High air flow foam bedding products

Abstract

Foam bedding products including viscoelastic foam having a high airflow value that do not feel hot to the person sleeping on the products. One product is a pillow having a contoured core having sufficient firmness to provide effective support for a user and a hyper soft viscoelastic foam shell surrounding the core having sufficient firmness to maintain the appearance of a conventional pillow when supporting only a pillowcase or other bed coverings. The core may be made of higher density viscoelastic foam or of a resilient foam. Another product may be a mattress topper with or without foam cores for body support carried within slabs of high airflow viscoelastic foam.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application claims priority from U.S. Provisional Application 60 / 578,994, filed Jun. 12, 2004.STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT [0002] Not applicable. REFERENCE TO A MICROFICHE APPENDIX [0003] Not applicable. FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0004] The present invention relates to bedding products, e.g. pillows and mattress pillow tops, and more particularly to bedding products comprising viscoelastic foam that has high air flow and may be very soft and may have a support core. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0005] Various forms of contoured pillows have been designed to provide therapeutic support of the human body, typically the cervical spine or lumbar spine. These pillows have become quite successful. They have been designed with various inserts to allow the user to adjust the level of support. They have been made with various types of foam including resilient foam and viscoelastic foams, also known as memory f...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0009] Embodiments of the invention are foam bedding products including viscoelastic foam having a high air flow value. Such products provide the support advantages of viscoelastic foam, but do not feel hot to the person sleeping on the products.

[0010] An embodiment of the present invention comprises a pillow having a foam core having sufficient firmness to provide effective support for a user and a hyper soft high air flow viscoelastic foam shell surrounding the core and having sufficient firmness to maintain an outer shape of a conventional pillow when supporting only a pillowcase or other bed coverings. The core may have any desired contoured shape.

[0011] Another embodiment comprises a method for making a bedding product. Both the core and the shell may be cut from blocks of appropriate foam. The shell is cut with a desired bedding product outer shape and in some cases with a cavity in a desired

Problems solved by technology

However, most contoured pillows, by their very designs, do not have the appearance of a conventional pillow.

Interior decorators find such shapes undesirable for daytime coverings for beds when they are not being used for sleeping.

As a result of the low airflow rating, viscoelastic foam bedding products tend to feel hot to the person sleeping on the products.

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