CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

[0001] This is an International Application under the Patent Cooperation Treaty, claiming priority to United States Provisional Patent Application No. 63/304,766, filed January 31, 2022, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

FIELD OF INVENTION

[0002] The present application relates to an article for and method for protecting a hand, especially the bones of a hand.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

[0003] A punch from a human hand can deliver energy to a target of from about 40 to 400 Joules. With optimal speed and technique, such energy transfer to a target can be devastating to the target as well as the hand that delivers it. The present description may related to such hand protection, e.g., protecting the bones of the of the punching hand, e.g., metacarpals and/or phalanges, while delivering energy to the target.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

[0004] The description includes a method of protecting metacarpals II, III, IV, and V of a human hand in need of protection, the method comprising mounting an article to the hand, the article comprising a conformable elastic wrap comprising a top face, a bottom face, a first edge, a second edge, a first end, and a second end which exerts a compressive force against the hand when extended, biased, or stretched; and a sleeve comprising an inner surface and an outer surface configured to slidably engage the top and bottom faces; the method further comprising mounting the first end to metacarpal I such that the bottom face engages the palm of the human hand, wrapping the conformable elastic wrap such that the bottom face is urged toward and around metacarpal V and between metacarpals I and II such that the elastic wrap defines a first compressive bandage or loop about the hand; urging the bottom face from between metacarpals I and II toward and around proximal phalange V; positioning the sleeve such that the outer surface overlies proximal phalanges II- V; and extending the wrap such that the sleeve is held in place by a compressive force.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0005] FIG. 1 shows a top view of a sleeve according to the description.

[0006] FIG. 2 shows a first perspective view of the sleeve of FIG. 1.

[0007] FIG. 3 shows a second perspective view of the sleeve of FIG. 1.

[0008] FIG. 4 shows a perspective view of the article according to the description, e.g., a sleeve of FIG. 1 slidably engaged with a conformable elastic wrap.

[0009] FIG. 5 shows a perspective view of the article of FIG. 4 engaged with a human hand according to the present description.

[0010] FIG. 6 shows a second perspective view of the article of FIG. 4 engaged with a human hand after one or more loops of conformable elastic wrap.

[0011] FIG. 7 shows a first perspective view of the positioning of the sleeve of the article of FIG. 4 positioned about the carpals II- V of the human hand.

[0012] FIG. 8 shows a first perspective view of the positioning of the sleeve of the article of FIG. 4 positioned about the carpals II- V of the human hand after the conformable elastic wrap is secured to maintain a compressive force against the sleeve. [0013] FIG. 9 shows a first perspective view of the positioning of the sleeve of the article of

FIG. 4 positioned about the carpals II- V of the human hand after the conformable elastic wrap is secured to maintain a compressive force against the sleeve.

[0014] FIG. 10 shows schematic of the bones of a human hand.

[0015] FIG. 11 shows a second embodiment of the sleeve according to the description in partially exploded view showing layers of a laminate.

[0016] FIG. 12. shows a graph of Young’s Modulus plotted agains density for materials.

[0017] FIG. 13. shows a durometer graph with different scales.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0018] The anatomical terms used in the description are generally understood terms, in reference to FIG. 10. While Figure 10 provides the names and correlations to the bones of a hand, it is understood, for lack of doubt, that a digit of a hand generally comprises metacarpal, proximal phalange, middle phalange, and distal phalange (the thumb lacking a distal phalange), each hand part, e.g., digit, thumb, palm etc. is considered complete with functional structure to assist use of the digit.

[0019] A table relating anatomical terms to numbering follows:

[0020] With reference to FIGS. 1-10, in an embodiment, the method of protecting metacarpals 1004, 1006, 1008, 1010 of a human hand 1000 in need of protection includes mounting an article 400 to the hand 1000, the article comprising

[0021] a) a conformable elastic wrap 300 comprising a top face 306, a bottom face 304, a first end 302, and a second end 308 which wrap 300 exerts a compressive force against the hand 1000 when extended, biased, or stretched; and

[0022] b) a sleeve 100 comprising an inner surface 102, 102a and an outer surface 104, 104a configured such that the inner surfaces 102, 102a slidably engage the top and bottom faces 302, 304, respectively (or 304, 302, respectively);

[0023] the method further comprising:

