Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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1 Background
Various types of mattess shields or covers have been
employed in the past to provide varying but limited amounts
of protection for a mattress. The original mattress cover was
a single pad substantially the same size as the top of the mat-
tress and was designed to protect the sleeper from protruding
buttons on the mattress. These mattress pads provide no protec-
tion for the sides or ends of the mattress. In addition, the
pads provide no protection on the edges of the underside of
the mattress which is needed to prevent scuffing caused by
tucking in the bedding. Furthermore, since the mattress pad
merely lays on top of the mattress, it easil~ dislodges itself
and therefore requires additional time and effort to readjust
or reinstall the same each time the bed is made up.
In an effort to overcome some of the deficiencies of
the mattress pad, mattress covers have been made which consist
of a flat pad similar to a mattress pad and an additional strip
or piece of thin fabric material around the outside edge of
the pad in the form of a skirt. This additional skirt material
is conventionally sewn to the mattress pad around the peripheral
outside edge thereof and hangs down over the sides and ends
of the mattress. A drawstring or elastic band around the hem
of the skirt is also frequently used to provide a method of
affixing the mattress cover to the mattress.
While the just described mattress cover is an im-
provement over the mattress pad, it is deficient for several
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~ reasons~ It is more difficult and expensive to manufacture
,~ since it utili~es two different materials which must be sewn
together. In addition, the seam where the two materials are
sewn together is adjacent the top of the mattress. ~his causes
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1 an annoying projection on the top of the mattress. Furthermore,
the useful life of these mattress covers are relatively short
since the seams are easily split. Even further, these mattress
covers provide little or no protection for the sides and ends
of the mattress.
One piece contour bed sheets which rely on an elastic
strip are known from U.S. Patents 3,273,175; 2,162,755 and British
Patent 887,521. A similar contour bed sheet which lacks an elastic
strip but attains elasticity by using a two-way stretch fabric
is known from U.S. Patent 3,789,441. A quilted cover pad which
overlies a mattress with a discrete waterproof layer therebetween
; is disclosed in U.S. Patent 1,339,738.
Disclosure
This invention relates to a one-piece quilted mattress
shield. More particularly, the invention relates to a quilted
mattress shield which covers the top, sides, ends and a portion
of the bottom of a mattress adjacent each end thereof. In addition,
the invention relates to a simple yet novel and unobvious method
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for making the one-piece ~uilted mattress shield which method
is well suited to an automatic assembly line type process.
The present invention is designed to overcome all of
the above defects of the prior art and provides a mattress shield
which covers the top, sides, ends, and a portion of the bottom
of the mattress. In addition, the new mattress shield can be
constructed much more economically than the prior art mattress
covers since it utilizes a single piece of material and therefore
eliminates the seams from the sides and ends of the top of the
mattress. The mattress shield of the present invention is con-
structed by first cutting a rectangular piece of quilted material
from a roll of such material. Thereafter, all four corners of
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the rectangular piece of quilted material are notched to form
a mattress shield blank. The blank has a rectangular center
portion substantially the same size as the top of the mattress
to be covered, two side portions substantially the same size
as the sides of the mattress and two end portions which are
larger than the ends of the mattress. Each of the side and
end portions are folded downwardly to form the sides and ends
of the mattress shield and each pair of abutting side and end
portions are secured together to form four vertical corners.
The end flaps which are the remaining parts of the end portions
are then folded inwardly so as to be parallel to the top
portion. These flaps are adapted to cover a portion of the
bottom of the mattress and are secured to the side portions
adjacent the edges of the flaps. In a second embodiment of
the invention, side portions are also provided with flaps which
are secured at their edges to the edges of the end flaps.
In accordance with one broad aspect, the invention
relates to a quilted mattress shield comprising: a quilted top
portion substantially the same size and shape as the top of
20 the mattress which it is adapted to cover; a pair of quilted
side wall portions depending from and integral with said
top portion, said quilted side wall portions being adapted to
cover the side walls of the mattress; a pair of quilted end
wall portions depending from and integral with said top portion,
said quilted end wall portions being adapted to cover the end
walls of the mattress; means securing the adjacent edges of
;~ each pair of side and end wall portions together to form the
vertical corners of the mattress shield; a plurality of non-
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elastic bottom portions each having at least two layers of
fabric, each bottom portion being connected to at least one of
the end and side wall portions and being generally parallel to
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said top portion for contact with only a peripheral portion of
the bottom surface of the mattress; and each of said quilted
portions including two spaced layers of fabric of the same
size quilted to a layer of padding material disposed
therebetween and with the quilt pattern being ultrasonic
seams joining said fabric layers to said padding layer, the
size of each fabric layer corresponding to the cumulative
size of said top, end, and side portions so that each of the
opposite sides of the shield are defined by a discrete one of
said layers of fabric. ~ -
For the purpose of illustrating the invention, there
are shown in the drawings forms which are presently preferred;
it being understood, however, that this invention is not
limited to the precise arrangements and instrumentalities
shown.
