Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company

3m Innovative Properties Company

Patrick H Carey, Jr

Michael R Berrigan

Susan G Danisch

Joseph P Kronzer

Charles D Cowman, Jr

The present invention provides a portable protective system for protecting a wearer, and for protecting the environment about the wearer. The protective system includes a face shield coupled with a head cradle for supporting the face shield on the wearer's head. The face shield and a wearer's face substantially define a breathing zone charged by a battery-powered blower carried on the head cradle. An bag-like inlet filter element encompasses the blower to provided filtered air to the breathing zone, and an outlet filter element is operably associated with the face shield.

Protective system for face and respiratory protection

An elastically stretchable fabric having enhanced thermal insulation properties comprising at least one elastically stretchable carrier web having substantially uniform stretch properties and a thin coherent coated layer of melt-blown microfibers carried on at least one surface of the carrier web, said melt-blown microfibers being selected from the group consisting of polypropylene, polyethylene, polyurethane, polyethylene terephthalate or mixtures thereof.

Stretchable insulating fabric

A nonwoven thermal insulating batt is provided. The batt comprises structural staple fibers and bonding staple fibers, the fibers being entangled and substantially parallel to the faces of the batt at the face portions and substantially perpendicular to the faces of the batt in the central portion of the batt. The bonding staple fibers are bonded to the structural staple fibers and other bonding staple fibers at points of contact. Also provided is a method of making the nonwoven thermal insulating batt which comprises air-laying a web of structural staple fibers and bonding staple fibers with the fibers being entangled and substantially parallel to the faces of the web at the face portions and in an angled, layered configuration in the central portions of the web. The air-laid web is reconfigured such that the fibers in the central portion of the web are substantially parallel and perpendicular to the faces of the web and the fibers are bonded to stabilize the reconfigured web to form the nonwoven thermal insulating batt.

Nonwoven thermal insulating batts

A thermal insulating fabric is described. The fabric is a stitch-bonded, fibrous, nonwoven web of microfibers that average about 10 micrometers or less in diameter.

Stitch-bonded thermal insulating fabrics

A nonwoven stretch fabric is provided. The fabric is produced from a web of bicomponent fibers bonded together by fusion of fibers at points of contact and thermally crimped in situ in the web. The fabric has good uniformity, good thermal insulating properties, and is produced by subjecting a fibrous web of thermally bondable, thermally crimpable bicomponent fibers to heated gas supplied continuously to the top of the web and intermittently to the bottom of the web.

Nonwoven thermal insulating stretch fabric and method for producing same

A pressure-sensitive barrier tape construction particularly suited as a covering for the vents or ports in a cavity to be filled with a thermally insulating foam, the barrier tape permitting the free escape of gases while preventing escape of the fluid foam therethrough.

Barrier tape construction

A new filter medium, which can remove a high percentage of fine particles from a gas stream while causing a relatively low pressure drop in the gas stream, comprises a base porous web, one or more lightweight non-self-supporting layers of microfibers collected and carried on the base porous web, and a top porous web. A new aerosol filter apparatus incorporates the new filter medium to provide economical consistent filtering of air in a home, office, or industrial environment. In this new filter apparatus, a web of the filter medium extends from a supply roll across a stream of the air being cleaned to a take-up roll; and the filter medium is advanced from the supply roll to the take-up roll to gradually provide a fresh length of filter medium in the air stream.

Growing community of inventors

Bloomington, MN, United States of America

Patrick H Carey, Jr