention herein illustrated and described are intended to be representative only, as certain changes may be made therein without departing from the clear teachings of the disclosure. Accordingly, reference should be made to the following appended claims in determining the full scope of the invention.

Technology Category: 1