Figure 1 is a perspective view, partially kroken
away, of a mattress shield constructed according to the
principles of the present invention.
Figure 2 is a mattress shield blank from which a
mattress shield is constructed.
Figure 3 is a partial perspective view of the
underside of Figure 1 showing the manner in which the corners
of a mattress shield are constructed.
Figure 4 is a perspective view, partially broken
away, of a second embodiment of the invention.
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l Figure 5 is a perspective view of a mattress shield
blank which is used to construct the mattress shield shown in
Figure 4.
Figure 6 is a perspective view of a portion of the
bottom of Figure 4 showing the manner in which the corners are
constructed.
Figure 7 is a cross sectional view of the ~uilted
material from which the mattress shield of the present inven-
tion is constructed.
Figure 8 is a top perspective view, similar to Figure
l but showing another embodiment of the invention.
Figure 9 is an exploded view of a corner of the
shield in Figure 8.
Figure lO is a bottom perspective view of a corner of
the shield in Figure 8.
Figure 11 is a sectional view taken along the line
11-11 of Figure lOo
Referring to the drawings in detail wherein like
numerals indicate like elements, there is shown in Figure l
a mattress shield constructed in accordance with one embodiment
o~ the present invention and indicated generally as lO. The
mattress shield includes a top rectangular portion 12 which
is substantially the same size as the top of the mattress to
be protected. Side wall portions 14 which are integral with
the rectangular top portion 12 depend downwardly therefrom and
are adapted to substantailly cover and protect the sides of
the mattress. Similarly, end wall portions 16 are also in-
tegral with the top portion 12 and depend downwardly therefrom
to cover and protect the foot and head portions of the mattress.
Integral with each end portion 16 is a bottom flap portion
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1 18 which is adapted to be inserted beneath the mattress to pro-
tect a portion of the bottom thereof. It should be understood
that the mattress shield of the present invention is constructed
from a flexible quilted material and will therefore only have
the shape shown in Figure 1 when the shield is applied to a
mattress or similar form. However, for the sake of clarity,
the mattress has not been shown in the figures.
Figure 2 shows a mattress shield blank 20 which is
used to construct the novel mattress shield of the present in-
vention. The blank is prepared by cutting a V-shaped notch,
as shown, from each of the corners of a single rectangular piece
of quilted material. This leaves a center rectangular portion
22 which will form the top of the mattress shield, side por-
tions 24 which will form the sides of the shield and end por-
tions 26 and 28 which will form the end and bottom flap por-
tions, respectively. The mattress shield 10 is constructed
by first folding the side and end portions 24 and 26 of blank
20 downwardly. Adjacent edges of each end and side portion
are then joined together to form the vertical corner junctions
shown at 30. Thereafter, the end flaps 28 are folded inwardly
to form the bottom flap portions 18. The side edges of the
bottom flap 18 are then secured to the bottom edge of
the side wall portions 14 to form a seam or joint 32.
The seams 30 and 32 can be made using any conventional
technique. However, if the outer layers of the quilted
material used to form the mattress shield 10 are thermoplastic,
it is preferred to use ultrasonic sealing to form the
seams since this technique is highly economical and is
readily adaptable to an entirely automatic system for
manufacturing the mattress shields. Vltrasonic sealing
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techniques are known in the art and accordingly a detailed dis- -
cussion of the same will be omitted. Typical ultrasonic sealing -~
systems are described in U.S. Patents 3,666,599 and 3,733,238.
Figure 4 illustrates a second embodiment of a mat-
tress shield constructed in accordance with the principles of
the present invention which mattress shield is generally indi-
cated at 110. Similar to mattress shield 10, shield 110 includes
a top rectangular portion 112 for covering the top of the mat-
tress, side wall portions 114 and end wall portions 116. In ad-
dition, mattress shield 110 includes bottom side and end portions
119 and 118, respectively, which are adapted to cover the entire
periphery of the bottom surface of the mattress.
