Determining the efficiency of respirators and protective clothing, and other improvements
First Claim
1. A portable respirator system having a respirator, a sensor, and a signal handler each adapted to be worn or carried by a mobile user, in which the respirator includes a mask, in which the sensor comprises an analyser capable of detecting a contaminant that has ingressed inside the mask of the respirator from an environment outside of said respirator and outputting a sensor signal indicative of the level of said contaminant to the signal handler, and in which the signal handler comprises either (i) data storage adapted to store data representative of the sensor signal or (ii) a telecommunication emitter adapted to emit a telecommunications signal indicative of the sensor signal or (iii) both (i) and (ii).
1 Assignment
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Accused Products
Abstract
A respirator system (10; 100) for a worker in an environment with hazardous airborne contaminants comprises a respirator (12, 112), a helmet (14, 114), a camera (40, 140), and a gas sample analyser (16, 116) capable of analysing samples of gas from within the respirator and in the immediate area near the user. An RF emitter (20, 120) sends a signal to a remote receiver (24, 124). The emitted signal is a real time view through the camera (40, 140) and overlaid on that is a graphical representation of the protection factor being achieved by the respirator. The system (100) may also have a data storage device (162, 170) to store data such as how protection factor varies with time and may have a position sensor (160). The provision of the position sensor (160) allows a map of contamination levels with position to be built up as a user moves around a site.
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Citations
29 Claims
- 1. A portable respirator system having a respirator, a sensor, and a signal handler each adapted to be worn or carried by a mobile user, in which the respirator includes a mask, in which the sensor comprises an analyser capable of detecting a contaminant that has ingressed inside the mask of the respirator from an environment outside of said respirator and outputting a sensor signal indicative of the level of said contaminant to the signal handler, and in which the signal handler comprises either (i) data storage adapted to store data representative of the sensor signal or (ii) a telecommunication emitter adapted to emit a telecommunications signal indicative of the sensor signal or (iii) both (i) and (ii).
- 20. A method of testing the efficacy of a respirator comprising providing a sensor associated with the respirator, which sensor comprises a portable analyser adapted to detect the level of a contaminant that has ingressed inside a mask of the respirator from an environment outside of the respirator and, at substantially the same time, the contaminant level outside of the respirator, and comparing the contaminant levels inside and outside of the respirator.
Specification