NON-HORIZONTAL FOLDING MASK

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO THE RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation application of International Application No. PCT/CN 2024/138642, filed on Dec. 12, 2024, which is based upon and claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 202411762260.2, filed on Dec. 3, 2024, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure belongs to the technical field of masks, and in particular to a non-horizontal folding mask.

BACKGROUND

With improvements to people's awareness of hygiene and health, masks as protective tools have become ubiquitous in various fields of the daily life, such as medical care, chemical engineering and furniture manufacturing. In today's world with environmental pollution caused by industrialization, to prevent the harm of haze, people have to wear the masks sometimes when going out. The masks are mainly intended to isolate and filter microparticles, viruses and harmful gas, preventing direct inhalation of the microparticles, viruses and harmful gas into lungs to cause negative impacts on health. There are a variety of masks at present. The most commonly used masks are still primarily flat masks and foldable masks. Flat masks include a plurality of filtration layers that are stacked flat. For foldable masks, a plurality of horizontal creases are disposed on a plurality of flat-stacked filtration layers. By pulling foldable masks open vertically, people can wear the foldable masks. However, existing foldable masks are only horizontally provided with the creases to reduce the packaging area, which does not improve the filtering effect as desired. Moreover, the shape of foldable masks are hardly maintained after being pulled open, further reducing the filtering effect.

SUMMARY

1. Technical Problem to be Solved by the Present Disclosure

An objective of the present disclosure is to solve the problem that the existing foldable masks are horizontally folded to cause a poor filtering effect.

2. Technical Solutions

In order to achieve the above objective, the present disclosure provides the following technical solutions:

The present disclosure provides a non-horizontal folding mask, where a breathable region of a mask body is provided with at least one non-horizontally extended folding portion; and the folding portion is a folding and breathing filtration layer.

Preferably, the folding portion includes non-horizontally extended ribs of a multilayer material; the ribs are respectively disposed on left-side and right-side main body surfaces of the mask body; and the main body surfaces each include a nose surface, a middle surface, and a chin surface.

Preferably, the main body surfaces each include one continuous rib; the rib penetrates through the nose surface, the middle surface and the chin surface; in a region of the nose surface of the main body surface of the mask body, one end of the rib is sealed to the region of the nose surface to form a first sealing region; and in a region of the chin surface, the other end of the rib is sealed to the region of the chin surface to form a second sealing region.

Preferably, the folding portion includes at least one folding layer.

Preferably, a folded area or an unfolded area of the folding portion accounts for 5-60% of an overall unfolded area of the mask.

Preferably, a folded area or an unfolded area of the folding portion accounts for 30-50% of an overall unfolded area of the mask.

Preferably, a breathability and a filtering effect of the folding portion are superior to a breathability and a filtering effect of a non-folding portion of the mask.

Preferably, the folding portion is configured as any one of a splayed shape, an inverted splayed shape, a “V” shape, an inverted “V” shape, a “U” shape, an inverted “U” shape, an “M” shape, and an inverted “M” shape that is bilaterally symmetrical along a longitudinal axis in a use state.

Preferably, the folding portion is configured in a manner that an unfolding region is unfolded along two sides of a nose in a use state.

Preferably, for the folding portion with at least two folding layers, a thickness or a size of the folding layer is gradually reduced along a direction attached to a nose.

Preferably, a shaping crease is disposed on the folding portion; and the crease is made of a plastic material.

Preferably, the mask body is further provided with a nose clip; and the mask body is further connected to a strap.

Preferably, the folding portion is folded inward or outward.

Preferably, the folding portion is folded wholly or partially.

Preferably, the folding portion is folded continuously or discontinuously.

Preferably, the folding portion includes a bending region and an expansion region; and a flexibility and a bending property of the bending region are higher than a flexibility and a bending property of the expansion region.

Preferably, the expansion region is provided with a reinforcement pattern for supporting an expansion property.

Preferably, a connected region between the mask body and the folding portion is provided with a bending reinforcement pattern that assists the folding portion to expand; and a shape of the bending reinforcement pattern matches with a shape of an edge of the expanded folding portion.

Preferably, the mask body is further provided with a welding line or a reinforcement pattern for supporting a shape of the mask.

