US2444528A - Intravaginal pack and its manufacture - Google Patents

Description

July 6, 1948. o. POPPER ET AL 2,444,528

INTRAVAGINAL PACK AND ITS MANUFACTURE Filed July 11, 1944 Patented July 6, 1948 UNITED- STATES PATENT OFFICE INTRAVAGINAL PA K MANUFACTUR Otto Popper and- Gord nesburg, Transvaal; said Melvill assignm- AND ITS E on Kest'ell Melvill, J ohan- Union of- South In the Union of South 2' Claims. (Cl. 1'28-285) This invention relates to absorbent packs for introduction into the vagina.

Desirable characteristics of such a pack are direct accessto et surface; The'present invention provides a compressed availabilit in a'high degree.

A pack according absorbent sheet mat to the invention consists of erial, folded into a series of ely reversedpleats and compressed transversely to-the lines of folding of the It may be additionally compressed in other directions. The pack is desirably of the extrusion from the vagina.

The pleated formation may be produced in various ways. According to a convenient method, the pleating is arrived at by a progressive proce dure in which the flat sheet of material is cony of the original sheet surface persists Africa;

0- said Popper Application July 11', 194

4, Serial No. 544,434 Africa July 30, 1943 lengthwisein the completed pack and to which the corrugations are to be parallel, is lodged" against a member that acts as a stop to prevent bodily displacement of the sheet. The opposite material ofwhich they denser.

Preferably the pack according to this invention is of the hairpin form comprising two separate w of the finished as to receive the flat sheet parallel plates are spaced apart by about the thickness of the sheet In. The upper plate l2 can be swung back about a pivot 14 to enable the sheet to be laid upon the lower plate i3, and then replaced.

Spaced away from the end ii of the pair of plates isa member 16, in which is fixed a die I! having a bore IB of cylindrical form to shape the pack to its final cylindrical form.

Between said end 15 of the plates and said die 11 is a member 19 providing the funnel shaped passage 20. The function of said passage 20 is to mould the pack material, as the latter is pushed through it, from the form which said material has when it enters said passage 20, to the final cylindrical form or the die bore 18. With this object the cross sectional shape of said passage at its end 2| is that of a fiat rectangle of the same width as the gap between the plates l2, l3 and the cross section changes progressively to ;:the aforesaid final cylindrical form at the end 22.

23 is a blade po itioned with its length extending in the direction A in which the sheet I0 is to be compressed and in which it is thereafter to be driven through the passage 29. The blade is also, positioned with its width W, or greatest cross-sectional dimension, transverse to the confining plates l2, l3. Said blade can be moved in the direction of its length. l

, In making use of this apparatus, the sheet I0 is inserted into the casing as shown in Figure 11, whereupon the blade 23 is applied to the centre of length of the edge 24 of the sheet that is distant from the funnel member 19, and is pushed forward in the direction of the arrow A. It thus drives the edge 24 of the sheet towards the opposite edge 25. Said edge 25 is held for a time substantially stationary by the end face 26 of the member Hi. This action causes aseries of even and parallel corrugations, indicated by 2'1, Figure II to appear in the sheet; and as the blade 23 continues to move forward, the corrugations are pressed together and thereby progressively assume the form of pleats.

At the same time the leading edge 25 of the sheet I!) begins to bulge into the passage 20 as shown in Figure III. There the converging walls 28 offer dragging resistance to the advance of the outer parts of the edge 25; so that the pleated sheet now-progressively assumes a more rod-like form; and by bending at its centre where the blade pressure on it is concentrated, begins the formation of the two legs 29 turned back along the sides of the blade. Further blade advance, Figure IV, finally drives the doubled rod into the bore 18 which shapes it to cylindrical form. Since, in this operation, the thrust of the blade elongates the blank to some extent due allowance for such elongation is made in determining the length L of the sheet 10.

The blade 23 is then retracted but the shaped providing the forwardly verse to the width dimension of pack may be left in the bore 18 for a time in order to set; and its setting may be assisted by such treatment as heating. The member 16 havin been moved to another position, the completed pack is ejected from the bore 18 by a plunger 38, Figure V. r.

lnorder .to facilitate the pushing forward of the pack material: to prevent said material being cut through by the blade; and to ensure that the pack is not retracted from the bore 18 when the blade is withdrawn, the blade is formed in steps '31 progressively diminishing in thickness towards the free end of the blade and providing the narrower thrusting shoulders 32. Also in order further to combat the tendency of the blade to retract the pack from the bore 18, the latter is formed with a number of annular grooves 33 directed acute edges 34 that are effective to resist movement of the pack I in the backward direction.

I A withdrawingcord 35 is sewn to the free original sheet H) in the proper position to appear at theend of one of the legs 29.

We; claim:

1. The method of making a vaginal pack from a materially rectangular sheet of compressible absorbent material, which consists in forming the sheet into a, series of parallel corrugations and compressing said corrugations transversely to the length of their ridges and thereby converting them into pleats and compressing the pleated article to coherent rod form.

2. A vaginal pack of rod shape substantially longer than itsdiameter and of materially cylindrical fornuiormed of a sheet of absorbent material which sheet is in its lengthwise dimension at least equal to the length of the final pack, said sheet folded-atlines of folding that are parallel with the length dimension of the sheet and transthe sheet-into a series of parallel and successively reversed pleats, the pack being compressed transversely to its length and to said lines of folding, which lines are preserved lengthwise in the final pack.

' OTTO POPPER.

GORDON KESTELL MELVILL.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Sept. 28, 1943

Images