Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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Thls invention relates generally to a thermal pack,
and principally one which may contain select ingredients in
the nature of chemical means which when reacted with water provide
either a cold or hot pack for medical or other usage.
Numerous types of packages are readily available
ln the prior art and upon the market for use for therapeutic
purposes, and generally such packs are manufactured having
separate compartments containlng select discrete ingredients
which when finally intermixed together, as through the
introduction of one of the chemical ingredients with the other,
there is provided either a refrigerated pack or a heat package.
An example of the former is set forth in the United States
patent to A.A. Robbins et al, No. 2,925,719, wherein a
refrigeratlng packet is provided containing an outer and
inner envelope, with the inner envelope containing water
and the outer envelope containing a refrigerating chemical,
such as ammonium nitrate, for reaction with the water when the
inner envelope is broken. This concept of enveloping one package
within the other is even older in the art, such as shown in the
earlier United States patent to A.A. Robbins, No. 2,907,173.
Other United States patents disclose the concept of forming a
therapy package particularly for imparting heat, such as shown
in the United States patent to Spencer, No. 3,542,032. In this
latter patent the concept Or creating a thermal reaction, i.e.,
for making a heat pack, is disclosed through the deposition of
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a quantity of urea within one compartment, while another compartment of the
package is intended to be filed with water or a gel.
The present application while utilizing some of the teachings of
these earlier prior art patents is designed to provide a particular chemical
means for achieving either a thermal heat or refrigerating environment from
a specially designed pack that is reinforced so as to prevent undue leakage
of its ingredients during either shipment, storage, or usage.
The invention provides in a thermal pack for use in providing
temperature variation from the ambient temperature comprising a group of
three pliable sleeve type plastic bags, two of said bags being of approximate-
ly the same size and strength forming the exterior and contiguous interior
major liners of the pack, an inner bag comprising a minor liner being
formed as a sleeve type bag and having dimensions and strength substantially - --
less than the combined major liners enveloping said inner bag, the upper
marginal seams of said major and minor liners being co-extensive and sealed
together to form the upper end of the pack, the lower end of the minor liner
having a closing seam being capable of pressure rupture upon application of
manual force, said inner bag having a seal extending below the upper -
marginal seams, the improvement which consists of a perforation provided
through said inner bag within the seal provided below the upper marginal
seams to provide a pressure relief at the time of activation of the pack to
prevent the pressure from acting against the upper marginal seams and thereby
cause rupture of the pack proximate said seams, the inner bag disposed for
holding a quantity of water.
The thermal pack may provide a therapy package for imparting a
thermal reaction in the category of either a cooled or heated environment for
use primarily in the treatment of animals.
Such a thermal pack may be used by humans, as for example, for
keeping warm as while attending a sporting event outdoors during the winter
months. The pack can be a compressible type of thermal pack that may be
quickly caused to react by the consumer and without any resultant mess, and,
may provide either rapid heat or rapid cold through the use of chemical
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ingredients which are nontoxic and noncaustic even should the user be
exposed to its contents.
The pack may be a squeeze type pack which is significantly flexible
to provide for its conformation to the surface to which it is applied for
achieving maximum efficiency in the transfer of temperature to the treated
area, and can be conveniently and immediately utilized in the treatment of
animals, such as horses or the like.
These and other features will become more apparent to those skilled
: in the art upon reviewing the summary of this invention, and in particular
through a study of the description of the preferred embodiment in view of its
drawings.
As known in the art, the reaction chemicals utilized in the
formation of thermal
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~acks are generally separated from each other until the
instance of usage, at which time one of the chemical bearing
packages is broken for reacting it with another chemical to
promptly initiate the type thermal reaction desired. It might
be stated that throughout this application the word thermal
is being used in an ambidextrous sense to mean a package
which, depending upon its included contents, may form either
a cold pack or a hot pack.
The hot pack of this invention preferably includes
a quantity of water within the inner bag of the pack, with it
being surrounded by a quantity of magnesium sulfate anhydrous
which is included within the interior of the pair of outer bags
of the pack. In addition, a small quantity of a coloring agent,
such as for example any standard red d~e that ls readily
available on the market, may be included with the quantity of
water so as to provide it with some color, and which can be
used for ready indentification of the fact that the enclosed
product comprises a hot pack. In addition, a quantity of granular
material, such as sand, is included within the outer pair of
bags, and intermixed with the magnesium sulfate anhydrous, and
intended to add body to the pack, in addition to enhancing
the heat retention characteristics of the pack for a more
sustained period of time.