Preferably, for the folding portion with at least two folding layers, a thickness or a size of the folding layer is gradually reduced along a direction close to an edge of the mask.

Preferably, the folding portion includes at least a guide portion that is partially disposed on a path of exhaled gas from a nostril and configured to guide downward circulating gas exhaled from the nostril upward.

Preferably, a shape of the guide portion matches with a size of a breathing buffer chamber, so as to reversely guide the downward circulating gas exhaled from the nostril.

Preferably, a size of the guide portion matches with efficiency of reversely guiding the exhaled gas from the nostril; and the guide portion is configured in a manner that reversely guided gas in the exhaled gas from the nostril accounts for 50-90% of a total exhaled gas volume.

3. Beneficial Effects

Compared with the prior art, the technical solutions provided by the present disclosure have the following beneficial effects:

According to the non-horizontal folding mask provided by the present disclosure, a breathable region of a mask body is provided with at least one non-horizontally extended folding portion; and the folding portion is a folding and breathing filtration layer. During use, unfolding the folding portion can increase an area of the breathable region of the mask body to improve the filtering effect, and can accommodate and buffer more exhaled gas to effectively prevent escape of the gas from an upper end of a nose and a chin to further improve the filtering effect. The non-horizontally extended folding portion can support a breathing chamber formed by unfolding the mask body overall, preventing collapse and expansion of the breathing chamber in the breathing process to avoid gas leakage.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an overall schematic structural diagram of a non-horizontal folding mask according to Embodiment 1 of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 2 is an overall schematic structural diagram of a non-horizontal folding mask according to Embodiment 2 of the present disclosure.

Reference Numerals

100: mask body, 110: folding portion, 111: rib, 112: guide portion, 120: nose clip, 130: strap, and 140: breathing buffer chamber.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

To enable those skilled in the art to better understand the solutions of the present disclosure, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present disclosure will be clearly and completely described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in the embodiments of the present disclosure. Obviously, the described embodiments are only a part of, not all of, the embodiments of the present disclosure. All other embodiments obtained by those of ordinary skill in the art based on the embodiments of the present disclosure without creative efforts should fall within the protection scope of the present disclosure.

It should be noted that the terms “first”, “second”, and so on in the description and claims of the present disclosure and in the above accompanying drawings are intended to distinguish between similar objects but do not necessarily indicate a specific order or sequence. It should be understood that the data termed in such a way is interchangeable in proper circumstances such that the embodiments of the present disclosure described herein can be implemented in other orders than the order illustrated or described herein. Moreover, the terms “include”, “contain”, and any other variants mean to cover the non-exclusive inclusion, for example, a process, method, system, product, or device that includes a list of steps or units is not necessarily limited to those steps or units which are clearly listed, but may include other steps or units which are not expressly listed or inherent to such a process, method, system, product, or device.

It should be understood that in the description of the present disclosure, orientations or positional relationships indicated by terms such as “above”, “below”, “left”, “right”, “front”, “rear”, “top”, “bottom”, “inside”, “outside”, “middle”, “vertical”, “horizontal”, “transverse”, “longitudinal” are all based on what are illustrated in the drawings. These terms are mainly intended to better describe the present disclosure and embodiments thereof, rather than to define that the devices or components indicated must have the specific orientation or be constructed and operated in the specific orientation.

Besides, some of the terms mentioned above may be used to indicate other meanings in addition to indicating the orientation or positional relations. For example, the term “upper” may also be used to indicate an attachment relationship or a connection relationship in some cases. Those of ordinary skill in the art may understand specific meanings of these terms in the present disclosure based on a specific situation.

In addition, the meanings of the terms “mount”, “dispose”, “provide”, “connect”, and “sleeve” should be understood in a board sense. For example, “connection” may be a fixed connection, a removable connection, or integration; may be a mechanical connection or an electrical connection; may be a direct connection or an indirect connection implemented by using an intermediate medium; or may be intercommunication between two components, elements or components. Those of ordinary skill in the art may understand specific meanings of the foregoing terms in the present disclosure based on a specific situation.

It should be noted that the embodiments in the present disclosure and features in the embodiments may be combined with each other in a non-conflicting situation. The present disclosure will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings and embodiments.

