BODY-BAG ARRANGEMENT

SUMMERY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a body-bag arrangement comprising a leak-proof bag with zipper type opening and closing function, manufactured either from tubular material with one welded joint close to each short end, or from a sheet material by at least one longitudinal welded joint and welded joints close to each short end. The body- bag arrangement also comprises a stretcher dimensioned bottom sheet separate from the bag and provided with carrying means. To make possible the use of light, eco-friendly and cheap material without losing the leak-proofness desirable for heavy duty as at severe nature catastrophes and for crime technological use, carrying means and bag protection means have been located to a separate bottom sheet, joint to the bag for example by seems outside the welding ensuring the leak-proofness of the bag. This new arrangement makes possible a damage resisting and for use flexible product at low material costs.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to an open- and closeable, liquid- and/or gas-proof body- bag arrangement for taking care of and identifying corpses or parts of corpses. Preparedness for accidents and catastrophes with many casualties requires not only immediate access to some body -bag units at a great number of places, but also considerable numbers for immediate distribution to catastrophe areas world- wide.

The need of availability and functionality within the frame of reasonable cost per unit has been an obstacle to satisfying solutions. The present invention, based on analysis of collection-transport- and identifying work at large nature catastrophes and in connection with crime cases, has made possible to choose an eco-friendly material allowing generous size, flexible transport solutions, consideration to security- and ergometric aspects at ID-work without negative implication from material and manufacturing costs.

PRIOR ART

Body-bags of different designs are commonly used. Plastic and rubber materials are used to avoid leakage, zippers of different types are common and some body-bags are

equipped with carrying means. All designs are subject to compromises. The use of the light, leak-proof and cheap material e.i. polyethene plastics involves difficulties to meet the handling requirements especially at collection work and transport, since risk for strength and leakage problems prevents application of suitable carrying and lifting arrangements.

THE SOLUTION

According to the present invention the requirements for the collection, transports and ID-work have been met by the use of light, shapeable, eco-friendly and cheap plastic material through a body-bag arrangement comprising a bag of large volume and a protective bottom sheet which is mainly separated from the bag, the width of said bottom sheet being reduced to suitable stretcher size (about 60 cm.) and its border parts being prepared to be folded upwards and supplied with means for carrying and lifting. Thereby spot loads on the bag from the carrying arrangements are avoided, and the leakproofness of the bag will be considerably improved by the protection obtained from the bottom sheet with border parts folded upwards during transport at severe conditions. The upward folding is achieved by lifting in loops (11) or clasping straps (12). The solution with a separate bottom sheet makes possible to choose a stronger material for the relatively small parts required for stretcher size. However, by the location of longitudinal and transversal bands (fig 2) and the distribution of loads at different lifting combinations, the need for a stronger and heavier material in the bottom sheet is reduced. The leakproofness requirement makes sewing in the bottom part of the bag unsuitable. The problem of applying carrying means is solved by sewing or otherwise joining the edge of the bottom sheet to the bag outside its weldings (4) and the risk for leakage is reduced to the zipper means. This is located on the top of the bag and it's not in contact with interior fluids. After clasping the straps together with the upfolded border parts, a slim package is formed with its lower parts free from seams. End parts of the bag not joint to the bottom sheet can be folded inwards from each end.

The proposed embodiment makes possible to use different carrying, dragging and lifting alternatives with respect to numbers of people, ground condition, transport distance etc. For vertical lifts were the straps (12) prevent the content to gather at the bottom at the bag, the band forming the loops (13) have for strength reason been continued and ended at the back of the bottom sheet and sewed together with the same band on the opposite

side. Apart from that, the back of the bottom sheet may be completely smooth for optimal function and dragging. Through smaller loops (14) of the transversal bands just outside the longitudinal bands and through corresponding holes in the joint between bag and bottom sheet the whole set can, when needed, be equipped with stretcher bars. By pushing the end parts inwards, the length of the stretcher bars can be reduced. By applying small loops also at the longitudinal bands, a complete stretcher function can be achieved by applying transversal bars.

DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS Fig 1 and Fig 2 show a suggested embodiment of the invention where fig 1 shows an embodiment when the bag start material is a plain plastic sheet, and fig 2 shows a bottom sheet before being attached to the bag.

A rectangular plastic sheet forms after folding along the center line 2 and welded joints 3 and 4 a leakage-proof bag 1. A zipper 5 is supplied on one half of the plastic sheet. A plastic pocket 6 designed for e.g. ID-forms is arranged on the same plastic sheet half as the zipper 5, that is on the top side of the complete body-bag arrangement. Outside the welded joints 4, a bottom sheet 7 is attached by seams 8 to the bag 1. The upside of the bottom sheet 7 is provided by sewing with longitudinal bands 9 and transversal bands 10. Longitudinal bands 9 are fixed somewhat inwards the borders of the bottom sheet. The border parts outside the bands are suitably made of double material through folding the edge of the plastic sheet. Lifting loops 11 are formed at the edge of the bottom sheet 7 through continuation of the transversal bands 10. In addition to form the loops 11, the transversal bands 10 also continue into straps 12 for bracing the bag 1 with its content to the bottom sheet 7. At one end of the bottom sheet 7 the longitudinal bands 9 are ended into lifting loops 13. The loops 13 may be used in vertical lifts for instance from a helicopter. Further, loops 13 serve as handles in case one or two persons have to drag the body-bag arrangement with content. In the border parts between loops 11 and the longitudinal bands 9, small loops are formed from the transversal bands 10 for application of stretcher bars.