Protective Garment with Pre-Configured Limbs for Sterile Donning
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing protective garments are difficult to don without touching the exterior surface or allowing the garment to touch other surfaces, which complicates the donning process, especially in sterile environments where contamination risks are high.
Innovation Solution
A protective garment is designed with sleeves and legs that can be releasably affixed in a shortened orientation, allowing for easy donning by grasping the interior surface and extending the limbs without contacting the exterior or floor, using internal fasteners and seams to maintain the configuration during handling and release during donning.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the garment is provided in a standard extended configuration, then the garment maintains its full protective coverage and proper fit, but the donning process becomes complex and increases contamination risk
Solution Approach 1:
The garment is pre-configured into a compact folded state with sleeves and legs arranged in a specific sequence before being placed in the packaging. This preliminary arrangement allows the wearer to simply unfold and don the garment without complex manipulation, reducing both the complexity of the donning process and the risk of contamination while maintaining full protective coverage
2Reliability
If the wearer follows strict donning protocols to prevent contamination, then contamination risk is reduced, but the donning time and procedural complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The garment is pre-packaged in a contamination-free state with sleeves and legs pre-arranged in a specific folded configuration. This allows the wearer to don the garment quickly by simply unfolding and stepping into it, maintaining contamination prevention through the intact packaging barrier while significantly reducing donning time and procedural complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The packaging serves as an intermediary that maintains the garment in a sterile state until the moment of donning. The specific folded configuration acts as a mediator that translates the sterile packaged state into an easy-to-don configuration, eliminating the need for complex contamination-prevention maneuvers during the donning process
Data Source
AI summary
A protective garment configured to facilitate easy donning of the garment is described. The sleeves and legs are shorted and held in a donning configuration by releaseably affixing at least a portion of upper and lower segments of the interior surface of each limb. This allows the garment to be handled and donned by the wearer, without the wearer touching an exterior surface of the garment. A method of preparing a protective garment for donning and a method of donning such a garment is also disclosed.