Various tests have been conducted with respect to
the hot pack, formulated in the manner as previously described
and the following examples indicate the results of such
experiments.
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In the preferred pack, magnesium sulfate anhydrous
has been included ln an amount of approximately 83cc. and
intermixed with a quantity of sand in amount of approximately
166cc. The combination of these two mixed ingredients are
enclosed within the interior of the outer pair of bags, comprising
the ma~or liners of the hot pack. And~ a quantity of water
in the approximate amount of ll9cc is sealed into the inner bag
of the pack, and said bag along its upper seam was heat
sealed into closure with the upper edges of the coextensive
pair of outer bags or the ma~or liners of this pack. Upon
the application Or a manual force to the combination
of bags, particularly in a direction which causes a downward
forcing of the water within the inner bag towards its lower
marginal edge, sald lnner bag eventually ruptures, due to lts
having only one-half of the strength of the combined three
bags making up the pack, thereby causing its contained water
to immediately react with the magnesium sulfate anhydrous
to achieve an exothermic reaction, generating heat and
dispensing it for a prolonged period of tlme.
It might be stated that for the purpose of increasing
the efficiency of operation of a hot pack formulated from these
chemicals, that the magnesium sulfate anhydrous is of the type
designed to have a 2% ignition point, i.e., known in the
industry as a grade of anhydrous,and upon reacting with the
water generates the heat somewhere in the vlclnity of 182F.
for approximately two hours.
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Various other combinations of these ingredlents
have been included and tested in the hot pack, and the
following table indicates the varlous usages by volume of
the designated ingredients for generatlng heat upon the
reduction of the magnesium sulfate anhydrous with water.
1. Magnesium sulfate anhydrous-119cc Water-119cc
2. Magnesium sulfate anhydrous
and sand-277cc Water-92cc
3. Magnesium sulfate anhydrous-88cc Water-166cc
4. Magnesium sulfate anhydrous-221cc Water-148cc
; and sand
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The above examples of combination of these elements to induce
the generation of an exothermic reaction was always effective,
providing heat, as in test number 2, ln the vlcinity of 170F.
for approxlmately one hour, while in the fourth test heat was
generated in the vicinity of 120F for approximately three-
fourths of an hour. The addition of sand in the tests number
2 and 4 is believed to retain the generated heat for a slightly
greater length of time, due to the heat retention attributes
of such a material. Usually the sand to magneslum sulfate
anhydrous ratio is in the vicinity of 2/3 to 1/3.
The cold pack intended for usage ln the style of
formation of structure comprising the thermal package of this
invention includes essentlally the usage of the chemical urea
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within the interior of the pair of bags formlng the maJor
liners of this pack, while the third or inner bag comprising
the minor liner of this invention is supplled independently,
and separably, with a quantity of water. Also, the addition
of some ammonium chloride has been found to enhance the
endothermic functioning of this cold pack. In the preferred
embodiment, 130cc of water i5 provided within the lnner bag,
while the quantity of urea provided in the outer pair of bags
is in the vicinity of 250cc. Seventy cubic centimeters (cc)
of the ammonlum chloride is mixed with the urea. A pack
formulated in this manner sustains a cold temperature in the
vicinity of 12F to 19F for approximately one hour or longer.
In addition, a small quantity of dye, such as a blue dye, may
be combined with the water so as to provide a ready
identification of the nature of the thermal pack involved.
The amount of dye added to either one of these packs may be
in the vicinity of one-eighth teaspoonful per twenty gallons
of water. Hence, a very small quantity of dye is needed
simply for the purpose of providing a color indicia.
Another example of preparation of a cold pack under
the teachings of this invention includes approximately 130cc
of water within the inner bag, and 250cc of urea alone within
the outer bag. A cold pack composed in this manner achieves a
temperature in the vicinity of 34F. ~or approximately two
hours. Other examples of combinations of these ingredients
utilized in a cold pack are set forth in the following table.
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1. Urea-130cc Water 130cc
2. Urea-260cc Water 130cc
3. Urea-500cc Ammonium Chloride-500cc Water 220cc
4. Urea-lOOcc Ammonium Chloride-lOcc Water- 45cc
In the example number 1 set forth above the temperature
of the cold pack, upon reaction, sustained 40F for
approximately thirty minutes. In example number 2, the -
reaction produced a temperature in the vlcinlty of 34F. for
approximately one hour.
In example number 3, which shows a maximum ingredient
compositlon within a cold pack, a temperature of 0F.
wa~ achieved for two and one-half hours. And, finally, in
the fourth experiment above, which ls used Yor a first
ald pack, and ln the least ingredlent composltion, a
temperature in the vicinity of 43F. was maintained for
approximately one-half hour.
