GB2336319A

GB2336319A - Respirator

Info

Publication number: GB2336319A
Application number: GB9908689A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Timo Erkki Holmlund
Original assignee: Kemira Safety Oy
Current assignee: Scott Health and Safety Oy
Priority date: 1998-04-17
Filing date: 1999-04-16
Publication date: 1999-10-20
Anticipated expiration: 2019-04-16
Also published as: GB2336319B; FI980856L; FI117043B; DE19916476A1; GB9908689D0; FI980856A0

Abstract

A respirator (200) comprises an escort memory (205) for storing data about the respirator. The escort memory can be used for instance as a key to an access control system, and then it indicates to the access control system what kind of respirator the user is carrying and the access control system decides whether this particular user can be given access to a specific, previously known environment.

Description

1 Respirator 2336319 The invention relates generally to the use of an

electronic identifier in a personal protective device.

In this patent application, a personal protective device stands for a portable protective device to be used by one person at a time and aiming at protecting the user from dangers caused by the user's operational environment. A typical personal protective device is a gas mask or more generally a respirator, by means of which the user protects himself from gaseous, liquid and particulate impurities in the ambient air. Figure 1 illustrates a prior art respirator 100, comprising a face member 101 and a fan member 102 connected by an air hose 103. Within the fan member 102 a fan 104 is provided to absorb air through filters 105 fixed to the fan member and to blow the air purified in the filters through the air hose 103 into the face member 101. Exhaust and excess air is removed from the face member through the exhalation valve 106.

Respirators, and other personal protective devices as well, typically require regular service and limits on their use to be carefully observed in order to ensure safe operation. Thus, for instance, filters may be used only during a specific number of hours. A given protective device shall also be unambiguously identifiable, and in many caeca it is advantageous to know the history of use of the protective device in the planning of its future use. In addition, one should make sure that a user who will get into a given operational environment is equipped with a protective device suitable for use in this particular environment.

The protective device may, of course, be marked in many dif f erent ways with a view to identification. Protective devices and their parts can also be provided with indications of the date they were taken into use, the last permissible date of use, and/or other time factors which have an impact on their use. However, indications made by conventional methods may be effaced or deformed, and thus their use is affected. It may also be difficult to alter the indications. To keep record of the history of use, a separate operation journal is usually required, which users find awkward to keep.

2 The present invention is as claimed in the claims. It provides a personal protective device with an identifier such that the identifier resists mechanical and chemical stresses and ageing. Embodiments of the invention may provide an arrangement which makes it easy to change identification data and to keep record of the history of the use of the device.

The escort memory may be interpreted in a personal protective device.

An escort memory is an electronic device known per se, intended as an electronically readable identifier of a given larger unit. The simplest form of an escort memory is merely a certain amount of nonvolatile memory having an interface for the connection of a read-write head. A read-write device connected to the readwrite head then allows the content of the escort memory to be read and altered, if necessary- A more versatile escort memory may comprise, besides a memory circuit, a remote reading facility, which allows the content of the memory circuit to be read and perhaps altered without such a read-write head which is in contact with the memory circuit or the connected interface. Escort memories have been used, among other things, in monitoring high-quality industrial products, and then a given piece of raw material is provided with an escort memory, in which data are stored concerning all of the manufacturing and processing steps to which the piece will be subjected. Another typical escort memory application is to connect the escort memory to the cutter of a machine tool (typically to the cutter arm), and thus an unambiguous cutter identifier and data on the purposes and dates of use of the cutter, service information, etc. can be stored in the escort memory. A typical escort memory does not require a separate battery or any other power source, the necessary power being supplied from the read-write head, either through a contact connector or inductively, for example.

Considering merely known features of escort memories and respirators, the connection of an escort memory known per se to a respirator known per se would not be seen as a combination having any particular benefits and so would not have been considered useful. However, the studies by the applicant have concluded that a combination of an escort memory and a respirator 3 yields an advantage which could not be inferred from a mere study of the two known components separately and so results in a desirable combination.

This unexpected advantage relates to the special characteristics of respirators, or more generally, of personal protective devices, and to the operation required of these. Respirators consist of components which shall be assembled in compliance with permissible combinations of components. The use of escort memories ensures that the respirator comprises exclusively components which are acceptable for joint use. Moreover, in laboratories, at industrial plants and in other environments in which it is known in advance that a specific respirator will be used in a given room, an identification arrangement can be provided at the entry to such premises in order to let through only users whose correct equipment is authorised by data read in the escort memory of the respirator they carry.

The invention will be explained in greater detail below with reference to preferred embodiments given by way of examples and to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 3.

shows a known respirator, shows a respirator in accordance with the invention, shows another respirator in accordance with the invention and shows a preferred application of the respirator of The description of prior art above refers to Figure 1, and hence the following description of the invention and its preferred embodiments refer mainly to Figures 2 to 4. The same reference numerals are used for mutually corresponding parts in the Figures.

