Elongated, strip-like film bandage

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to an elongated, strip-like film bandage, comprising a plastics film, which on its one side is coated with a skin- friendly adhesive, a protective layer detachably fixed to the adhesive coating, and a stiffening layer, which is detachably fixed to the plastics film on the opposite side to the adhesive coating.

BACKGROUND ART

Elongated, strip-like film bandages are traditionally supplied rolled together into a roll. Such bandages are used in parts and the user himself judges how large a part of the bandage is required in each instance and, based on such a judgement, cuts off a suitable length of bandage. Even though the handling of such traditional, elongated strip-like film bandages generally works well, film bandages of this kind do have certain drawbacks in terms of their use. For example, it is in many cases difficult to judge how much of the roll to unwind in order to obtain the desired length of the part which is to be cut off. Since it is time-consuming and sometimes difficult to wind back an unwound part of the roll, an over-unwinding of the roll often leads to the unwound part being cut off from the roll and this cut-off part, in turn, being cut such that a part of suitable length is obtained. The part of unwanted length which is cut off from the first cut-off part is discarded. The roll shape of traditional elongated, strip- like film bandages therefore contributes to the creation of unnecessary material wastage. Furthermore, roll-shaped film bandages must be packed in such a way that the risk of the roll automatically curling up when the user pulls on one end of the bandage is eliminated, which complicates the packaging for the

bandage and also contributes to the time wasted in rolling back unwound parts. A further cause of unnecessary material wastage is that at the end of traditional elongated, strip-like film bandages, i.e. when the greatest part of the roll is unwound, a lifting of the free end of the remaining length of the traditional elongated, strip-like film results in the entire length of remaining film bandage being lifted out of its packaging, which leads to material wastage unless the remaining length of the film bandage were to coincide with the length of bandage required. It is additionally pointed out that the central part of a rolled- up traditional elongated, strip-like film is often difficult or impossible to use owing to the fact that this part tries to maintain its curved, rolled-up shape. This can, of course, be combated by winding the bandage around an annular core, so that the radius of curvature for the central part of the roll is relatively large, but such a measure adds to the material costs and makes the bandage more bulky. It is pointed out that the tendency of the traditional elongated, strip-like film bandage to resume a rolled-up shape can make it more difficult to cut off unwound parts, at least at the end of the bandage, since the extracted part of the bandage must be kept taut during the cutting.

The object of the present invention is to provide an elongated, strip-like film bandage without the abovementioned drawbacks, which is easy to divide into a number of parts without creating unnecessary material wastage, does not require any complicated packaging and occupies a minimal amount of space in the packed state.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION

This object is achieved by an elongated, strip-like film bandage comprising a plastics film, which on its one side is coated with a skin-friendly adhesive, a protective layer detachably fixed to the adhesive coating, and a stiffening

layer, which is detachably fixed to the plastics film on the opposite side to the adhesive coating, characterized in that the bandage is bellows-folded into a stack such that the bandage is divided into a number of parts stacked one on top of the other, and three such parts of the bandage, which are mutually adjacent, are connected to one another on two opposite sides of the stack. As a result of the concertinaing, fold notches are created in the stiffening layer, which means that it is easy for a user to place a folded-out part back into the folded stack. It is therefore not important that only the desired length of the part of the bandage which is to be cut off is unwound, which means that feed- out, cutting and re-creation of the stack of bellows-folded parts is easier to carry out and takes less time to perform than corresponding methods for a cutoff part of desired length of a bandage in roll form. Moreover, the handling of the stack is not complicated by folded parts of the film bandage at the end of its length, as in known traditional elongated, strip-like film bandages, which have a tendency to curl which increases with reducing radius of curvature. Furthermore, it is much easier to judge how many folded-together parts need to be unfolded to produce a certain desired length of the cut-off part than to judge how much a roll needs to be unwound to produce a desired length, which means that, in a bandage according to the invention, the likelihood of too many parts of the bellows-folded bandage being unfolded is relatively small. The stack of folded-together parts of the bandage is expediently stored in a rectangular or square box, which means that a plurality of such packagings can be stacked one upon the other and side by side without the creation of any dead space, unlike roll-shaped bandages in which dead spaces are created either in the packaging for the roll or when such rolls are stacked one upon the other and side by side.

In a preferred embodiment, a series of separate openings are formed in the stiffening layer and the distance between adjacent openings in the stiffening

layer is equally large along the entire length of the bandage. Preferably, each opening in the stiffening layer extends between adjacent folds formed in the concertinaing of the bandage.

In a second embodiment, the stiffening layer, in each part in the stack of parts created by the concertinaing, has two or more openings. The distance between adjacent openings situated in successive folded parts of the bandage can be greater than the distance between adjacent openings situated in one such folded part.

In all embodiments, the stiffening layer can comprise a plurality of cuts, which extend from a longitudinal edge of the stiffening layer to the edge of an opening in this layer, and the stiffening layer, at a number of places along the length of the bandage, can extend transversely beyond the underlying plastics film, whereby a series of grip tabs are formed to facilitate removal of the stiffening layer.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The invention will now be described with reference to the appended figures, of which:

Fig. 1 shows in diagrammatic representation a plan view from above of an elongated, strip-like film bandage according to a first preferred embodiment of the invention,

Fig. 2 shows in diagrammatic representation a side view of the bandage in Figure 1 in the half-folded state, and

Fig. 3 shows in diagrammatic representation a plan view from above of an elongated, strip-like film bandage according to a second preferred embodiment.