The mattress shield 110 of this embodiment is con-
structed in a similar manner to that of mattress shield 10. As
shown in Figure 5, V-shaped notches are cut from each of the
four corners of a single rectangular piece of quilked material
to form a mattress shield blank 120. Mattress shield blank 120
includes a center rectangular portion 122 which is substa~tially
the same size as the top of the mattress to bie covered. In ad- '
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~ 20 dition, blank 120 includes end and side portions 124 and 126,
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respectively. Each of the side and end portions 124 and 126 are
slightly larger than the respective side and end faces of the -~
mattress. The additional amount of material remaining on the
side and end portions 126 and 124 are used to form the bottom
peripheral portions 118 and 119. To this end, each of the
outer corners of the end and side portions 124 and 126 are
rounded such s shown at 128 in Figure 5.
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After forming the mattress shield blank 120 shown in
Figure 5, the end and side portions 124 and 126 are fold,ed down-
~ 30 wardly and adjoining edges of each of the side and end portions
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are secured together to form vertical seams 130 at each of the
corners of the mattress shield 110. Thereafter, the remaining
material on the end and side portions 124 and 126 is folded in-
wardly to form the bottom peripheral edge portions 118 and 119.
Adjoining edges of the bottom peripheral portions 118 and 119
are then secured together to form seams 132. It will be under-
stood that seams 130 and 132 may be made in the same manner as
seams 30 and 32 described above.
A partial cross sectional view of the quilted material
used to make the mattress shield of the present invention is
shown in Figure 7. This quilted material 140 includes upper and
lower layers 142 and 144. These upper and lower layers 142 and
144 may be comprised of a woven or non-woven fabric of a thermo-
plastic material. Located between the upper and lower layers 142
and 144 is a filler or padding material 146. The upper and lower
layers 142 and 144 are held together by stitches such as shown
at 148 and 150 and which is conventional in the art may form a
design or pattern on the outer sides of the quilted material 140.
Referrin~ again to Figure 5, it can be seen that the
- 20 method of the present invention is easily adapted to an automatic
assembly line type manufacturing process. Figure 5 shows a plur-
ality of mattress shield blanks positioned end to end and iden-
tified as 122, 122' and 122". Each of these blanks is cut from
quilted material which may be continuously or intermittently fed
from a roll of quilted material located adjacent one end of
the assembly line. Preferably, the notches or corners are first
cut from adjoining mattress shield blanks such as 120 and 122'
before the two blanks are severed from each other. Thereafter,
adjoining blanks may be severed and moved down the assembly
line for the folding and seaming steps. While it is possible
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1 to use any conventional cutting or stamping means to make the
notched corners and to sever adjoining mattress shield blanks
from each other, it is preferred to use ultrasonic cutting when
thermoplastic ~uilted material is employed.
In Figures 8-11 there is disclosed another shield in
accordance with the invention desi~nated generally as 10'.
Shield 10' is the same as shield 10 shown in Figures 1-3 and
7 except as follows. Hence, corresponding elements are designated
with corresponding primed numerals.
The shield 10' has bottom portions 18' which are in
the shape of a right triangle. Bottom portions 18 are formed
from a rectangular piece of fabric, preferably the same as fabric
layers 140, 144, folded over so that the hypothenuse is a fold
line. The other two edges of the bottom portion 18', as shown
in Figure 10 are stitched by overlock stitching 17 to the adja-
cent ed~es of sidewall portion 14' and end wall portion 16'.
Stitching 17 is provided to finish the raw exposed edges of
layers 140, 144 and 146 and therefore no additional stitching
is needed to join the bottom portions 18'. A bottom portion
18' is provided at each corner of the shield 10'. Since bottom
portions 18' are the only portions which are not auilted, the
mattress will lie flatter.
It can be seen that the novel mattress shield of the
present invention overcomes all of the problems of the prior art
and provides protection for the top, sides, ends and a portion
of the bottom of the mattress without relying on elasticity
of any component. Furthermore, the mattress shield can be easily
, applied to or removed from the mattress and once affixed to
a mattress it is held firmly in place by the bottom flap portions
which underlie the peripheral edge of the bottom of the mattress.
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1 In addition, there are no seams along the top peripheral edge
of the mattress which could rip or protrude to create an uncom-
fortable sleeping surface. Even further, a mattress shield of
the present invention can be manufactured much more economically
than prior art devices since only one type of material is util-
ized and only very limited amount of manual labor is required
to construct the mattress shield.
The present invention may be embodied in other spec-
ific forms without departing from the spirit or essential at- :
tributes thereof and, accordingly, reference should be made to
the appended claims, rather than to the foregoing specification ~ :
as indicating the scope of the invention.
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