Embodiment 1

Referring to FIG. 1, an embodiment provides a non-horizontal folding mask. A breathable region of mask body 100 is provided with at least one non-horizontally extended folding portion 110. The folding portion 110 is a folding and breathing filtration layer. During use, unfolding the folding portion 110 can increase an area of the breathable region of the mask body 100 to improve the filtering effect, and can accommodate and buffer more exhaled gas to effectively prevent escape of the gas from an upper end of a nose and a chin to further improve the filtering effect. The non-horizontally extended folding portion 110 can support a breathing chamber formed by unfolding the mask body 100 overall, preventing collapse and expansion of the breathing chamber in the breathing process to avoid gas leakage.

The folding portion 110 includes non-horizontally extended ribs 111 of a multilayer material. The ribs 111 are respectively disposed on left-side and right-side main body surfaces of the mask body 100. The main body surfaces each include a nose surface, a middle surface, and a chin surface. The main body surfaces each include one continuous rib 111. The rib 111 penetrates through the nose surface, the middle surface and the chin surface. In a region of the nose surface of the main body surface of the mask body 100, one end of the rib 111 is sealed to the region of the nose surface to form a first sealing region. In a region of the chin surface, the other end of the rib 111 is sealed to the region of the chin surface to form a second sealing region.

Specifically, the folding portion 110 includes at least one folding layer. The number of folding layers may be adjusted according to a specific use condition. The greater number of folding layers indicates a larger volume of the breathing chamber formed after the folding portion 110 is unfolded, a greater filtering area and a better filtering effect.

A folded area or an unfolded area of the folding portion 110 accounts for 5-60% of an overall unfolded area of the mask, and may further preferably account for any one of 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, 30%, 35%, 40%, 45%, 50%, and 55%. The proportion is adjusted according to the specific use condition. The larger proportion indicates a larger volume of the breathing chamber formed after the folding portion 110 is unfolded, a larger filtering area and a better filtering effect.

A breathability and a filtering effect of the folding portion 110 are superior to a breathability and a filtering effect of a non-folding portion of the mask. The folding portion 110 may be made of a polypropylene electrostatic electret material, a glass fiber filter material, a polyethylene terephthalate (PET) filter material, etc. This can effectively ensure that most exhaled gas is filtered to the outside through the chamber formed after the folding portion 110 is unfolded, preventing escape of the exhaled gas from other regions for low filtration efficiency.

The folding portion 110 is configured as any one of a splayed shape, an inverted splayed shape, a “V” shape, an inverted “V” shape, a “U” shape, an inverted “U” shape, an “M” shape, and an inverted “M” shape that is bilaterally symmetrical along a longitudinal axis in a use state. The shape is not limited to these listed structures, and other shapes capable of covering the nose to form the chamber are available.

The folding portion 110 is configured in a manner that an unfolding region is unfolded along two sides of the nose in the use state, so as to cover the nose conveniently to form the breathing chamber. This can enable the exhaled gas of the nose to contact the unfolded folding portion 110, thereby improving the filtering effect.

For the folding portion 110 with at least two folding layers, a thickness or a size of the folding layer is gradually reduced along a direction attached to a nose, such that a size of the unfolded folding portion 110 is gradually reduced along a direction close to the nose, and the mask is better fitted to the shape of the nose along the breathing chamber formed by the folding portion 110. For the folding portion 110 with at least two folding layers, a thickness or a size of the folding layer is gradually reduced along a direction close to an edge of the mask. This can ensure that the folding portion 110 contacts skin better when getting close to the edge of the mask and effectively lower the gas leakage possibility.

A shaping crease is disposed on the folding portion 110. The crease is made of a plastic material. Through the crease made of the plastic material, the folding portion 110 can be maintained conveniently in a folded state for packaging and transportation.

The mask body 100 is further provided with nose clip 120. The mask body 100 is further connected to strap 130. The nose clip 120 can effectively clamp and fix a region of an upper end of the mask body 100 attached to the nose, reducing a gap with the skin, and lowering the gas leakage possibility.

The folding portion 110 is folded inward or outward. When folded inward or outward, the folding portion 110 can be accommodated inside or outside the mask body 100. In the embodiment, the folding portion 110 is preferably folded inward. By accommodating the folding portion 110 inside the mask body 100, a surface appearance of the mask body 100 is not affected.