MODE(S) FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

A first preferred embodiment of an elongated, strip-like film bandage according to the invention is shown in diagrammatic representation in Figures 1 and 2 in a plan view from above and in a side view respectively. The film bandage is customarily made of a plastics film 1, which on its bottom side is coated with a layer 2 of skin-friendly adhesive, preferably a PSA (Pressure Sensitive Adhesive), usually polyacrylate, but other adhesives may also be used, such as SBR, silicones. The plastics film preferably consists of polyurethane film with a thickness of between 0.015 and 0.040 mm, but other breathable films can also be used, such as polyester-based films.

In order to protect the adhesive layer prior to use, a protective layer 3, a so- called release layer, is applied thereto. Since this layer has to be removed prior to use, without thereby damaging the properties of the adhesive layer, the protective layer 3 must have a weak adhesion to the adhesive. The material in the protective layer is therefore dependent on the properties of the adhesive. If the adhesive is constituted by a silicone adhesive, the protective layer can advantageously be constituted by a polyethylene film with a thickness of 0.05 - 0.20 mm. In other types of adhesive, for example acrylate glues, the protective layer can consist of so-called release paper of conventional configuration.

In order to facilitate application of the film bandage, a stiffening layer 4 is detachably fixed to the plastics film 1 on the top side thereof, i.e. on the side

which has no adhesive layer 3. The stiffening layer is removed from the bandage directly after the bandage is applied and must therefore not be fixed too strongly to the plastics film 1. All the materials which are used as stiffening layers on film bandages can be used in a bandage according to the present invention, for example polyethylene film, paper or laminate of paper and polyethylene.

The elongated film bandage according to the invention has a longitudinal series of openings 5, which are equidistant from one another in the longitudinal direction. The plastics film 1 and the adhesive layer 3 are preferably transparent, which enables underlying wounds or skin to be viewed through these openings even if the stiffening layer is not made of transparent material.

In Figure 1 , the elongated film bandage is shown in the shape it has following its production. In Figure 2, a side view is shown of the bandage in the half- folded state. As can be seen from this figure, the bandage is bellows-folded, so that a stack of folded parts 6-15, lying one upon the other, is created after the folding. A bandage of the type shown in the figures is intended to be used in such a way that the user himself decides how large a length of the elongated film bandage is required and cuts off the desired length from the elongated, strip-like bandage. In order to make it easier to judge how many folded parts are required for the intended use of the parts, the parts are preferably equal in size. In Figure 1, the fold lines are indicated with the lines F and are placed at equal distances from each opening 5 in the stiffening layer. The distance between the fold lines F is expediently 5-15 cm and the distance between successive openings 5 is between 5 and 40 mm, preferably 20 mm.

The folded film bandage is designed to be placed in a lidded box so that, upon

use, the upper end of the bandage is lifted up such that the desired number of parts are lifted out of the packaging, whereafter the bandage is cut off at the intended place. Another way of extracting the desired length of film bandage from the packaging is, instead of taking hold of the upper end of the bandage, to stick a finger into a fold situated a little way down in the folded stack and to then lift out of the packaging that part of the stack which is situated above the part so as to execute the cut with the desired length of bandage still in the folded state. By calculating the number of folds, it is easy to determine the length of the folded part of the stack which has to be removed, as well as in which fold the finger has to be inserted. The latter described method is particularly expedient if the cut-off length is large.

When the film bandage is compressed from the half-folded state shown in Figure 2 to the fully folded state, fold notches are produced in the stiffening layer and the protective layer, which makes it very easy to return unfolded parts of the film bandage to the stack remaining in the packaging if too large a length of bandage has happened to be pulled or lifted out when extracting the length of bandage which has to be cut off.

In order to make the protective layer 3 easier to remove before the bandage is fixed to the skin, it extends on one side beyond the adhesive-coated film 1 so as to form a grip edge, as is shown in Figure 1. It is also possible to make the stiffening layer likewise extend beyond the longitudinal edge of the adhesive- coated film in order to facilitate removal of the stiffening layer after the cut-off part of the bandage has been applied. Such grip edges can, of course, be disposed along both longitudinal edges of the adhesive coated film. Instead of making the entire protective layer or stiffening layer extend transversely beyond the adhesive-coated film, a series of grip tabs can be disposed along one or both longitudinal edges of the film bandage.

In Figure 3, a second embodiment of an elongated, strip-like film bandage is shown, which differs from the bandage in Figures 1 and 2 merely by the fact that, instead of an opening 5 in each folded part of the bandage, as in the first embodiment, the bandage according to the second embodiment has two openings 5' in each folded part. Those components in the second embodiment according to Figure 3 which correspond to like components in the bandage according to Figures 1 and 2 have been given the same reference symbols with the addition of a prime sign. The bandage in Figure 3 therefore comprises a series of pairs of openings 5', each pair of openings 5' in the series being equidistant from one another. The distance between the pairs of openings is greater than the distance between the openings in each pair of openings.

In order to facilitate removal of the stiffening layer, this can be cut through at a number of places along the length of the bandage. A series of through-cuts can extend from one or both longitudinal edges of the stiffening layer in towards an opening 5, 5' and up to the edge thereof. In addition, a series of through- cuts can also extend in the transverse direction between adjacent openings to allow parts of the stiffening layer to be successively removed during the application process. Such transverse through-cuts should not, however, extend into the folds of the bellows-folded bandage, since there is then a risk of the stiffening layer then accidentally becoming detached from the plastics film.

The described embodiments can, of course, be modified within the scope of the invention. For example, more than two openings can be made in each folded part, the openings 5' in the pairs of openings could be orientated with their longitudinal extent in the longitudinal direction instead of the transverse direction as shown in Figure 3, and the openings could have a different shape from that shown in the figures, for example rectangular, square, circular, etc.

The invention shall therefore only be limited by the content of the appended patent claims.