Figure 2 illustrates a respirator 200, which, in a manner known per se, consists of a face member 201 and a fan member 202 connected by an air hose 203. Two filters 204 have been connected to the fan member 202. Any of the components mentioned above may comprise an escort memory 205, which may be a type known per se, for instance a 1024 bit IK1206B delivered by Idesco Oy. The escort memory can be fastened to a part of the finished respirator by gluing or by some other means, or it can be 4 permanently integrated within a part of the respirator in the manufacturing step. The body of the fan member 202, for instance, is preferably made of moulded or injection-moulded plastic, and then the escort memory can be placed in the mould in which the body of the fan member is made: in this manner, the escort memory, which is entirely surrounded by plastic or any similar material, can of course, be read and written into only if the escort memory is equipped with a remote reading facility. Such an escort memory is extremely well protected against mechanical and chemical stress. The invention as such does not set limits on the fact whether the escort memory is visible or concealed e.g. within a casing-like part or within the wall of a component.

Assuming that the respirator of Figure 2 has a separate escort memory at all the sites marked in the Figure, an embodiment of the invention is provided, in which the escort memory is used to ensure that the combination includes only legal components. Before the combination is taken into use, the escort memories can be read with a reader which can be programmed to indicated whether the escort memories of all the components include an identifier denoting acceptable compatibility of the component with the other components of the same respirator. On the other hand, one of the components shown in Figure 2 may, in addition to or instead of the escort memory, comprise an automatic reader, which reads the escort memories of the other components assembled in the same combination and indicates to the user whether the components are mutually compatible on the basis of the content read in the escort memories.

Figure 3 shows a respirator 300, which has one single escort memory 301. In this case, the escort memory 301 is located in the face member 302 of such a respirator in which the filters 303 are directly connected to the face member without a separate fan member and air hose. The data stored in the escort memory 301 (such as also one or more escort memories 205 illustrated in Figure 2) may comprise the individual respirator number, manufacturer data, data about the place and date of manufacture, and information on any quality controls, service repair and operations, as well as about scheduled overhauls and controls, information about which operational environment the respirator is adapted to, and/or any other information vital for the respirator and its use. The reading and/or writing of data in the escort memory may be entirely or partly protected with a password or any similar code.

The use of the respirator 300 of Figure 3 as illustrated in Figure 4 is particularly important in terms of the invention. The door 401 opens to a room where a respirator of a specific type shall be used. Next to the door there is a reader 402, which is connected with the electric lock 403 of the door. The reader has been placed at the head level of a typical user and it has been programmed so as to detect an approaching escort memory 301, reading in this for which this kind of operational environment the respirator with an escort memory is intended. The reader 402 does not allow the electric lock 403 to be opened if the data read by it indicate that the respirator fastened to the user's head is of the wrong type or that a predetermined period since its previous uphaul has been exceeded, or that any other condition for allowing the door to be opened is not fulfilled. In a way, the escort memory acts as a key to an access control system, the right of way indicated by it relating to the type of respirator equipped with an escort memory and possibly to its earlier history of use.

The invention as such does not set limits on how the escort memory is placed in the respirator or how the reader is placed in the vicinity of an object (e.g. a door) which is important in terms of access control. The arrangement of Figure 4 still provides ease of use, because the reader reads the escort memory with the respirator in ordinary operative position, and the user does not even necessarily have to know that the respirator he uses is equipped with an escort memory and that the door 401 is connected to access control.

The embodiment of the invention described above are naturally only exemplifying and have no restrictive effect on the invention.

6

Claims

1. A personal protective device, e.g. a respirator, including an escort memory for electronic storage of data about the respirator.

2. A device as claimed in claim 1, including information about which kind of operational environment the respirator is suitable for stored in an escort memory.

3. A device as claimed in claim 1, including information illustrating the earlier history of use of the respirator stored in an escort memory.

4. A device as claimed in claim 1, in which the escort memory is permanently integrated within the raw material of any respirator component.

5. A device as claimed in claim 1, also including other escort memories in its other components for storing information about the mutual compatibility of the components.

6. A security system comprising a personal protective device having an escort memory and a door having a reader connected to an electric lock of the door, the reader being programmed to detect an approaching escort memory included in the personal protective device and read data stored in said escort memory, the reader being arranged to unlock the door only if all of a set of predetermined criteria for allowing the door to be unlocked, as determined from the data read by the reader, are fulfilled.

7. A device substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to either of Figures 2 and 3 of the accompanying drawings.

8. A device substantially as hereinbefore described, and as shown, in either of Figures 2 and 3 of the accompanying drawings.

9. A method of using a personal protective device, eg a respirator, including an escort memory for electronic storage of data as hereinbefore described with reference to Figure 4 of the accompanying drawings.