Sanitary Hand Covering With Shaping Fasteners

This invention relates to mitten type disposable hand coverings such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,805,297. This type of sanitary hand covering is rectangular in shape and is divided into a thumb stall and a finger stall. Because of the rectangular shape, there is considerable slack in the covering when it is put on. This slack makes it difficult to handle certain types of objects with the hand covering on and also tends to allow the hand covering to slip off. In some applications that is a disadvantage, and the present invention overcomes the problems, for instance for food handlers who may handle sticky foods, without loss of the advantages of the patented form.

In accordance with this invention, the foregoing problems are solved by attaching fastener strips to the back of the sanitary hand covering and positioning the fastener strips so that slack portions of the hand covering can be folded over and fastened down to prevent the hand covering from sliding around or falling off. Preferably these strips have hooks and loops of artifical fibers such as VELCRO, but other fasterners may be used .

FIG. 1 is a top plan view of one sanitary hand covering embodying this invention with a hand inserted therein.

FIG. 2 is a longitudinal sectional view taken on the line 2--2 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a top plan view similar to FIG. 1 showing one corner portion of the hand covering folded over and fastened down to take up slack near the user's lower thumb and wrist.

FIG. 4 is a top plan view similar to FIG. 3 and additionally showing another corner portion of the hand covering folded over and fastened down to take up slack near the tip of the user's thumb and index finger.

FIG. 5 is a view similar to FIG. 4 but showing the palm side of the hand covering.

Although the disclosure hereof is detailed and exact to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention, the physical embodiments herein disclosed merely exemplify the invention which may be embodied in other specific structure. While the best known embodiment has been described, the details may be changed without departing from the invention, which is defined by the claims.

The hand covering of this invention is made from two adjacent rectangular sheets 10 and 12 (FIG. 2) of plastic film which are fastened together on three sides 14, 16 and 18 (FIG. 1) and are open on one side 20. In this particular embodiment, the rectangular sheets 10 and 12 are integrally joined together at side 16, which is formed by folding over an elongated rectangular piece of plastic film upon itself. Side edges 14 and 18 are heat sealed together along strips 22 and 24 respectively. At the open end 20, rectangular sheets 10 and 12 are folded back upon themselves to form cuffs 26 and 28 (FIG. 2) which are heat sealed together at their side edges by heat seal strips 22 and 24.

Rectangular sheets 10 and 12 are also heat sealed together along a U-shaped divider strip portion 30 (FIG. 1) which is positioned to divide the interior of the hand covering into a thumb stall 32 and a finger stall 34. Rectangular sheets 10 and 12 are slit at 37 within U-shaped divider strip portion 30 to provide an opening for hanging the hand covering up on a hook, doorknob, or the like and also to permit movement between thumb stall 32 and finger stall 34.

In some uses, one drawback of rectangular hand coverings such as described above is that there is enough slack between the hand covering and a hand inserted therein to permit the hand covering to slide around in use and to tend to fall off. To prevent this, the hand covering of this invention utilizes fastener strips on the back of the hand covering which are positioned to take up the slack. A first pair of fastener strips 36 and 38 are positioned to take up the slack in the wrist area. Fastener strip 36 is positioned near the junction of open side 20 and closed side 14 beneath thumb stall 32 and is aligned with closed side 14. Fastener strip 38 is positioned in the central portion of the hand covering and is aligned to be transverse to fastener strip 36 when the corner of the hand covering beneath thumb stall 32 is folded over upon itself as shown in FIG. 3 to form a triangular fold 40 which prevents the wrist portion of the hand covering from sliding around and falling off. With the triangular fold 40, there is no way for the hand covering to come off without unfastening fastener strips 36 and 38.

Fastener strips 36 and 38 can be any suitable fasteners but are preferably hook and loop type fasteners such as VELCRO brand fasteners or the like. Alternately, pressure sensitive adhesive material or magnetic material or any linear array of fasteners easily connected and disconnected can be used. Adhesive strips may be covered by release liners to prevent fastener strips 36 and 38 from sticking to anything until it is desired to fasten them together, at which time the release liners would be removed. However, hook and loop type fasteners are preferable.

Another pair of fastener strips 42 and 44 are positioned to take up the slack at the other end of the hand covering. Fastener strip 42 is located near the junction of closed sides 14 and 16 above thumb stall 32 and is approximately aligned with U-shaped seal strip 30. Fastener strip 44 is located in the lower portion of finger stall 34 and is approximately aligned with fastener strip 38. To take up the slack above thumb stall 32, the corner of the hand covering above thumb stall 32 can be folded over and fastened down by fastener strips 42 and 44 as shown in FIG. 4.

For the purpose of increasing the gripping power of the hand covering, a gripper strip 46 (FIGS. 2 and 5) which can be any suitable rough material, but which is preferably a strip of hook type fastener material, is affixed to bottom sheet 10 in the central portion of thumb stall 32. Gripper strip 46 is approximately aligned with the open end 20 of the hand covering.

It will be understood that if it is not desired to use a hook to hang my hand covering by the slit provided a complementary fastener 50 may be placed on a convenient surface to mate with those of my hand covering. In this manner the fasteners serve a dual function.