[0024] (i) mounting first end 302 about metacarpal 1002, for example, by using loop 303, such that bottom face 304 engages the top surface 1050 of the hand 1000,

[0025] (ii) wrapping elastic wrap 300 such that bottom face 304 is urged toward and around metacarpal 1010 and between metacarpals 1002 and 1004 such that elastic wrap 300 defines a loop about hand 1000;

[0026] (iii) urging bottom face 304 from between metacarpals 1002 and 1004 toward and around proximal phalange 1018; [0027] (iv) positioning sleeve 100 such that outer surface 104 overlies proximal phalanges 1012, 1014, 1016, 1018; and

[0028] (v) extending wrap 300 from first end 306 toward second end 308 such that sleeve 100 is compressively urged toward proximal phalanges 1012, 1014, 1016, 1018.

[0029] In an embodiment, the method may comprise adding one or more loops of compressive elastic wrap about hand 1000 before and/or after the positioning of sleeve 100.

[0030] The term conformable means a material’s ability to closely conform to and overlie a body portion or to some other item which needs to be wrapped in an absorbent material.

[0031] The term "elastic' is used herein to mean any material which, upon application of a biasing force, is stretchable to a stretched, biased length which is at least about 125 percent that is, at least about one-and-one-quarter, of its relaxed, unbiased length, and which will recover at least about 40 percent of its stretch or elongation upon release of the stretching, elongating force. A hypothetical example which would satisfy this definition of an elastic or elastomeric material would be a one (1) inch sample of a material which is elongatable to at least 1.25 inches and which, upon being elongated to 1.25 inches and released, will return to a length of not more than 1.15 inches. Many elastic materials may be stretched by much more than 25 percent of their relaxed length, for example 100 percent, or more, and many of these will return to substantially their original relaxed length, for example, to within 105 percent of their original relaxed length upon release of the stretching, elongating force.

[0032] The term “breathable” refers to a material which is permeable to water vapor having a minimum WVTR (water vapor transmission rate) of about 300 g/m ² /24 hours. The WVTR of a fabric may indicate how comfortable a fabric would be to wear. WVTR is measured as indicated below and the results are reported in grams/Square meter/day. However, often applications of breathable barriers desirably have higher WVTRs and breathable material or fabric of the present invention can have WVTRs exceeding about 800 g/m ² /24 hours, 1500 g/m ² /24 hours, or even exceeding 3000 g/m ² /24 hours, An WVTR may be measured by a standardized characterization measurement known to a person of ordinary skill in the art, e.g., an ASTM standard, e.g., ASTM E96.

[0033] By the term resilient substrate is meant a substrate as measured for durometer hardness according to ASTM D2240, e.g., ASTM D2240-02b, and having a durometer hardness of from e.g., 30-100 on the Shore 00 scale, as disclosed in FIG. 12.

[0034] In an embodiment, sleeve 100 may comprise two or more portions 201 and 202. Portion 200 may comprise an elastic substrate, bonded to resilient substrate 201 along edges 204, 206, thus forming a tubular void through which conformable elastic wrap 300 may be threaded to form article 400.

[0035] In an embodiment, with reference to FIG. 11, the resilient substrate may be a unitary rectangular cuboid, or the substrate may comprise a laminate of one or more layers and/or materials, e.g., an integer from 1 to 10, of the same and/or differing densities and/or Youngs Modulus and/or durometer. Such physical properties are listed in FIG. 12 and FIG. 13. Generally, the resilient substrate may comprise a laminate of multiple layers e.g, 500, 502, 504, 506, 508, and/or 510.

[0036] The resilient laminate may be an isomeric laminate, a quasi isomeric laminate, or of other construction as known to the person of skill in the art.

[0037] The edge profile of the resilient substrate may be chosen by the person of ordinary skill to provide the most effective TOP face and minimize pressure points or pressure regions overlying any hand bones. Such edge profiles include square, chamfered, doublechamfered, rounded, shark nose, and/or stingray, as known to a person of ordinary skill in the art. [0038] In an embodiment, the method of protecting metacarpals 1004, 1006, 1008, 1010 may protect proximal phalanges 1012, 1014, 1016, 1018. Such protection may occur while participating in combat or in sports comprising self-defense and/or hand-to-hand combat, e.g., aikido, boxing, jeet kune do, jiu-jitsu, judo, krav maga, mixed martial arts, muay thai, and/or sambo.