In the drawlng, Flgure 1 provides a perspectlve
vlew of the thermal pack of thls invention;
Figure 2 provides a front surface view of the
~hermal pack shown in Flgure l;
Figure 3 provides a side edge view of the thermal
pack shown in Flgure l;
Figure 4 provides a vertical sectional view taken
along the line 4-4 of Figure 2;
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~075557
Figure 5 provides a view of the thermal pack with
manual force being applied to achieve rupturing of its
inner bag; and
Figure 6 discloses the reaction of the contents of
the inner bag with the lngredlents contained in the pair of
outer bags to achieve temperature variation from the thermal
pack of this invention.
In referring to the drawing of this invention,
there is shown in Figure 1 the thermal pack A comprising
the ma~or liners 1, and a minor liner 2, respectlvely
forming the outer and inner chemlcal hol~lng bags Or this
invention. As can be seen, the upper marginal edges 3
of these bags are coextensive in width, being heat sealed
together after insertion of their respective ingredients
to provided sealed closure of this pack.
By referring to Figure 4, which is a sectional view
taken of Figure 2, the ma~or liners of 1 of this invention
comprises a palr of bags ~ and 5, with the combination of said
bags being designed to form the exterior liner 4 and the ~ust
proximate ma~or interior liner 5, to provide substantlal
reinforcement for this pack. All of these bags may be formed
of thin tubular plastic material, such as from a polyethylene
sleeve, and preferably ls somewhat transparent to reveal its ;~
contents, and the coloring indicator. It can also be seen
~rom this flgure that the inner bag 2 is formed having a
bottom marginal seal 6, which is intended to provide the means
for focusing the position of the rupture to be made to this
bag as when a force, such as the manual force shown being
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applled in Figure 5, is exerted to rupture said inner bag 2 for
dlssemination of its contents with the contents 7 of the ~`
outer bags. As can be seen in Figure 6, the inner bag 2 when
ruptured directs its contents towards the disposed
ingredients 7 of the bags 1, to initiate the thermal reaction.
And, having the inner bag 2 sealed along the margin 3, with
the outer bags, disposes its bottom margin approximately
at the midpoint of said outer bags. As also shown in Figures
1 and 2, a perforation ~ in the side wali of the inner bag 2
is located ~ust below the upper marginal seal of the thermal
pack, although is within the seal of the said inner pack, and
is provied for allowing a pressure relief at the time of
manual actlvation of the liquid contained in the bag 2g to
prevent the pressure of the liquid from being forced to act
against the entire upper marginal seal and thus cause an
untimely rupture of the pack at this location. Since the user
customarily picks up a pack by its top margin, thereby
depositing the contents of the outer bags downwardly of the
same, forcing a rupture of the inner bag as shown in Figures
5 and 6 directs the flow of its contained water towards
the accumulated chemicals. This achieves a quick mixture
of the released water with the chemicals of the outer bags.
Then, the intermixed and reacting chemicals can be spread
evenly throughout the outer bags, a towel or cloth can be
wrapped around the same, and the entlre pack then applied
directly to the affected area to be temperature treated.
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As previously analyzed under the summary of this
invention, the inner bag 2 usually is supplied with a quantity
of water, and which water may be mixed or treated with a minute
quantity of dye so as to provide means for publication
of the type of thermal pack involved. In the preferred
embodiment, a small quantity of red dye is added to the water
for identifying the hot pack, while a small quantity of blue
dye is added to the water in the inner bag 2 for identifying
the cold pack.
In addition, and as also prevlously analyzed, the
ingredlents of the outer bags 1 vary dependlng upon the
nature of the thermal pack desired, but in the preferred
embodiment the outer bag 1 in the cold pack will be supplied
with a ma~or quantity of urea, with some Or ammonlum chloride
being added bo~h of these ingredients being included in the
amounts as previously revlewed in this application and as
described in the table of formulations for a cold pack.
Also, the lngredients included in the outer bags 1, when a
hot pack is desired, comprise a quantity of magneslum sulfate
anhydrous intermixed with a quantity of sand, or other
; granular material, that may enhance its heat retention,
and both of these ingredients being included in the amounts
as previously summarlzed in this invention.
Varlatlons to the structure and ingredient
formulations of the thermal packs of this invention may occur
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to those skilled ln the art upon reviewing the description
of this inventlon. Any such variations, if they are
encompassed withln the spirit and scope of the claims of
this invention, are lntended to be protected by any patent
to issue thereon.
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