Thick glove, equipped with means for facilitating the hand articulation

The present invention relates to a very thick glove, equipped with mechanical characteristics that facilitate its use. In particular, the invention is adapted to be used in the foodstuff field and for handling hot objects such as vessels for cooking foods.

The prior art deals with: gloves in general (A41D19/00: Gloves); instruments and accessories in surgery (A61B19/00: Instruments, implements or accessories for surgery or diagnosis); moulding technique (B29C41/14: Shaping by coating a mould, core or other substrate); sport accessories (A63B71: Games or sports accessories).

In the above cited categories, the glove for both hands can be found, used in a kitchen for handling objects when cooking, freezing and storing foodstuff, made of a very thick homogeneous material (about 5 millimetres), that is partially or completely elastic.

The prior art, represented by document US3148235, anticipates both the shape of the glove with three fingers and the use of an elastomer (Adiprene made by DuPont), Teflon, or silicone.

From the mechanics point of view, a glove made of very thick elastic homogeneous material is subjected to difficulties in moving the fingers of a hand, due to its high thickness and stiffness.

The solution of this problem is the object of the invention, that discloses a new glove, in particular a kitchen glove, which has slits or ribs arranged as bellows, said slits or ribs being adapted to concentrate, along their geometry, the necessary elastic hinge for rotating the glove portions, limiting or removing its uncontrolled distortion.

According to US 6,223,551, a vessel of a thermal substance capable of modifying its own status from liquid to solid by decreasing the temperature, is composed of a series of regularly-shaped cells 3, 8 shown in the drawing in Fig. 1, whose junction edges 5, 6, 10, 11 are kept flexible when the temperature changes, enabling the mutual rotation of said stiffened cells 3, 8.

US 2002/166156 A1 discloses a glove according to the preamble of claim 1.

Starting from the above described known prior art, the flexibility function of the elastic hinge is translated to a glove, as claimed in claim 1, made of very thick elastic and homogeneous material, therefore free from additional elements, in particular of the type used in a kitchen, equipped with tubular recesses for containing the fingers of a hand, at least one surface edge of the glove being equipped with a slit or a groove that is able to perform the function of an elastic joint or elastic hinge as regards the edge of section of glove surface when moving the hand, in particular in the step of moving fingers and palm of the hand.

The glove of the invention is described in detail with reference to the enclosed drawings:

• figure 3 and figure 6: axonometric views of a glove, not part of the invention, comprising means 5 and 6 adapted to facilitate the movement of fingers and palm of a hand;
• figure 4 and figure 7 this latter one not part of the invention, : sectional views of the glove equipped with means 5 and 6 for facilitating the articulation;
• figure 5 and figure 8, this latter one not part of the invention in the two provided embodiments.

A glove 1 is delimited by an external surface, that is smooth or equipped with protuberances or micro-projections, adapted to ensure gripping the objects, and by an internal surface, that is smooth or coated with a layer of material for protecting the hand skin. The glove 1 is made of an elastic, homogeneous, very thick (about 3 - 5 mm) material and is composed of: a tubular portion 103 in which palm and back of a hand are housed; several tubular recesses 2 closed at their ends, projecting from the tubular portion 103, whose number is equal to or less than the number of fingers. A glove of the present invention has the known shapes with two, three or five tubular recesses 2.

The intrados glove surface is equipped with one or more slits 5 next to the hand articulation along palm and fingers. A variation of the invention provides, in place of the slit 5, a bellows-shaped elastic joint or elastic hinge 6 composed of several parallel slits 5 that are mutually in contact.

Both slit 5 and bellows hinge 6 operate on the internal surface of the glove.

In order to allow using the glove with both hands, also the extrados surface is equipped with a slit 5 or bellows-type hinge 6 in the same way provided for the intrados surface.

A further variation of the invention provides for realizing means 5, 6 for facilitating the hand articulation, inside the glove, thereby obtaining the advantage of keeping an external surface free from irregularities.

The glove 1 equipped with means 5, 6 for facilitating the hand articulation, is preferably made of elastic deformable material, of the type known in the foodstuff field according to directives in force. In particular, reference is made to a thermoplastic, silicone, elastomer material; namely: platinum silicone, particularly adapted for freezing at -50°C and cooking at 300°C; peroxide silicone; elastomer adapted for cooking at 300°C and freezing at -50°C.

Thermoplastic materials or elastomers, containing thermo-coloured pigments, allow making a glove 1 with elastic hinges 5, 6 that is able to point out the temperature of the environment in which the glove is immersed or the temperature of the object with which it is in contact.

Thermoplastic materials or elastomers, suitably treated in the vulcanising step (dynamic vulcanising), able to capture and keep air with the result of obtaining a light and insulating structure, allow making a glove 1 with elastic hinges 5, 6 with better insulating and lightness characteristics.

Thermoplastic materials or elastomers, worked in plates and suitably pre-moulded and assembled with glass fabric, allow making a glove 1 with elastic hinges 5, 6 with high mechanical characteristics for resisting engraving with cutting objects.