The folding portion 110 is folded wholly or partially. In the embodiment, the folding portion 110 is preferably folded partially, which can lower the production cost and the manufacturing difficulty.

The folding portion 110 is folded continuously or discontinuously. When the folding portion 110 is folded discontinuously, an area of a foldable region in an overall region should be controlled to meet a minimum folding and unfolding requirement of the folding portion 110.

The folding portion 110 includes a bending region and an expansion region. A flexibility and a bending property of the bending region are higher than a flexibility and a bending property of the expansion region. The expansion region is provided with a reinforcement pattern for supporting an expansion property. A connected region between the mask body 100 and the folding portion 110 is provided with a bending reinforcement pattern that assists the folding portion 110 to expand. A shape of the bending reinforcement pattern matches with a shape of an edge of the expanded folding portion 110. The mask body 100 is further provided with a welding line or a reinforcement pattern for supporting a shape of the mask.

Embodiment 2

Referring to FIG. 2, same as the non-horizontal folding mask in Embodiment 1 in basic structure, the non-horizontally folded mask in Embodiment 2 differs in: The folding portion 110 includes at least guide portion 112 that is partially disposed on a path of exhaled gas from a nostril and configured to guide downward circulating gas exhaled from the nostril upward. The guide portion 112 and a remaining breathable region surrounded by the folding portion 110 form a breathing buffer chamber 140. When the user wears the mask for breathing, the gas exhaled from the nostril is sprayed out downward with an orientation of the nostril. When the exhaled gas is sprayed out downward, the guide portion 112 can hinder the exhaled gas to some extent, reducing a directly downward circulating amount of the exhaled gas and an air pressure, and preventing the exhaled gas from directly and significantly escaping from a gap between a lower end of the mask body 100 and a chin of the user to affect the filtering effect. Moreover, by guiding the exhaled gas upward, the exhaled gas is hindered in the breathing buffer chamber 140 for storage and circulation, so as to ensure that a vast majority of the exhaled gas is filtered and discharged through the breathing buffer chamber 140 to effectively ensure the filtering effect of the mask body 100.

A shape of the guide portion matches with a size of the breathing buffer chamber, so as to reversely guide the downward circulating gas exhaled from the nostril. When the size of the breathing buffer chamber 140 is increased, the shape of the guide portion 112 is correspondingly increased to ensure the hindering effect. The guide portion 112 is provided with a guide channel, a part of which is configured to guide the gas flow upward. This can further promote the storage and circulation of the exhaled gas in the breathing buffer chamber 140, ensuring that a vast majority of the exhaled gas is filtered and discharged through the breathing buffer chamber 140, and effectively ensuring the filtering effect of the mask body 100. A guide direction of the guide channel is configured in a manner that the guided gas flow is not directly impacted on an inner wall of the breathing buffer chamber 140, but is circulated in the breathing buffer chamber 140, ensuring a uniform gas pressure in the breathing buffer chamber 140.

A size of the guide portion matches with efficiency of reversely guiding the exhaled gas from the nostril. The guide portion is configured in a manner that reversely guided gas in the exhaled gas from the nostril accounts for 50-90% of a total exhaled gas volume. A specific configuration of the guide portion is associated with a material of the mask body 100 with the breathing buffer chamber 140 and a material of the folding portion 110. When the material of the mask body 100 with the breathing buffer chamber 140 and the material of the folding portion 110 have the better breathability and the better filtering effect, the guide portion is configured in a manner that the proportion of the reversely guided gas in the exhaled gas from the nostril to the total exhaled gas volume is greater. Consequently, nearly all gas is filtered and discharged through the mask body 100 with the breathing buffer chamber 140 and the folding portion 110, effectively ensuring the filtering effect of the mask body 100.

Although the above embodiments only convey some implementations of the present disclosure, they should not be construed as a limitation to the patent scope of the present disclosure. It should be noted that for those of ordinary skill in the art, various variations and improvements can be made without departing from the concept of the present disclosure. These variations and improvements fall within the protection scope of the present disclosure. Therefore, the protection scope of the present disclosure shall be subjected to the appended claims.